Definitions
1,059 definitions · page 10 of 23
Interoception
the perceptual skill of detecting and interpreting internal bodily signals, which enables the recognition of emotional states as they arise and forms the foundation for using emotions as reliable triggers in behavioral design
Chained trigger
a sequence of behavioral links where the completion of one agent becomes the trigger for the next agent in the sequence, creating a self-sustaining behavioral cascade that converts multiple decisions into a single initial activation
Trigger
a contextual cue placed in an environment that intercepts a behavioral decision point at the moment a behavior needs to begin, requiring no retrieval effort and appearing without conscious seeking to initiate automatic behavior execution
Social trigger
a person or relationship that serves as an activation mechanism for behavior through social presence, physiological arousal, and reputational cost, operating through fundamentally different mechanisms than digital or environmental triggers
Trigger fatigue
the state where a trigger system produces so many signals that the brain stops distinguishing between them, leading to reflexive dismissal, desensitization, and ultimately systemic numbness to all triggers as a category
Trigger audit
a periodic, systematic review of every trigger in one's behavioral infrastructure to determine which are still firing, which are stale, which need recalibration, and which should be retired entirely
Progressive trigger refinement
the iterative process of starting with broad, general triggers and gradually narrowing them based on observed performance data to produce high-precision behavioral activation cues
Decision framework
a pre-computed resolution for a recurring decision type that eliminates unnecessary re-deliberation and reduces cognitive cost by automating routine decisions, allowing full cognitive capacity to be preserved for genuinely novel or high-stakes choices
Decision type
a recurring structural pattern in decision-making that can be recognized and categorized based on shared variables, constraints, and optimal processes, enabling the application of pre-designed frameworks rather than ad hoc reasoning
Weighted decision matrix
a structured decision-making framework that externalizes priorities by systematically weighting criteria and scoring options across those criteria to make visible the structure of judgment and enable examination of trade-offs rather than replacing intuitive evaluation
Satisficing
the decision-making strategy of searching until finding an option that meets a minimum acceptable threshold and then stopping, rather than exhaustively searching for the optimal solution
Pre-commitment
a decision framework that involves deciding in advance what you will do in a specific situation to remove in-the-moment temptation and structural constraint, where the future self's decision-making capacity is compromised by different neurochemistry, time horizons, and emotional pressures
Hindsight bias
the systematic distortion of memory where people overestimate how predictable an outcome was from the start once they know what happened, causing them to reconstruct their past beliefs and reasoning in light of new information
Decision delegation criteria
explicit structural filters that sort decisions into three categories: those you must make yourself, those you should delegate to others, and those that should be automated or defaulted
Consent-based decision making
a group decision framework where a proposal passes when no one can articulate a principled objection to it, rather than requiring unanimous agreement or majority vote
Regret minimization framework
a decision-making approach that resolves uncertainty by asking which choice would produce the least regret when evaluated from a future self's perspective, rather than optimizing for expected value or other analytical criteria
Kill criterion
a specific, pre-committed condition under which you will abandon a course of action — defined when you're calm, clear-eyed, and not yet invested, serving as the epistemic equivalent of a circuit breaker that trips automatically when conditions exceed safe thresholds, regardless of how you feel when it fires
Decision speed as a variable
the deliberate choice of how quickly to make a decision, determined by the reversibility, stakes, and cost of delay for that specific decision, rather than applying uniform deliberation time to all decisions
Leading indicator
a measurable input, behavior, or condition that predicts an outcome before that outcome materializes, enabling real-time intervention and action
Proxy metric
a measurable signal that correlates strongly with a desired outcome, is measurable sooner than the outcome itself, is actionable through behavior influence, and is stable enough to reflect real system changes rather than noise
Reality feedback
direct, measurable consequences of actions that correspond to what actually happened, without social motives or interpretive filters, providing high-validity information about outcomes
People feedback
interpretive information from others that provides context about how actions were perceived, including social motivations, biases, and emotional states that systematically distort the signal
Emotional feedback loop
a self-reinforcing cycle where emotions generate behaviors, those behaviors produce consequences, and those consequences feed back into the original emotional state, creating a recursive system that amplifies and entrenches itself with each pass through the cycle
Identity-based habit
a habit anchored to identity rather than outcomes, where the behavior is not a means to an outcome but evidence of who you are, operating through self-consistency, cognitive dissonance, and narrative identity mechanisms
Minimum viable habit
a fully functional version of a much smaller behavior designed to prove that the behavioral anchor works — that you can reliably execute the behavior in its prescribed context — before investing in expanding it
Recovery protocol
a pre-defined, specific, and minimally actionable response to a single habit miss designed to prevent a lapse from becoming a relapse, consisting of trigger definition, recovery action, and reframing sentence
Abstinence violation effect
a psychological cascade that occurs after a single rule violation, where the violation triggers categorical self-appraisal leading to guilt and shame, which makes the behavior associated with the rule aversive and increases the likelihood of abandoning the rule entirely
Environmental design
the practice of shaping physical and digital spaces to make cues for good habits visible and cues for bad habits invisible, thereby altering the path of least resistance toward desired outcomes
Temptation bundling
the parallel form of habit bundling where a behavior you should do is paired simultaneously with a pleasure you crave, creating a combined experience that feels more rewarding than the should-be-behavior alone, using the formula 'I will only [want-to activity] while/after I [should-do activity]'
Two-minute version
the minimum viable representation of a habit that can be completed in 120 seconds or less with no special equipment, location, or mental state required, designed to preserve the habit pathway and identity signal during low-capacity days while maintaining the neurological momentum necessary for automaticity
Zeigarnik effect
the psychological phenomenon where uncompleted tasks create persistent cognitive tension and continued mental processing even when attempting to focus on other activities, causing unfinished work to demand resolution and interfere with rest
Shutdown complete
the ritualized verbal or behavioral boundary signal that marks the conclusion of the daily review process and indicates to the brain that no further work-related cognition is required for the evening, enabling cognitive closure and improved sleep quality
Habit audit
a periodic governance practice that evaluates whether recurring behaviors still serve one's current goals and identity, distinguishing between habits that should be kept, restructured, or retired based on explicit criteria including identity alignment, return on time invested, automaticity level, and context fit
Behavioral vacuum
a structural gap created when a habit that previously occupied time, delivered a reward, and structured a portion of one's day is removed, leaving unmet cravings and unstructured time that typically gets filled by other behaviors, often worse than the original habit
Habit
a learned behavioral pattern that executes automatically through the basal ganglia in response to contextual cues, bypassing the prefrontal cortex's deliberative processing and eliminating decision-making energy requirements
Willpower conservation principle
the cognitive strategy of reducing deliberative decision-making through habit formation to preserve limited deliberative capacity for high-stakes, novel, and consequential choices
Decision diet
a systematic approach to reducing daily decisions requiring deliberation by converting them into pre-committed defaults or habits, thereby preserving cognitive resources for consequential choices
Anchor moment
a pre-existing, reliably occurring behavior in one's daily routine that serves as a stable and predictable cue for initiating a new behavior, characterized by its reliability, specificity, and ability to provide a discrete triggering event that can be borrowed to extend behavioral sequences
Habit stacking
the practice of attaching a new behavior to an existing habit by defining a specific preceding-action cue that triggers the new behavior, leveraging the reliability and automation of the existing habit to ensure consistent behavior activation
Cue specificity
the degree to which a behavioral trigger is defined with sufficient precision that the brain can recognize it automatically through pattern matching without requiring deliberate cognitive processing or decision-making
Process routine
a routine defined by its form and duration rather than by its outcome, where the behavioral experience is consistent across repetitions regardless of output quality, and which produces a stable temporal signature that allows the basal ganglia to encode a single chunk
Minimum effective routine
the smallest version of a routine that still delivers the core reward necessary to close the habit loop and make the cue worth responding to tomorrow, containing only the load-bearing steps that contribute to reward delivery without unnecessary activation energy
Bounded variability
the design principle where a habit routine has a fixed core of essential behavioral elements that never change and a flexible periphery of contextual details that can vary without altering the fundamental behavior
Craving
the specific, visceral, often uncomfortable emotional need that a habit loop is designed to satisfy, distinct from surface-level goals or pleasurable rewards, and identifiable through systematic observation and substitution testing
Cue
the environmental or internal trigger that initiates a habit loop, identifiable through systematic observation across multiple instances using five dimensions — time, location, emotional state, social context, and preceding action — that must be consistently present for the habit to occur
Reward
the specific outcome or satisfaction that reinforces a habit loop, which must directly address the underlying craving for the habit to sustain itself, and can be measured through substitution testing to determine if it actually satisfies the craving
One-variable principle
the behavioral modification principle that when changing a habit, only one element of the cue-routine-reward loop should be altered at a time to maintain behavioral momentum and enable controlled experimentation
Craving engineering
the proactive method of deliberately constructing anticipatory desire for a behavior by consistently pairing the behavior with a specific, immediate, sensory-rich reward until the brain learns to anticipate the reward at the moment of the cue