Start triggers conservatively — 3-5 daily activations…

Start behavioral triggers with a more conservative threshold than feels right, aiming for 3-5 activations per day rather than 30, to build trust through relevance before expanding sensitivity.

When This Fires

When initially deploying any new behavioral trigger — calibrate conservatively
When a trigger fires so often you've started ignoring it — reduce sensitivity
When designing monitoring-based triggers (posture checks, mood tracking, focus intervals)
When adjusting trigger sensitivity after initial deployment

Common Failure Mode

Launching triggers at maximum sensitivity: "I want to be mindful of my posture at all times, so I'll set a reminder every 10 minutes." By hour two, you're dismissing posture reminders without reading them. The trigger has become noise, and you've trained the neural pathway that ignores it. Recovering from alert fatigue is harder than starting conservative — you have to rebuild trust that was actively destroyed.

The Protocol

(1) When deploying a new trigger, set the threshold more conservatively than your initial instinct. If you think every 15 minutes → start at every 2 hours. If you think 10 times a day → start at 3. (2) For the first week, track: how many activations per day, and what percentage produced a relevant behavioral response? (3) If >80% of activations produce responses → the trigger has earned trust. Gradually increase sensitivity (add 1-2 more daily activations per week). (4) If <50% of activations produce responses → the trigger is firing too often. Reduce further until precision rises above 80%. (5) The goal is asymptotic: start narrow, expand only as trust builds. 3 relevant activations teach your brain "this trigger matters." 30 irrelevant activations teach your brain "this trigger can be ignored."