Concepts
The irreducible epistemic atoms underlying the curriculum. 4,828 atoms across 8 types
One gesture from thought to capture — every extra step…
Design capture tools to minimize decisions between intent and recording, targeting one gesture or keystroke from any application context.
Put your phone in another room during deep work…
Place your phone in a different room, drawer, or timed lockbox during deep work blocks, not merely flipped over on your desk, to eliminate both visual cues and immediate retrieval affordances.
Disable app notifications that produced no valuable action…
For every app on every device, apply the 30-day action criterion: if no notification in the past month caused an action you're glad you took, disable notifications for that app immediately.
Limit immediate notifications to 5 sources — batch…
Classify notification sources into three tiers—Tier 1 immediate (5 or fewer total), Tier 2 batched (checked on schedule), Tier 3 eliminated (disabled entirely)—and configure each source according to its tier within 24 hours of classification.
Remove badge counters from all apps except your top 5…
Remove notification badge counters for all apps except Tier 1 immediate-response sources to eliminate visual triggers that create psychological open loops independent of notification content.
Take soft-fascination breaks (walking, nature)…
Structure breaks between time-boxes with activities providing soft fascination (nature, walking, distant gaze) rather than hard stimulation (social media, news, email) to enable genuine deactivation of the attentional goal and prevent false breaks that drain the same resource you're trying to restore.
Pre-decide everything before a deep work session…
Eliminate decision points during deep work startup by pre-deciding tool configuration, document access, notification state, and physical materials before the session begins.
Put your bottleneck metric on a sticky note you cannot…
Make your current bottleneck metric physically visible in a location you cannot minimize or avoid (sticky note on monitor, whiteboard in workspace) and update it daily rather than relying on digital dashboards.
Life transitions are habit-redesign windows — old cues…
During major life transitions (moves, job changes, context disruptions), deliberately redesign behavioral patterns rather than waiting for them to reform automatically, because environmental cue disruption creates a window where habits are more amenable to conscious redesign.
Write your target and set a 5-minute timer before opening…
Before opening any social media platform, write down your specific intended information target and set a 5-minute timer; when the timer fires, close the app regardless of whether you found the target.
Bright cool light for analytical work, dim warm light…
Configure workspace lighting to match cognitive mode—bright, cool-temperature light (5,000-6,500K) for analytical work requiring convergent thinking; dim, warm light (2,700-3,000K) for creative work requiring divergent thinking.
When behavior change fails, adjust the cue/friction/reward…
When a behavior change fails within one week despite environmental redesign, modify the cue visibility, friction points, or reward structure rather than attributing failure to willpower or abandoning the approach.
Stack behavior change
Stack behavioral change interventions by addressing cue visibility first, then friction reduction, then reward design—each layer compounds on the previous rather than operating independently.
Weekly
Audit thinking environments weekly by comparing actual conditions against documented specifications to detect entropy, because environmental decay through accumulated objects, browser tabs, and permission drift is constant and unnoticed without structured review.