Default Behaviors
Set up productive behaviors that run without conscious effort.
Default behaviors run when no other instruction is active
Your defaults determine what you do in the absence of deliberate choice.
Identify your current defaults
What do you do when you have free time no agenda or feel bored — those are your defaults.
Defaults can be designed
You can deliberately choose what your default behaviors are.
The productive default
Setting a productive default means unstructured time naturally flows to something valuable.
The healthy default
Default food choices default exercise patterns default sleep behaviors.
The social default
How you behave by default in social situations reflects your automated social programming.
The stress default
What you do automatically when stressed is one of your most important defaults to design.
The boredom default
What you reach for when bored reveals and reinforces your default patterns.
Phone-checking as a default
Compulsive phone-checking is a default behavior that can be replaced.
Default replacement strategy
Replace an unproductive default with a specific productive alternative.
Environmental defaults
What your environment makes easiest to do becomes your behavioral default.
Default communication style
How you communicate when not thinking carefully about it is your communication default.
Default emotional response
Your automatic emotional reaction to events is a default that can be redesigned.
Default thinking mode
Whether you default to optimism pessimism or realism shapes your interpretation of everything.
Default decision approach
Whether you default to quick intuitive decisions or slow analytical ones matters.
Raising the bar on defaults
Periodically upgrade your defaults to higher-quality automatic behaviors.
Defaults and identity alignment
Your defaults should reflect the person you are working to become.
Default awareness practice
Notice when you are operating on default rather than intention.
The default override
The ability to notice a default activating and choose differently is a key skill.
Excellent defaults make an excellent life
When your automatic behaviors are all well-designed your baseline quality of life is high.