Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 199 answers
For the next three days, keep an emotional response log. Each time you notice a strong emotional reaction — anger, anxiety, shame, defensiveness, excitement — write down: (1) the triggering event in one sentence, (2) the emotion that fired, (3) the appraisal that produced the emotion (what you.
Conduct a Default Thinking Mode Audit over three days. Carry a small notebook or use a notes app. Each time you encounter an unexpected event — positive or negative — pause before responding and write down your immediate first thought verbatim. Do not edit or improve it. After three days, review.
Over the next five days, log every decision that takes you more than thirty seconds to make. For each, record what you decided, how you decided (gut feeling, analysis, asked someone, delayed, or avoided), and the actual stakes (low, medium, high). At the end of five days, tally the patterns. What.
Select three domains from your life: one professional skill, one health or physical practice, and one relational or communication habit. For each domain, write down your current default behavior -- the thing you do automatically without thinking. Then answer three questions for each default..
Conduct an Identity-Default Alignment Audit. Step 1 — Identity Inventory: Write down five statements that describe the person you are working to become. Use the form "I am becoming someone who..." and complete each sentence with a specific behavioral characteristic (e.g., "I am becoming someone.
Set five random alarms on your phone spread across the next two days, labeled simply "What am I doing right now?" When each alarm fires, stop immediately and answer four questions in writing: (1) What am I physically doing at this moment? (2) Did I consciously choose to do this, or did it just.
Select one low-stakes default you identified through your awareness practice in L-1078 — something like checking your phone when you sit down, opening social media when you open your browser, or reaching for a snack when you feel restless. For five consecutive days, practice the full override.
Conduct a Complete Default Architecture Audit and redesign. Set aside ninety minutes to two hours. Part 1 — Default Portfolio Inventory: Using the domain categories from this phase (productive, healthy, social, stress, boredom, digital, environmental, communication, emotional, thinking, decision),.
Identify one automated behavior you want to eliminate — not replace with something better, but genuinely remove from your repertoire. Write it down in specific, observable terms: "When [cue], I automatically [behavior]." Then answer three questions in writing. First, how long has this behavior.
Choose one behavior you have repeatedly tried and failed to eliminate. Do not choose something trivial — choose a behavior that has resisted multiple attempts at change. Now conduct a Reward Identification Protocol. Step 1: For three consecutive days, when you notice the behavior activating (or.
Identify a small habitual behavior you can safely withhold reinforcement from for 48 hours — something low-stakes like checking a particular app, snacking at a specific time, or fidgeting with an object. Before you begin, write a prediction: How will the behavior change in the first 24 hours? What.
Choose one unwanted behavior you have been trying to stop through willpower alone. Write down the behavior, then answer three diagnostic questions. First: When you resist this behavior, do you feel increasing tension that eventually breaks? If yes, you are suppressing. Second: Do you understand.
Choose one unwanted behavior you have been trying to eliminate. For the next five days, keep an ABC log: every time the behavior occurs, write down the Antecedent (what happened immediately before), the Behavior itself, and the Consequence (what you got or avoided immediately after). Do not try to.
Take the functional hypothesis you generated in L-1085. Write it at the top of a page: "The function of [my unwanted behavior] is to provide [specific need]." Below it, brainstorm five alternative behaviors that could plausibly serve the same function. For each candidate, score it on three.
Conduct a cue audit for one unwanted behavior you are trying to extinguish. Over the next three days, every time the behavior occurs or you feel the urge to perform it, immediately note three things: the physical location you are in, the objects you can see or touch that are associated with the.
Choose one behavior you are actively trying to extinguish. Over the next three days, track every instance of that behavior and note who was present, how they responded, and what social outcome you received. At the end of three days, identify the top two or three people whose responses most.
Select a behavior you are currently trying to extinguish or have recently attempted to extinguish. Draw a simple graph on paper with the x-axis labeled "Days" (mark intervals from 0 to 90) and the y-axis labeled "Urge Intensity" (scale 1-10). First, draw the line you expected — what you assumed.
Review your current extinction target from earlier lessons in this phase. Write three specific scenarios in which the old behavior is most likely to resurface: one involving a context change (new environment, travel, disrupted routine), one involving re-exposure to the original reward.
Write your personal relapse recovery protocol on a physical card or in a note on your phone. Include five lines, one for each step: (1) "Stop. Sit down. Breathe for sixty seconds." (2) "Label: The behavior that just resurfaced is ___. The likely mechanism is ___." (3) "Extract: The context was.
Select a behavior you are currently working to extinguish or have been considering extinguishing. Run the Decision Framework Analysis. First, assess the reinforcement schedule: is the behavior maintained primarily by a variable-ratio schedule (unpredictable rewards that make each engagement a.
Choose one behavior you are currently trying to extinguish. Write a commitment contract that includes all four structural elements: the specific behavior to be eliminated (not vague — operationally defined so that an outside observer could verify compliance), the timeline (a start date and an end.
Identify one extinction goal you are currently working on or want to begin. Write down the specific behavior you are extinguishing, the contexts in which it most often fires, and the point in the extinction cycle where you are most vulnerable to relapse. Now identify one person in your life — not.
Identify one unwanted behavior you are working to extinguish — ideally the target you selected in L-1081. Document the trigger with specificity: not "when I feel anxious" but "when I finish a phone call and sit back down at my desk with residual social energy." Now design a substitution chain of.
Identify an urge or thought pattern connected to a behavior you are working to extinguish — ideally one where you have already built a substitution chain from L-1095. This should be a thought that, when it arrives, feels like a fact about reality rather than a product of your mind. Write the.