Yeah, I think that's important. When I decide that I’m not going to do something which I’ve sort of committed to doing, it's an opportunity to ask myself why I’m not going to do it, and to have a solid enough reason. Although sometimes I have to admit my reason has been “Ah screw it, I’m taking the day off” and I give myself a spontaneous vacation. Not a problem if not done too often.
Well I hate seatbelts but that doesn’t mean they aren’t effective! TAKE a moment to learn the process—a scientific process — section 7.0 in this white paper dispels all the “expert” arguments just because you hate it - if anything that’s probably proof you need to do it. In short, behavior change demands the same rigorous process scientists use in SCIENCE. SECTION 7. https://zenodo.org/records/15844153
Martin, thank you for bringing UBM and the P.A.R.R. Method to my attention. Both seem interesting and useful. I'm not sure where they fit in the context of my post, though.
I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to habits, even for the same person. Habits are different. I have no doubt that reflective tracking is far superior to just marking down whether I did something, but that process becomes quite heavyweight. There is simply no way I'm going to devote that amount of introspection to certain habits.
Take exercise as an example. If I want to get in the habit of just doing some form of exercise, I had better lower the barriers as much as possible. For example, I know that doing joint rotations will be helpful to me for the entire day if I do them in the morning. I also know that the most value I get is with my neck and shoulders. So, I know a routine that covers my entire body, but what I commit to is just doing neck and shoulders. This only takes a couple of minutes. It is easier for me to start the routine knowing that I have only committed to doing the neck and shoulders. It is also easier for me to continue the routine once I have started. These are psychological mind games.
I could certainly track and reflect my behavior here. I am not denying the value of doing that. If I observe that more often than not I am only doing neck and shoulders, I might decide I want to change my commitment to include the next part of the routine, and see how that works.
When do I write down my reflections? When do I decide how to respond to those reflections? How formal do I need to get with this? If after a week or so I think back on how this "habit" has been working for me, I believe I'd have a pretty good idea about it. My data may lack completeness and accuracy, but it may be good enough.
If I'm an athlete trying to evaluate the effectiveness of a particular exercise routine, I think it would not be good enough. But to me that's a different category.
And should I care about whether my approach is "scientific"? I'm not quite sure why I should care. I'm more interested in the practical here. And frankly, from that perspective, the jargon and abstractions in the UBM are an impediment. Further, the focus on falsifiability is outright off-putting to me personally. I find Kuhn's criticisms of Popper's falsifiability criterion for science to be convincing in general, and the UBM definitions are sufficiently abstract that it makes me feel like I am being challenged to find something that isn't included in {x, not-x}.
Also worth noting (arguably) regarding the video: a theory and a model are not the same thing.
TLDR: There are ideas here which I want to think about more, but the material you provided is not as helpful as I would like. Thanks, though. I really do appreciate it.
TL;DR: There’s no quick fix, and you’re the scientist of your own life. P.A.R.R. simply gives ANYONE the process, your behaviors are the experiment.
Yes it’s a be very selective about one or two MOST important habits
Life is a practice.
Judging before you’ve actually applied and tested something is tempting, but it won’t create results.
Choosing one important habit, following the process, and tracking it over several 28-day periods—that’s how you create meaningful change.
When I stopped thinking of it as “tracking a habit” and started thinking of it like building a SKILL, it clicked. Habits and skills CAN both become intentionally shaped behaviors. And the science—detailed in Section 7 of this paper—shows it works. Wishing you the best of luck!
Thanks! Yeah, I totally agree that ideas need to be tested. Most of what I’ve tried hasn’t really worked for me, but some ideas have panned out to at least some degree. I’m further along than when I started. There’s some guesswork involved in trying to understand WHY things have or haven’t worked for me, but I’d like to think it’s somewhat educated guesswork, which inspires the next experiment.
I do like the mindset shift of building a skill instead of tracking a habit, and I’d like to dig into P.A.R.R. a bit more and try out some cycles. Thanks again!
Yes it’s IMPORTANT to be very selective about one or two MOST meaningful habits… couldn’t edit!
Thx again! Give it a go for one habit following the process (28 days) and let me know what worked or didn’t. Thats how the process works. Iterative adjustments via feedback loop
Your reasons for not being a fan of habit trackers also make sense to me. As habit building usually takes 60 to 90 days, if I start a new habit, I create multiple gentle reminders. Recording my thoughts and feelings while building a habit is very helpful to me to understand the mechanics of my conscious and unconscious mind. Some habits naturally happen, and others face resistance. This information helps me guide others and give them unique perspectives in their journey. Thank you for writing this valuable piece, Bren,t and nice to meet you. I enjoyed your content and writing style.
Tracking habit *building* is the kind of habit tracking I can get behind. I wish I had thought to do that before, although fortunately it's the sort of thing that can be done to some extent in retrospect. (The extent being how far you can trust your memory, which unfortunately isn't all that far!) Thanks!
What helps me, is creating a why. My brain reacts on what's interesting and not what's important.
Yeah, I think that's important. When I decide that I’m not going to do something which I’ve sort of committed to doing, it's an opportunity to ask myself why I’m not going to do it, and to have a solid enough reason. Although sometimes I have to admit my reason has been “Ah screw it, I’m taking the day off” and I give myself a spontaneous vacation. Not a problem if not done too often.
It's Al new to me. Just found out I have an ADHD brain. So still figuring out everything.
Well I hate seatbelts but that doesn’t mean they aren’t effective! TAKE a moment to learn the process—a scientific process — section 7.0 in this white paper dispels all the “expert” arguments just because you hate it - if anything that’s probably proof you need to do it. In short, behavior change demands the same rigorous process scientists use in SCIENCE. SECTION 7. https://zenodo.org/records/15844153
Enjoy! 👊🤙🙏
Martin, thank you for bringing UBM and the P.A.R.R. Method to my attention. Both seem interesting and useful. I'm not sure where they fit in the context of my post, though.
I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to habits, even for the same person. Habits are different. I have no doubt that reflective tracking is far superior to just marking down whether I did something, but that process becomes quite heavyweight. There is simply no way I'm going to devote that amount of introspection to certain habits.
Take exercise as an example. If I want to get in the habit of just doing some form of exercise, I had better lower the barriers as much as possible. For example, I know that doing joint rotations will be helpful to me for the entire day if I do them in the morning. I also know that the most value I get is with my neck and shoulders. So, I know a routine that covers my entire body, but what I commit to is just doing neck and shoulders. This only takes a couple of minutes. It is easier for me to start the routine knowing that I have only committed to doing the neck and shoulders. It is also easier for me to continue the routine once I have started. These are psychological mind games.
I could certainly track and reflect my behavior here. I am not denying the value of doing that. If I observe that more often than not I am only doing neck and shoulders, I might decide I want to change my commitment to include the next part of the routine, and see how that works.
When do I write down my reflections? When do I decide how to respond to those reflections? How formal do I need to get with this? If after a week or so I think back on how this "habit" has been working for me, I believe I'd have a pretty good idea about it. My data may lack completeness and accuracy, but it may be good enough.
If I'm an athlete trying to evaluate the effectiveness of a particular exercise routine, I think it would not be good enough. But to me that's a different category.
And should I care about whether my approach is "scientific"? I'm not quite sure why I should care. I'm more interested in the practical here. And frankly, from that perspective, the jargon and abstractions in the UBM are an impediment. Further, the focus on falsifiability is outright off-putting to me personally. I find Kuhn's criticisms of Popper's falsifiability criterion for science to be convincing in general, and the UBM definitions are sufficiently abstract that it makes me feel like I am being challenged to find something that isn't included in {x, not-x}.
Also worth noting (arguably) regarding the video: a theory and a model are not the same thing.
TLDR: There are ideas here which I want to think about more, but the material you provided is not as helpful as I would like. Thanks, though. I really do appreciate it.
TL;DR: There’s no quick fix, and you’re the scientist of your own life. P.A.R.R. simply gives ANYONE the process, your behaviors are the experiment.
Yes it’s a be very selective about one or two MOST important habits
Life is a practice.
Judging before you’ve actually applied and tested something is tempting, but it won’t create results.
Choosing one important habit, following the process, and tracking it over several 28-day periods—that’s how you create meaningful change.
When I stopped thinking of it as “tracking a habit” and started thinking of it like building a SKILL, it clicked. Habits and skills CAN both become intentionally shaped behaviors. And the science—detailed in Section 7 of this paper—shows it works. Wishing you the best of luck!
Thanks! Yeah, I totally agree that ideas need to be tested. Most of what I’ve tried hasn’t really worked for me, but some ideas have panned out to at least some degree. I’m further along than when I started. There’s some guesswork involved in trying to understand WHY things have or haven’t worked for me, but I’d like to think it’s somewhat educated guesswork, which inspires the next experiment.
I do like the mindset shift of building a skill instead of tracking a habit, and I’d like to dig into P.A.R.R. a bit more and try out some cycles. Thanks again!
Yes it’s IMPORTANT to be very selective about one or two MOST meaningful habits… couldn’t edit!
Thx again! Give it a go for one habit following the process (28 days) and let me know what worked or didn’t. Thats how the process works. Iterative adjustments via feedback loop
More here… FYI. thx! https://youtu.be/0K2hJfwvGv8?feature=shared
Your reasons for not being a fan of habit trackers also make sense to me. As habit building usually takes 60 to 90 days, if I start a new habit, I create multiple gentle reminders. Recording my thoughts and feelings while building a habit is very helpful to me to understand the mechanics of my conscious and unconscious mind. Some habits naturally happen, and others face resistance. This information helps me guide others and give them unique perspectives in their journey. Thank you for writing this valuable piece, Bren,t and nice to meet you. I enjoyed your content and writing style.
Tracking habit *building* is the kind of habit tracking I can get behind. I wish I had thought to do that before, although fortunately it's the sort of thing that can be done to some extent in retrospect. (The extent being how far you can trust your memory, which unfortunately isn't all that far!) Thanks!