Symptoms: You frequently find yourself overwhelmed, or you often flinch away from the ambiguity of not knowing what to do next.
Mental Reflex: Next Action Simulator
Trigger: Ambiguity
Exercise: (Haven’t yet found the perfect exercise for this one, but this is the best we have) Go to brilliant.org and find a problem that’s too hard for you. As your brain starts to think of easy solutions, think of concrete reasons why those solutions might not work. Repeat this until you feel a sense of not knowing what to do next. That’s the ambiguity trigger.
Exercise 2: Now that you have a sense of ambiguity, go through actions in your own head to see what has a sense of ambiguity attached. Get to the point where you can predict what ambiguity feels like before you feel it.
Trigger: Overwhelm
Exercise: Start making a list of all the things you’d like to do. Long term, short term, things that you already plan to do but haven’t done yet. As you make this list, resolve to complete the list, without allowing yourself to choose any item on the list to start with. You should feel a growing sense of overwhelm as the list grows.
Exercise 2: Now that you have a sense of overwhelm, look at individual items at the list that contain that sense of overwhelm. Get to the point where you can predict what the overwhelm feels like before you feel it.
Action: The Next Action Simulator.
Description: First, ask yourself “What’s the next action?”, then in as vivid detail as possible, imagine yourself taking that next action.
Form: When you ask “What’s the next action?” you want to ask in such a way that you get back a single concrete answer. When you’re imagining yourself taking the next action, you want it to be in 1st person with as many senses and as vividly as possible. Now that you’ve run through the action, you find yourself automatically imagining the outcome of that action. This is a perfect time to implement Desire Contrasting (But now on this individual action, instead of some broader outcome)
Exercise: Take your list of items you found that are ambiguous or overhwhelming and practice the next action simulator. The qualia shift you’re going for is to shift from overwhelm or ambiguity to clarity and concreteness.
Mental Reflex: The 3 Minute Brainstorm
Trigger: You ask “What’s the next action?” and don’t get a clear answer.
Action: You choose the default option, which is a 3 minute brainstorm in which you decide the next action.
Exercise: Same as the exercise above, just add in this step if you get back uncertainty about the next actino.
Mental Reflex: Future Action Simulator
Trigger: You go to simulate the next action, but you get ambiguity about when or where the next action could be enacted.
Action: Three steps
Ask yourself “In what context can I enact this action?”
Simulate, in vivid detail, yourself enacting that next action in that context (this acts as a memory trigger for when you’re in that context)
Loving snooze this action for when you’re in that context.
Exercise: Same as the exercise above, just add this step if there’s ambiguity about context.
Meditation Exercise
For 10 minutes, you’ll ask yourself “What’s ambiguous or overwhelming
You’ll notice what comes up for you and do your desire check.
If you feel ambiguity or overwhelm you’ll use your concrete outcome cognitive strategies to make it ambiguious.
If you know desire contrasting, you’ll then do desire contrasting on that outcome.
If you know loving snooze, you’ll then loving snooze and circle back to the beginning.
Each time, make micro-corrections, how can you make your form better on the next go around?
Deliberate Work Session Exercise
Make a list of items that have ambiguity or overwhelm
You’ll work on each for 5 minutes, taking the time to use your concrete outcomes cognitive strategies each time.
At the end of five minutes, you’ll notice how you did, and start on your next item, using your concrete outcome cognitive strategies.
Conscious Work Session Exercise
Go through a normal work session, using pomodoros.
At the end of each work session, ask yourself if you succesfully used this cognitive strategy when you needed it. Ask yourself what was good about your form, and what needed to be improved.
Try to remain a bit more conscious of these items in your next pomodoro.
Cognitive Strategy: Concrete Outcome
Symptoms: You frequently find yourself overwhelmed, or you often flinch away from the ambiguity of not knowing what to do next.
Mental Reflex: Next Action Simulator
Trigger: Ambiguity
Exercise: (Haven’t yet found the perfect exercise for this one, but this is the best we have) Go to brilliant.org and find a problem that’s too hard for you. As your brain starts to think of easy solutions, think of concrete reasons why those solutions might not work. Repeat this until you feel a sense of not knowing what to do next. That’s the ambiguity trigger.
Exercise 2: Now that you have a sense of ambiguity, go through actions in your own head to see what has a sense of ambiguity attached. Get to the point where you can predict what ambiguity feels like before you feel it.
Trigger: Overwhelm
Exercise: Start making a list of all the things you’d like to do. Long term, short term, things that you already plan to do but haven’t done yet. As you make this list, resolve to complete the list, without allowing yourself to choose any item on the list to start with. You should feel a growing sense of overwhelm as the list grows.
Exercise 2: Now that you have a sense of overwhelm, look at individual items at the list that contain that sense of overwhelm. Get to the point where you can predict what the overwhelm feels like before you feel it.
Action: The Next Action Simulator.
Description: First, ask yourself “What’s the next action?”, then in as vivid detail as possible, imagine yourself taking that next action.
Form: When you ask “What’s the next action?” you want to ask in such a way that you get back a single concrete answer. When you’re imagining yourself taking the next action, you want it to be in 1st person with as many senses and as vividly as possible. Now that you’ve run through the action, you find yourself automatically imagining the outcome of that action. This is a perfect time to implement Desire Contrasting (But now on this individual action, instead of some broader outcome)
Exercise: Take your list of items you found that are ambiguous or overhwhelming and practice the next action simulator. The qualia shift you’re going for is to shift from overwhelm or ambiguity to clarity and concreteness.
Mental Reflex: The 3 Minute Brainstorm
Trigger: You ask “What’s the next action?” and don’t get a clear answer.
Action: You choose the default option, which is a 3 minute brainstorm in which you decide the next action.
Exercise: Same as the exercise above, just add in this step if you get back uncertainty about the next actino.
Mental Reflex: Future Action Simulator
Trigger: You go to simulate the next action, but you get ambiguity about when or where the next action could be enacted.
Action: Three steps
Ask yourself “In what context can I enact this action?”
Simulate, in vivid detail, yourself enacting that next action in that context (this acts as a memory trigger for when you’re in that context)
Loving snooze this action for when you’re in that context.
Exercise: Same as the exercise above, just add this step if there’s ambiguity about context.
Meditation Exercise
For 10 minutes, you’ll ask yourself “What’s ambiguous or overwhelming
You’ll notice what comes up for you and do your desire check.
If you feel ambiguity or overwhelm you’ll use your concrete outcome cognitive strategies to make it ambiguious.
If you know desire contrasting, you’ll then do desire contrasting on that outcome.
If you know loving snooze, you’ll then loving snooze and circle back to the beginning.
Each time, make micro-corrections, how can you make your form better on the next go around?
Deliberate Work Session Exercise
Make a list of items that have ambiguity or overwhelm
You’ll work on each for 5 minutes, taking the time to use your concrete outcomes cognitive strategies each time.
At the end of five minutes, you’ll notice how you did, and start on your next item, using your concrete outcome cognitive strategies.
Conscious Work Session Exercise
Go through a normal work session, using pomodoros.
At the end of each work session, ask yourself if you succesfully used this cognitive strategy when you needed it. Ask yourself what was good about your form, and what needed to be improved.
Try to remain a bit more conscious of these items in your next pomodoro.