- Everyday Systems #94: G-Ray Vision2025/03/27
A mock superpower for not looking at porn
- Everyday Systems #93: Weekend Luddite 2025: The Rules, The Persona2025/02/28
Specific rules and a general approach for managing your relationship with technology -- battle hardened by over 20 years of practice.
- Everyday Systems #92: The Wisdom of Games2025/01/28
Game mechanics as life hacks (also some game recommendations).
- Everyday Systems #91: State of the Systems 20242024/12/31
6th annual review of the Everyday Systems and how they are doing for me personally
- Everyday Systems #90: Zeno’s Paradox Exercise Progress Plan -or- How to Philosophize with a Sledgehammer2024/12/13
Bounce back from injuries and setbacks by recasting progress as a reward
- Everyday Systems #89: Proactive Procrastination (ProPro)2024/11/20
How to stop permasnacking on news. Use techniques inspired by the No S Diet and read it like a meal.
- Everyday Systems #88: The Metaphysics of Todo Listing2024/10/31
Todo Lists Are Your Salvation / Todo Lists Are Your Damnation
- Everyday Systems #87: Variable-Height Glass Ceiling2024/08/09
A more nuanced approach to systematically moderating alcohol (and other substances)
- Everyday Systems #86: Motive Mixologist2024/06/30
When you don't like what you want
- Everyday Systems #85: Urban Ranger 20242024/06/04
Urban Ranger, from scratch, as if I’d never spoken or written about it before. Draft chapter for the upcoming Everyday Systems Compendium, and hopefully interesting and useful in its own right.
- Everyday Systems #84: The Hygiene Hypothesis as the Explanation for Everything2024/03/29
Cure all your ailments with dirt, pain and danger
- Everyday Systems #83: The No S Diet 20242024/02/29
The No S Diet, from scratch, as if I’d never spoken or written about it before. Draft chapter for the upcoming Everyday Systems Compendium, and hopefully interesting and useful in its own right.
- Everyday Systems #82: Clock & Calendar, Your Sword & Shield2024/01/31
Build habits by leaning on the clock and calendar rather than fighting against them. Beyond N and S days. Cutesy task phrases. Powerfully silly times. Calendar-First Tasking.
- Everyday Systems #81: State of the Systems 20232023/12/29
Annual update on all the Everyday Systems and how they are doing for me personally
- Everyday Systems #80: Antimantras & Repetitive Thought Injuries2023/11/30
I think I mix about 14 metaphors in this episode: We’ve got a goose-stepping white bear baseball player with devil horns doing jiu jitsu on the death star. A ridiculous Chimera, if you put it all together. But maybe just the guardian-gargoyle image you need to keep the antimantras at bay.
- Everyday Systems #79: My Pet Demon2023/10/25
Self-saboteur? Time to stop playing with your pet demons (maybe).
- Everyday Systems #78: Spider Hunter, a CBT for Anxiety Game2023/09/27
Anxious? Here's a fun technique for getting over it. It's halfway between gamified mindfulness and exposure therapy.
- Everyday Systems #77: Aristotelian Self-Portrait2023/08/31
Aristotle: "You are what you repeatedly do." Well, what do you repeatedly do? In this episode, an exercise for finding out.
- Everyday Systems #76: My Friend, ChatGPT2023/07/22
Practice being human with AI
- Everyday Systems #75: Apps for Mentats2023/05/31
Everyday Systems as Apps for Human Minds.
- Everyday Systems #74: Tidiness for Demihumans2023/04/29
Four catchphrases for tidier habits
- Everyday Systems #73: Demihuman2023/03/17
A lighthearted approach to imposter syndrome.
- Everyday Systems #72: State of the Systems 20222023/02/07
A little later and much shorter than last year.
- Everyday Systems #71: Last Wordism2022/11/16
A two-word anti-mantra to snap you and your family out of automatic bickering
- Everyday Systems #70: Surgical Flogging2022/11/04
Food logging: apparently it works. But it's torture to do long term. I discuss a way you can practice a limited, strategic, surgical form of food logging with the No S Diet (or any other diet) that gives you the benefits of food logging – which are real, potentially at least – without the protracted and probably futile misery.
- Everyday Systems #69: Shovelglove Recovery2022/09/21
After 20 years of swinging my sledgehammer injury-free, I discovered that that even Shovelglove can cause or at least be impacted by injury. How Shovelglove principles like "schedulalistically insignificant time "and "maintenance is more important that progress" have been key to my recovery.
- Everyday Systems #68: How to be Ordinary2022/08/23
Be a Mensch, not a rockstar. It's surprisingly hard, even though you probably don't have any alternative.
- Everyday Systems #67: Demogorgon Whack-a-mole2022/07/09
What to do when your appetites keep routing around your rules to contain them
- Everyday Systems #66: Right Relationship with Robots2022/06/03
Technology for habits, and habits for technology. Also a story about my Roomba.
- Everyday Systems #65: Mindful Bagful2022/04/30
A lighthearted Jedi mind trick for calming yourself down in certain mundane situations
- Everyday Systems #64: State of the Systems 2021 Part 3: (Meta)2022/03/30
Meta Systems are systems for managing other systems: to track and boster them. Personal Punchcards, The Life Log, Mantrafication, and Loose Lips Sink Ships.
- Everyday Systems #63: State of the Systems 2021, Part 2 (Soul)2022/02/28
Soul systems are systems for detaching yourself from the frenzy of everyday life to reflect, for learning, for recovering, for devoting more of your limited time to what’s important, for figuring out what’s important to begin with. Systems discussed include: Audiodidact. The Study Habit. Demogorgon vs. Asmodeus, Timebox Lord, G-Ray Vision, VC Cat, Posifactive and Weekend Luddite.
- Everyday Systems #62: State of the Systems 2021, Part 1 (Body & Spirits)2022/01/14
2021 was miserable in most respects, but it’s been another fantastic opportunity to test the true mettle of Everyday Systems. Part 1 reviews Body and Spirits systems: The No S Diet, Shovelglove, Urban Ranger, Lawful Good Biker, Glass Ceiling, Low Smoking.
- Everyday Systems #61: VC Cat2021/12/06
An inspiringly ridiculous image to ward off the dreaded "what the hell" effect.
- Everyday Systems #60:The Study Habit, Part 2 (Behavioral)2021/11/15
Specific techniques for making study a daily habit
- Everyday Systems #59: The Study Habit2021/10/04
How to go from "study=cramming" to making learning a lifelong habit
- Everyday Systems #58: Loose Lips Sink Ships2021/09/14
A helpful image from WWII propaganda to keep you from sabotaging your self-improvement efforts with premature talk.
- Everyday Systems #57: Posifactive2021/07/15
All the self-help books ever written distilled into one word, with a note of enlightened self-mockery that makes the whole thing bearable:
- Everyday Systems #56: Good Redundancy2021/05/31
Engineer intentional redundancy into your habit systems to make them fault tolerant.
- Everyday Systems #55: The Lifelog2021/04/30
Habit tracking when apps or magic markers won't cut it
- Everyday Systems #54: State of the Systems 20202021/01/01
How pandemic proof are the Everyday Systems? A quick review of 14 systems and how they are holding up.
- Everyday Systems 53: Timebox Lord2020/12/08
A system for balancing "infinite work" with "first things."
- Everyday Systems #52: Demogorgon vs. Asmodeus2020/10/28
How to ingore both of the evil voices in your head and attain comic detachment from your psychomachia.
- Everyday Systems #51: Contract Cards & Mantrafication2020/04/03
Reflect on what is giving you trouble with your self improvement system. Write a contract with yourself on a 4*6 index card. Record yourself speaking it. Listen to this recorded mantra every day.
- Everydays Systems #50: 2016 State of the Systems Check-In (Spiritual)2016/07/29
No S for the soul?
14-Year Jubilee updates on 8 "spiritual" systems: Weekend Luddite, Audiodidact, Chain of Self-command, Low Smoking, G-Ray Vision, Monthly Resolution, Lawful Good Biker and The Study Habit
- Everyday Systems #49: State of the Systems 2016 (Physical)2016/06/24
Info (Show/Hide)
It's been 14 years now since everyday systems first went online in 2002.
And I think that significant anniversary deserves some kind of acknowledgement.
So I think what I'm going to do to observe this is give a kind of "state of the systems" check-in episode, a brief tour of how all the everyday systems are still working for me, -- whether they're still working for me -- how I notice they're working for other people, and any additional insights I might have about them
- Episode 48: The No S Diet Audiobook, Chapter 1 (Rough!)2016/01/29
Are my low podcast production values good enough to produce an audiobook? You be the judge! For this episode, an experimental reading of Chapter 1 of the No S Diet book. Let me know if a few tweaks here and there might do the trick, or if I had better rethink this whole project.
- Everyday Systems #47: The Heroics of Tidiness2015/12/29
Habit is powerful. But is it always the answer? Is there room for one-time, decisive actions in the realm of self-improvement? I think there is -- but perhaps not quite where you expect it.
- Everyday Systems #46: S-Days vs. Cheat Days2015/11/30
In which the subtle but crucial difference between S-days and Cheat Days is expounded upon.
- Episode 45: Einstein's Soup2015/11/24
- Everyday Systems #44: The Return of the General2014/01/09
Long term planning with index cards is back! You can now capture your entire life strategy, operations, and tactics in three index cards.
- Everyday Systems #43: Scribal Filter and medium-term task management2014/01/02
No-tech medium term task managment with index cards.
- 42 Everyday Systems#42: Personal Punch Cards Redux2013/11/26
Low-tech, high-psychology productivity tracking gets even simpler.
- Everyday Systems #41: The "What the Hell" effect and negative qualification2012/03/03
The "what the hell" effect sounds funny but it can seriously screw you up. How can everyday systems practitioners defend against it?
- Everyday Systems #40: No Solitary Snacking -- Even on S days2011/11/10
Hate your S-days because they make you feel out of control? Here's a mod to help you enjoy them again.
- Everyday Systems #39: Lawful Good Biker2010/08/13
Change your biker-alignment to Lawful Good. Be flamboyantly, comically observant of traffic rules.
- Everyday Systems #38: 14 minutes of ANYTHING2010/04/06
Shovelglove without the sledgehammer. Or at least, without making the
sledgehammer a requirement.
- Everyday Systems #37: Mods and Tweaks Trilogy Part 3: When a mere mod isn't enough2009/08/02
How to roll your own everyday system from scratch. Introducing the idea of Systematic Moderation.
- Everyday Systems #36: Mods and Tweaks Trilogy Part I: How To Tweak2009/05/30
Still want to tweak an Everyday System? Here's how.
- Everyday Systems #35: Mods and Tweaks Trilogy Part I: To Tweak Or Not To Tweak2009/04/29
Want to modify an Everyday System? It's possible -- but risky, as this episode emphasizes. Subtitled: "In Praise of Vanilla."
- Everyday Systems #34: S-days Gone Wild2009/04/29
Feel like over the top S-days are undoing all your hard work during the week? Here's how to diagnose and correct this problem.
- Everyday Systems #33: 2007 Annual Compliance Review2008/01/28
How well do I practice what I preach? What level of compliance is necessary for big picture success? What's the hardest everyday system? I attempt to answer these questions in my first annual self performance review.
- Everyday Systems #32: The Bigger (8x11) Picture2007/12/19
Just as your daily task list should fit on a single 3x5 index card (see Chain of Self Command and Personal Punch Cards), your life strategy should fit on an single 8x11 sheet of paper.
- Everyday Systems #31: The best piece of exercise equipment you can buy2007/11/12
You may think you know the answer to this already -- or at least, the answer I am going to give you. But you're probably wrong. Because it's not a sledgehammer. Or even a sledgehammer with a sweater wrapper around it. It's a timer.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #30: Introducing the HabitCal2007/07/05
Track your habits with this free, simple, and visually compelling online tool.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #29: Top 5 health and fitness books (sort of)2007/07/05
I've been asked to talk about the top five health and fitness books I've
read. Unfortunately I don't think I've read that many health and
fitness books in my entire life, and they certainly weren't all worth
recommending. So I'm going to have to narrow it down to four. And I'll
be cheating a little because one of them hasn't even been published
yet.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #28: a 90% diet solution in 2 words2007/05/23
90% of our increased calorie consumption since 1977 has come from snacking. So snacking is not only the biggest problem in terms of dietary excess, it is almost the entire problem.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #27: Audiodidact (Output)2007/03/28
Talk to yourself -- and record it. Why? Autotherapy. Catch all those great ideas that would have gotten away otherwise. Nag yourself into doing impossible tasks. Keep an even-keel diary that reflects a broader range of experience. Give serious books the serious attention they require.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #26: Audiodidact (Input)2007/03/12
No time to read? Hate mindless but necessary chores? Solve both problems at once by listening to audiobooks while you do housework.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #25: Compound and Atomic Tasks2007/03/02
Consolidate well-understood routine tasks into compound tasks. Break up poorly understood novel tasks into more atomic components.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #24: Put the Scale in Perspective2007/02/14
How I lost 10 pounds, overnight, without even trying.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #23: Intelligent Dietary Defaults2007/02/07
Convenience is stronger than you are. Accept this fact. But with a little planning, the convenient thing doesn't have to be too awful. Case in point: "optimize your oatmeal."
- Everyday Systems Podcast #22: In Defense of "Failure"2007/01/31
Stop using evasive euphemisms. Own up to "failure" or you become it.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #21: Extreme Moderation2007/01/25
Moderation isn't mushy. Learn from extremists by drawing hard lines -- just draw them in different places. Get the clarity of cold turkey abstinence without the sweeping deprivation.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #20: When you don't have 14 minutes2007/01/17
No time to exercise? Get philosophical. Use enlightened self-mockery, a neo -Kantian personal categorical imperative, and an existential leap of action to get you moving.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #19: Personal Punch Cards2007/01/10
How to use index cards for todo lists at the three scales of the chain of command: daily, monthly, yearly.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #18: Chain of Self-Command2007/01/03
Organize your self improvement efforts on
three temporal scales: year=general, month=officer, day=footsoldier.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #17: Personal Olympics2006/12/14
Make your goals fun, important, and attainable with Personal Olympics.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #16: Monthly Resolution2006/12/07
A month is a much better granularity than the more typical yearly resolution we make on new years, because you can estimate better on that smaller scale, and recover and reset faster. And it's long enough (over 21 days!) for some habituation to occur, even with a slip up or two.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #15: Season's Warnings2006/11/30
Limit your celebratory eating to the holidays themselves. Adjust your expectations so that your goal is mere maintenance. If you screw up, don't wait till new years to get back on the wagon.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #14: Top 5 Arbitrary Numbers2006/11/22
One thing that every self help guru can agree on is
that you have to have an arbitrary number in your system. It is a little weird that the most rational concepts we have available
to us -- numbers -- are so irrationally inspiring. But it clearly is
the case.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #13: Strictness2006/11/16
Strictness builds habit faster. Dumb down what to be strict about with "fence around the law." Avoid punishment and reparations.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #12: 21 days and Negative Tracking2006/11/09
Use the full habit traffic light for 21 days to build your habit, then switch to more efficient negative tracking.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #11: Habit Tracking with the Habit Traffic Light2006/11/02
Need to keep track of something? Keep track of behavior, not results, with the Habit Traffic Light. Mark each calendar day with green for success, red for failure, yellow for exempt (S-days). It's cheap and keeps you focused on what you can control.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #10: Habit Friendly Behaviors2006/10/27
How to identify behaviors that are easily automated into unconscious habit.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #9: Habit Management2006/10/18
Want results? Frame your goals in terms of behavior. Results goals are just wishful thinking. Automate conscious behaviors into unconscious habits.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #8: Glass Ceiling2006/10/11
Smooth out dangerous and humiliating binge drinking into moderate and pleasurable moderate drinking with a 2 drink a day "glass ceiling."
- Everyday Systems Podcast #7: Weekend Luddite2006/10/05
For every labor
saving device there seem to be at least two time consuming devices to
soak up all that freed time again. As T.S. Eliot put it, we are "distracted by distraction from distraction." Weekend Luddite is a system that addresses (at least in part) this problem of distraction management.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #6: Urban Ranger2006/09/27
Reimagine yourself so that walking
becomes the most important, the most exciting thing you could
possibly be doing.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #5: Shovelglove Time2006/09/20
14
minutes is one minute less than the smallest unit of schedulistically
significant time. No calendar has a finer granularity than 15
minutes. No one ever has a meeting that starts at 9:05 or 9:14. You
have no excuse not to do this. Time-wise, it doesn't even
register.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #4: Shovelglove Sledgehammer Workout Overview2006/09/14
Take a sledgehammer and wrap an old sweater around it. This is your
"shovelglove." Every week day morning, set a timer for 14 minutes. Use
the shovelglove to perform shoveling, butter churning, wood chopping
and other motions until the timer goes off. Stop. Rest on weekends and
holidays
- Everyday Systems Podcast #3: No S Diet Rules2006/09/05
Last week I gave a
high level overview of the no s diet to give you a sense of how
something this simple could possibly work. This week I'm going to zoom in a little to a
smaller scale and go over each of the rules in a bit of detail.
- Everyday Systems Podcast #2: No S Diet Overview2006/08/30
- Everydays Systems Overview2006/08/30
