Behaviors

Learn a second language and keep practicing it over time for useful face-to-face conversation and to force the brain to work.

Place the phone in a lockbox for 4 hours or even 5–9 hours to create freedom from compulsive checking.

Maintain regular activity and engagement with other people rather than retiring into passivity; ongoing activity helps keep the brain active.

Make present-self commitments that constrain future-self behavior when you know future you may act against your goals.

Get social pressure involved by meeting a buddy at the gym at a specific time or joining a group boot camp; accountability helps you show up even when tired or sore.

Use financial stakes to reinforce desired behavior or prevent undesired behavior, including aversion checks or commitment websites where you only get your money back if you meet the goal.

For people trying to stop drinking, remove all alcohol from the home rather than storing it away.

Limit cash on hand to reduce the chance of impulsive drug purchases when encountering sellers.

Set up your environment so the desired action is easier for your future self to perform, such as putting running shoes near the door the night before.

Choose unusual activities on weekends to increase memory density and make time feel richer and longer.

Attend closely to experiences and be deliberate about what receives your attention and memory rather than letting life wash over you or letting low-value stimuli dominate.

Regularly vary routines to increase novelty, memory formation, and subjective richness of time.

Counselors working with blind students are encouraged to blindfold themselves for about seven days to experience perceptual changes.

Avoid going into social events or making judgments while hungry; eating first is framed as improving enjoyment and decision quality.

Use sports for kids and adults to learn effort-reward contingencies, how to lose, and how to persist after setbacks; competitive dance is presented as a similar alternative, and broad participation at one's level is encouraged.

Allow natural, uninstructed breathing rather than controlled breathing.

Use walking as movement practice; one example given was walking crowded streets for about two hours while staying fully embodied and trying to avoid touching anyone.

Actively train and improve eye movement rather than assuming it is already adequate.

Use a checklist of what you are trying to do, then adapt how you use your eyes accordingly, shifting between peripheral soft open gaze for awareness-oriented states and narrow focused gaze when the task calls for focus.

Use posture and head angle, including sharper angle and chin down, to influence listening.

Personally test variables such as heat, cold, light, movement, and different directions of awareness, and make the practice your own.

Use movement variations during lifting as examination rather than locking into one stance; for example, try different foot positions during curls, perform variations with eyes closed or different head posture, and notice what changes.

Experiment with facial expression during training by doing the same workout with a smile and with a frown to observe differences.

Use family history of alcohol problems as a reason to limit or avoid alcohol; especially relevant if a parent or grandparent had alcoholism.

Avoid corporal punishment; spanking does not improve behavior and may worsen it.

If training 4 days per week, use an upper body/lower body split such as upper, lower, upper, lower.

If training 5–6 days per week, split training further by body parts or movement categories.

If improving strength in a specific movement like the squat is a goal, perform that movement more than once weekly because practice matters. If doing a lift twice weekly, one session can be lower-rep and the other moderate-rep.

For muscle growth training, you can use barbells, machines, or dumbbells. Machines may be especially beginner-friendly.

Focus on compound lifts such as bench press, squats, and deadlifts.