All protocols
5,340 protocols across every category, most recommended first.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsAvoid Alcohol During Sauna Use
Do not drink alcohol when using the sauna.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsConsult a Physician Before Sauna if High Risk
Talk to a physician before sauna use if elderly and prone to low blood pressure, after a recent heart attack, or with certain heart disease.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsAvoid Sauna During Pregnancy
Avoid sauna use during pregnancy.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsLay out running gear the night before
Set out running shoes and running clothes before bed to reduce friction for the next day's run.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsSleep in running clothes
Sleep in running clothes so you can get up, put shoes on, and get out the door with minimal friction.
- ▶ 1DietIncrease friction for unhealthy foods and make healthy foods visible
Shape the home food environment so healthy options are easy and salient while unhealthy foods are absent or inconvenient to access. Examples given: place nuts visibly on the counter; do not keep junk food in the house; if keeping sweets, store them in a hard-to-reach place such as the highest shelf in the garage. Also prefer concentrating most calories at lunch and dinner rather than late at night.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsShow up for bad workouts
Even if motivation or time is low, do a minimal workout rather than skipping; for example, a couple sets of squats and done in about 20 minutes.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsGo to the gym for five minutes
If needed, cap gym time at five minutes initially and focus on becoming the kind of person who goes consistently, e.g. four days a week.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsSprint and then rest
Alternate periods of intense effort with real rest across hours, weeks, or seasons; balance is turning it fully on and fully off rather than staying at 50%.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsTake hikes without your phone
Leave the phone behind or in the car during hikes to create untethered reset time and be present with the person you're with.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsRunning for reset
Use running as a way to reach a wordless, reset-like state.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsSwimming for reset
Use swimming as a way to reach a wordless, reset-like state.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsDo habits earlier in the day
As a general rule, do important habits earlier because fewer interruptions accumulate earlier in the day; identify which hours are most under your control and stack habits there.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsWork out
Use a workout as a linchpin habit that improves the rest of the day; for James Clear, usually in the morning around 10–11 a.m.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsLeave your phone in another room until lunch
For a couple hours in the morning, keep the phone in another room, typically from about 9 a.m. to noon or until after a workout.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsRearrange your phone to support desired habits
Put the app that supports the habit you want on the home screen so it is the first visual cue when you open your phone, and move distracting apps off the home screen to reduce their salience.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsRemove email from your phone
Delete email from the phone; only download it temporarily if truly needed, then delete it again.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsExercise for self-care
Exercise is framed as taking good care of yourself and helping you be around longer for others and yourself.
- ▶ 1ToolsGo to a yoga studio
Use a yoga studio as a supportive environment for practicing yoga, especially if your home environment is not conducive to it.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsExercise at conferences
Skip some lower-value sessions if needed to get a workout in during conferences.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsSwim early in the morning
Get up around 5 or 6 a.m. to swim; described as a diligent parental habit.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsRead to children from the start
Read to children before they can talk; extensive early reading was linked to very early vocabulary.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsAsk Whether Alcoholism Runs in Your Family
Use family history as a practical risk screen for alcohol problems; specifically ask whether a parent was alcoholic or whether problem drinking runs in the family.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsAvoid Initiating Substance Use When Young
Strong caution against starting substances during adolescence or earlier because the brain is highly plastic then and addiction risk is much higher.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsUse Accelerated Theta-Burst rTMS (SAINT Protocol)
Recommended over ketamine by the guest for treatment-resistant depression; described as accelerated rTMS over five consecutive days, with people coming in five days in a row for 10 minutes on and 50 minutes off all day long using a theta-burst setting. rTMS was also discussed as an approved, noninvasive option for depression and promising for addiction.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsPersist Through Withdrawal Rather Than Repeatedly Medicating It
General recommendation across nicotine, cannabis, and opioids: ride out the withdrawal period if possible rather than repeatedly using the substance to treat withdrawal symptoms; withdrawal can mimic the problem people think they are treating. Treatments can also be used to make withdrawal easier.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsUse Treatments That Ease Withdrawal
General recommendation that withdrawal from different drugs can be made easier with treatment support.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsTell a Clinician Early if You Think You Have a Problem
Encourages speaking up early about a possible addiction problem because early-stage recovery odds are much higher.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsAnalyze Use Patterns and Leverage Naturally Sober Contexts
Do a behavioral analysis of where you use, how much you use, what you use, and what cues trigger use. Also identify places or days where you naturally abstain, such as your mother's house or a holy day, and use those contexts and techniques as clues for recovery strategies; for example, visit your mom more often if you never use there, or apply the techniques from naturally sober days on other days.
- ▶ 1BehaviorsIncrease Friction to Access Alcohol
If trying to quit drinking, remove alcohol from your home or give it away so access is behaviorally harder; make drinking require extra effort, such as having to go to a liquor store.