Ten minutes now · five minutes in a week · a pen

You pick one decision you've been putting off, write the move you'll make, and come back a week later to see what happened. Nobody grades it, and there's no score. It's one rep of the loop, done on paper.

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What this borrows from. Plans made as "if this, then that" (Peter Gollwitzer). Writing progress down and telling someone (Benjamin Harkin and colleagues). Choosing for your own reasons (Edward Deci and Richard Ryan). The cost of doing nothing (Tim Ferriss). It's built on practices with research behind them. No study has tested this sheet.

Two minutes

Answer one line in each room, fast. Then pick the one you answered fastest and liked least. That's the room.

HealthOn an ordinary weekday, what does my body do from waking to my first screen if nobody decides anything?
WealthWhich commitment of my time or money would I decline if it were offered fresh today?
RelationshipsWhat conversation have I moved to next week, twice?

The room

I am deciding whether I

Nothing you type leaves this page.

The rep, now

  1. See the defaultIf I change nothing, what happens here this week? Write what a camera would see.
  2. Name the decisionI am deciding whether I ___. And what does leaving it undecided cost me by the end of the month?
  3. The governorDoes this deserve me, now? If the honest answer is no, walking away is the rep. That's how I walked away from a rollup in 2024.
  4. Make the moveIf [when, where], then I will ___, within 48 hours. Write the date you'll read reality, a week at most, and tell one person.

One line per answer. If you need a paragraph, you're explaining. Write the decision.

A week later: read reality

  1. What changedWhat changed in the world? A fact someone could check.
  2. SurpriseWhat did it show me that I didn't expect?
  3. ChooseKeep, adjust, abandon, or escalate.
  4. NowWhat does the situation require now?

If nothing in the world changed, the rep didn't happen. Say so, then make the move smaller.

One rep, start to finish

At 20:47 on a Tuesday, Addie, seven, asked me why I'd told a woman at the store we were in a hurry when we were just going home. I was standing in her doorway.

  • The defaultA small lie to skip a long conversation, and I'd been teaching it without noticing.
  • The decisionWhether our family actually lived what we said we valued.
  • The moveLex and I wrote down five values, laminated them, and stuck them to the golf cart's steering wheel, where we read them on the way to school.
  • What reality saidWe still miss them. We notice now when we do.

From the manifesto.

Doing it with someone

Answer apart. Read aloud. The witness asks one question and stops. A witness doesn't fix and doesn't grade.

It widens when you're ready: alone, then one witness, then a pair, then a table, then a circle. Start where it's true this week.

The two laws

Agency becomes visible at the point of friction. Choosing the thing your environment already makes easy counts for nothing here. The rep only counts under resistance.

Action completes the loop. Naming the default is step one of four. If nothing in the world changes inside 48 hours, the audit didn't happen.

Send me what reality said

If you run a rep, reply to the letter or write to [email protected] with your one line.

If you write the same worry twice, stop and write only the move. One rep a week, in whichever room holds the live decision. Let reality pick the room.

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