Designing for “optimal defaults”

• Audit your environment — Take a good look at your living/working environment and make a list of all the things
that are in it. This includes: Location, house, office, rooms, bathroom, kitchen, technology, furniture, people, etc.

• Define your goal — Now define your objective/goal by reviewing your vision, mission and principles.

• Define value actions — Define the actions/behavior that contribute the most value towards achieving your goal.

• Categorize environment items — Look at the items in your list and categorize them as “negative” (doesn’t support
value actions) & “positive” (does support value actions). Score each item on a scale from -10 (negative) to 10 (positive).

• Eliminate negatives — Eliminate all negative items from your environment, if you can’t, hide or distance them.

• Stimulate positives — Identify the most positive items in your environment and bring them closer to you, make
them more visible, hard to forget/not notice and add visual cues that nudge you in the right direction.

• Introduce positives — What things you could add to your environment that would stimulate value actions and
discourage or eliminate negative behavior? Experiment by introducing new things and testing/measuring/iterating.

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 High performance environments part 1/2

• Clean — Dust, dirt and grime are sources of negative energy that distracts/interferes with comfort and motivation.
• Organized — Find what you want when you want it, save time, move fast and feel more in control and empowered.
• Uncluttered — Clutter distracts. Clutter irritates. Clutter attracts more clutter. It also talks to you! Get rid of it.
• Colorful — Plain white environments cause anxiety/depression, color nurtures you and stimulates creativity and joy.
• Natural light — Light is energy, it motivates us to take action and stimulates good emotions. The more the better!
• Other light — Three sources of incandescent light is optimal (lamps + roof lights). Avoid fluorescent white light!
• Sound — Buzzing from washing machines, dishwashers, computers, lights etc. isn’t good. Go silent or nature’s sound!
• Furniture — Choose attractive, comfortable furniture in good condition. You should love its look and feel!
• Plants — Our natural habitat is the outdoors and nature, having plants brings nature inside, it purifies air and calms.
• Art — Art feeds a space with color and scenes that can lift your spirits and your energy. Chose art you really love!
• Mementos — Hold the energy of the memory associated with them. Add positive energizing mementos as anchors!
• Temperature — Our bodies/minds operate best at a certain temperature. Mine: Work = 65°F (18°C). Sleep = 60°F (15°F).
• View — Views of the city or nature trigger physical, physiological and psychological wellbeing. Expansive is best!
• Airflow — Clean air flowing from the outside keeps you energized and motivated + it makes you healthier!
• Smell — Only sense that bypasses thalamus (logic), goes directly to limbic system (emotion). Light incense!
• Acoustics — Hard surfaces create echo that makes us anxious, use rugs and fabrics to soften acoustics + remove echo.
• Pets — Pets stimulate positive emotions, heighten sensory awareness and make us healthier and happier.

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 High performance environments part 2/2

• 1 computer — Use one laptop only, more computers = more issues, laptops can go anywhere and you only need one.
• Make it fast — Get a fully spec’d top performing laptop that’s as fast as possible, it will pay dividends! (I use 15” MBP).
• 1 phone — Use one phone only, more phones = more issues. Use your cellphone and ditch office and home landlines.
• No tablets — Nobody runs a serious operation on a fucking iPad. 1 laptop + 1 phone is already too much, ditch the tablet.
• 1 screen — The more screens you have, the less money you probably make. >1 Screens = Multitasking = Bad. FOCUS!
• Use a mouse — A mouse is scientifically proven to be faster, more accurate and more productive than a touchpad.
• No crap — You don’t need webcam, fancy mic’s, amps, speakers, screens etc. Just use laptop + mouse. Keep it simple!
• Ethernet — Get the fastest internet possible and use a hard wired ethernet cable (not WiFi) for speed + reliability.
• 1 thing — Don’t have anything on your desk other than the 1 thing you need to do, only 1 application open on computer.
• Minimal apps — Have the bare minimum apps on your computer and phone and constantly try to delete more of them.
• 1 tab — People who have >4 browser tabs open (God forbid >1 browser windows) at one time are psychotic and poor.
• At reach — Have everything you need in your drawers reachable if needed but out of sight and categorized/labeled.
• Phone off — Turn your phone off and put it in your drawer and FOCUS! Only touch your phone when you need to.
• No email — Don’t check your email or have it push to you/notify you via computer or phone you psychotic freak.
• Clean desktop — If you have a messy desktop with files/folders all over it, you’re probably neurotic and broke. Fix it!
• Binaural beats — To focus, listen to “binaural beats” on YouTube instead of music and use simple headphones.
• Minimalism — Apply minimalism/essentialism to everything you do both physical and virtual. Eat, breathe & sleep it!

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