Just Seven Things

Exploring why and how we do what we do, and how we can do it better

Archive for the tag “Game Playing”

30 Jun 2008
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How the Brain Loves Simplicity

I had been looking for a while how to bring into a post reference to a column by Ed Cooke for the Times a few weeks ago.  Called Mr Memory, How not to forget your keys, there were a number of things I loved:

1. Paragraph 2: ‘Almost everyone finds it difficult to recall where they’ve left their keys. There’s no doubt that it’s just much more difficult than recalling where, for instance, you last wrestled a bear or spanked a nun’

2. It re-highlights David Allen’s comments at the start of Getting Things Done which question how sophisticated the workings of the brain can be if the best way of remembering to take something to work the next day is to leave it by the door

3. Because of the simplicity implied in 2. above, it aligns with my current thinking/ theme about change coming from the application of simple things to ‘nudge’ action as opposed to top down (mind-led) command and control

4. The imbuing of the keys (or any other object which you are attempting to avoid losing) with human traits is the main topic of the short column (apparently ‘imbue your keys with character and life’). This made me think in a different way about other snippets I’ve been reading about brand, brand ‘personality’ and the avoidance of brands ‘behaving badly’ and consumers ditching them as being misaligned with their values. It leaves me with the question about how simple we really are

5. OK, it was the nun thing really…… 

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Posted in Game Playing, Habits and Routines and tagged ,
21 Jun 2008

How Easily Simplicity Tips into Bad Habit

The interesting thing with the whole concept of simplicity is how close a bed partner it is with habits, and in particular bad habits.

I think.

The challenge I have is the apparent ease with which I can fall into bad habits vs. the challenge of maintaining a good habit. And whether the concept of ‘neutral habits’ is the answer.

Game playing and simple routines like keeping scorecards or tracking must be so close to creating a habit. I can see that when you consider the analysis of reactive and rational brains, the reactive is a blocker to a good habit vs. being acceptant of a bad habit.

As the bad habits are normally the ‘juicy morsel’, the reactive brain will be attracted to them and quickly addicted to doing the thing that gives it the reward. The reactive brain equally rejects the good habits as ‘hard’ and without the immediate reward. Our rational brains counter this with the longer-term reward. However, to turn the good habit into a routine involves a lot of battling against defaulting to the bad habit.

Does game playing lessen the ‘weight’ of the reactive response? Does it remove resistance because the new routine to be adopted is being done so as a game/ challenge as opposed to a mental challenge? It is therefore made ‘neutral’ by the game.

So in a sense, game playing and a simple response to routine accelerates the journey to the neutral point of a routine being as easy to continue as it is to stop. A route to the 21 days habit tipping point….

Hhmm. A Fooled by Randomness moment? 3 times 7 = 21?

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Posted in Conscious and Unconscious, Game Playing, Habits and Routines and tagged , , | Leave a comment
20 Jun 2008
2 Comments

Why Do Personal Games Work?

Danzo08 ico_ol_3So, building on the shift I identified in my randomness post, I’ve been thinking a lot about lightness of touch. I’m contrasting this against the heavy-handed ‘mental edict’ approach of thinking that I can affect change in my consistent, persistent behaviours by instructing myself to do so.

It really brought me back to what my coach, Alison Down, highlighted when we first started to work together. That I had to start feeling instead of thinking. That I had to trust my gut rather than analysing and planning.

Even before starting to read Fooled by Randomness I had started to question what was obvious to me as an internal lack of commitment to top-down (brain-first) change. I recognised the cycle that I tend to enter of creating a structure to achieve what I want. I then try and apply the new routine. And then it fails. Invariably however I have noticed that some elements of the desired change have stuck. This tends to be the reason why I have continued trying:

  1. Because some things do stick
  2. I learn a lot during the analysis and creation of the structure to achieve what I want

Also invariably, I endeavour to create tools as part of this top-down process. Checklists or time tables to ensure my compliance.

What I’m now starting to question is whether these are something that I should avoid dismissing as being part of a top-down approach that will invariably fail. Jim Estill’s CEO blog post led me to NSC Blog by Nathan Collier and a post on Making it a Game. Both of which talk about how the simple things are the things which can harness change, or help you to make a change. They reminded me of Allen’s point at the start of Getting Things Done about the way in which we leave things by the front door to remember them the next day. The point being that the mind seems to work in simple ways.

So what does this mean for me? Well I’m going to see how relaxing the pressure on myself to change/ improve has an impact. How the use of games or scores/ scorecards can simply prompt me to incrementally achieve. Watch this space….  

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Posted in Action Orientation, Conscious and Unconscious, Control, Focus, Game Playing, Mindfulness, Time Management and tagged , , , ,

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