## Understanding the New Framing We've evolved how we talk about measurement and experimentation in MakeTimeFlow. Here's what's changed and why: **Old Language → New Language** - **Habits** → **Personal Experiments** (or just "Experiments") - **KPIs** → **Smart Bets** ### Why This Reframing Matters The new language better captures what you're actually doing: **Personal Experiments** (formerly "Habits"): - Removes the pressure of "habit formation" which implies permanence - Emphasizes the **sprint mindset**: 1-2 week trials, not lifetime commitments - Frames each attempt as a learning opportunity, not a pass/fail test - Makes it clear you're a **scientist studying yourself**, not someone who "fails at habits" - Inspired by **Agile sprint methodology**: rapid iteration, fast feedback, permission to pivot **Smart Bets** (formerly "KPIs"): - Shifts from permanent metrics to **4-week bounded experiments** - Removes the corporate "key performance indicator" feel - Emphasizes **hypothesis testing** inspired by Cal Newport's approach - Makes failure valuable: every outcome teaches something - Focuses on **strategic discovery**, not compliance --- ## Understanding Your Goals **Your Goals ARE Your Success Stories** When you set goals in MakeTimeFlow, you're creating rich, narrative **Success Stories** that describe what you want to achieve: - **Weekly Success Story**: What you want to accomplish this week - **Quarterly Success Story**: Your 12-week vision across four life domains (Self, Work, Family, Community) - **5-Year Vision**: Your long-term aspirational future These narrative goals are comprehensive and describe your desired outcomes in meaningful, human terms. **Experiments and Smart Bets are NOT your goals** - they are selective measurement and experimentation tools: - **Smart Bets**: Test strategic approaches through 4-week experiments (chosen from 6 Flourishing Domains) - **Personal Experiments**: Run 1-2 week trials to discover what works (1-2 active at a time) **Important**: Not everything in your Success Stories needs to be measured. Experiments and Smart Bets are for: 1. Testing strategic approaches to your most important quarterly outcomes (3-5 Smart Bets from Flourishing Domains) 2. Discovering productivity techniques or personal practices through short trials (1-2 Experiments) --- ## Two Complementary Tools Track your short-term trials and strategic experiments with two complementary approaches: - **Personal Experiments** for discovering what works through 1-2 week sprints, and - **Smart Bets** for testing strategic approaches through 4-week experiments. ## What Are Personal Experiments? Personal Experiments (formerly "Habits") are short-term trials—usually 1-2 weeks long—where you test new productivity techniques, routines, or behaviors. Think of them as **Agile sprints for your personal life**. ### How Personal Experiments Work **Sprint Mindset**: When you create an experiment, you're testing something new for just 1-2 weeks. No permanent commitment required. **Fast Feedback**: Track progress to see what's working. After the sprint, decide: keep, modify, or try something completely different. **Discovery Focus**: You're not "building habits"—you're discovering which practices serve your unique life. **Common Experiment Examples**: - Morning meditation (testing 10 minutes daily for 1 week) - Evening journal practice (trying gratitude journaling for 2 weeks) - Deep work blocks (experimenting with 90-minute sessions for 1 week) - Exercise routine (testing early morning workouts for 2 weeks) - Reading practice (trying 30 minutes before bed for 1 week) ### When to Use Personal Experiments Use experiments when you want to: - Test a new productivity technique - Discover what routines fit your life - Explore lifestyle changes quickly - Try a time management approach - Experiment with wellness practices Experiments are intentionally short-term. If something works, you keep doing it naturally—not because you're forcing a "habit," but because you've discovered it genuinely serves you. ## What Are Smart Bets? Smart Bets (formerly "KPIs") are **4-week bounded experiments** where you test strategic approaches to improve outcomes in the **6 Flourishing Domains**. You choose **3-5 Smart Bets** to run each month. ### The Smart Bet Philosophy Inspired by Cal Newport's approach to deliberate experimentation: - **Form hypotheses**: "I believe 2 hours of morning deep work will increase my project completion rate" - **Test for 4 weeks**: Long enough to see results, short enough to pivot - **Extract lessons**: Did it work? What did you learn? What should you test next? - **Permission to fail**: Every outcome teaches something valuable—failure is data, not defeat ### Choosing Your Smart Bets from Flourishing Domains You can create Smart Bets from any of the 6 Flourishing Domains based on what matters most to you: **Physical Health and Exercise**: Body vitality and wellness - Example: "I believe strength training 4x/week will increase my energy" (Baseline: 2 sessions → Goal: 4 sessions, each point = 1 session) **Positive Emotions**: Emotional wellbeing and resilience - Example: "Daily gratitude practice will improve my outlook" (Baseline: 3 days/week → Goal: 7 days/week, each point = 1 day) **Engagement and Flow**: Deep involvement and optimal experience - Example: "Morning deep work blocks will boost my productivity" (Baseline: 5 hours/week → Goal: 15 hours/week, each point = 1 hour) **Relationships**: Meaningful connections - Example: "Weekly quality family time will deepen bonds" (Baseline: 3 hours/week → Goal: 8 hours/week, each point = 1 hour) **Meaning and Purpose**: Life significance and direction - Example: "Regular volunteering will increase sense of purpose" (Baseline: 2 hours/month → Goal: 8 hours/month, each point = 1 hour) **Achievement**: Accomplishing meaningful goals - Example: "Leadership development will improve team outcomes" (Baseline: 5/10 skill rating → Goal: 8/10) ### How Smart Bets Work **4-Week Experiments**: Set a hypothesis, define success metrics, test for 4 weeks, extract lessons. **Flexible Scoring**: The 0-100 scale adapts to your metric: - **Hours**: 1 point = 1 hour (Deep work: 5 → 15 means 5 hours to 15 hours) - **Revenue**: 1 point = $1K (Revenue: 10 → 25 means $10K to $25K) - **Percentages**: 1 point = 1% (Projects on time: 60 → 90 means 60% to 90%) - **Ratings**: Use any scale (Leadership: 6 → 8 on your 10-point scale) **Choose what each point means, then stay consistent** when you update your scores each week. **Learning Focus**: Unlike permanent KPIs that create pressure, Smart Bets are about discovering what strategies actually work for you. ### When to Use Smart Bets Use Smart Bets when you want to: - Test strategic approaches to improvement - Run 4-week experiments systematically - Discover what drives results in core areas - Balance multiple dimensions of success - Learn from both successes and failures ## Experiments vs. Smart Bets: Choosing the Right Tool | Aspect | Personal Experiments | Smart Bets | | ------------- | ------------------------- | ----------------------------- | | **Duration** | 1-2 weeks | 4 weeks (monthly) | | **Purpose** | Discover what works | Test strategic approaches | | **Tracking** | Count (did it / didn't) | Scored (0-100, flexible scale)| | **Lifecycle** | Sprint → Keep/Modify/Drop | Experiment → Extract Lessons | | **Number** | 1-2 active trials | 3-5 from Flourishing Domains | | **Examples** | "Try meditation 10 min/day for 1 week" | "Test: 'Morning deep work increases completion rate' (5→15 hrs, 1 pt = 1 hr)" | | **Domain** | Any Flourishing Domain | Choose from 6 Flourishing Domains | | **Mindset** | Agile sprints | Cal Newport's deliberate experimentation | ## Using Them Together with Your Success Stories The most effective approach starts with your Success Story (your goal), then uses Smart Bets and Experiments to test and discover: ### The Complete Flow **1. Define Your Success Story (Your Goal)** ``` "This quarter I want to establish sustainable work rhythms, deepen my relationships with my kids, and launch the new product feature." ``` **2. Choose 3-5 Smart Bets to Test Strategic Approaches** - Achievement: "I believe focused morning work will boost completion" (50% → 75%, each point = 1%) - Relationships: "I believe quality evening time will deepen bonds" (3 → 8 hours/week, each point = 1 hour) - Engagement: "I believe deep work blocks will increase flow states" (5 → 15 hours/week, each point = 1 hour) **3. Run Experiments to Discover What Works** - Morning routine trial (2 weeks) - does this create the deep work I need? - Evening device-free experiment (1 week) - does this improve family time? **4. Learn and Iterate** - Did the experiment help your Smart Bet succeed? - Did it support your Success Story? - What did you learn? What should you test next? ### Example Workflow 1. **Your Quarterly Success Story says** you want better work-life balance 2. **Create a Smart Bet** to test: "Quality family time will improve by prioritizing evenings" (Baseline: 3 hours/week → Goal: 8 hours/week) 3. **Run an Experiment** to discover what works: "Leave work by 6pm daily for family dinner" (2-week trial) 4. **Track for 2 weeks** to see if you can maintain it 5. **Update your Smart Bet** weekly—did your family time increase from 3 hours to 5, 6, 7+ hours per week? 6. **Extract lessons** from both: Keep the practice? Modify it? Try a different approach? Did your hypothesis prove true? ### Key Principle ``` Success Story (Goal) → Smart Bets (Test Strategy) → Experiments (Discover Tactics) → Learn → Iterate ``` Your Success Story remains the primary goal. Smart Bets and Experiments are discovery tools to help you achieve it. ## Viewing Your Experiments and Smart Bets Access your tracking tools: - **Experiments Tracker**: View active trials and log progress - **Smart Bets Lab**: See your current experiments and trends - **[Daily Goals Email](https://my.maketimeflow.com/goals_email_preferences)**: Receive experiments and Smart Bets in your inbox Navigate to your goals page and switch between tabs: - Experiments: Shows active 1-2 week trials - Smart Bets: Displays your 4-week strategic experiments from the 6 Flourishing Domains ## Tips for Success **For Personal Experiments**: - Keep trials short (1-2 weeks maximum) - Test one or two experiments at a time—not ten - Be specific about what you're testing - Decide quickly after each sprint: keep, modify, or try something else - Focus on discovery, not perfection **For Smart Bets**: - Update scores weekly as you run your 4-week experiment - Be honest about your hypothesis and what you're actually testing - Focus on learning, not just hitting numbers - Extract clear lessons at the end of 4 weeks - Use experiment results to inform your next Smart Bets **For Both**: - Review weekly with your [[Weekly Success Story]] - Use [[Daily Goals Email]] to stay consistent - Let Smart Bet results guide which experiments to try - Celebrate insights and learning, not just wins ## Remember: Success Stories Come First Your Success Stories are your true goals—rich, narrative descriptions of what you want to achieve. They are: - Comprehensive and meaningful - Written in human terms - Not required to be fully measured Smart Bets and Experiments are simply tools to: - Test strategic approaches (Smart Bets) - Discover effective tactics (Experiments) - Support achievement of your Success Stories Think of it this way: - **Success Stories** = Your goals (what you want) - **Smart Bets** = Strategic experiments (testing what approaches work) - **Experiments** = Tactical trials (discovering what practices fit your life) ## Why the New Language Matters The shift from "Habits and KPIs" to "Experiments and Smart Bets" reflects a fundamental philosophy change: **From Permanent to Experimental:** - Old: "I must maintain this habit forever" or "I must hit this KPI" - New: "Let me test this for 1-2 weeks and see" or "Let me run a 4-week experiment to discover what works" **From Pressure to Discovery:** - Old: Success or failure, pass or fail - New: Every outcome teaches something valuable **From Generic to Personalized:** - Old: "This habit works in studies, so I should do it" - New: "Does this practice work for my unique life? Let me find out" **From Corporate to Human:** - Old: "Key Performance Indicators" (sounds like a board meeting) - New: "Smart Bets" (sounds like strategic exploration) This reframing makes the tools more approachable, reduces guilt when things don't work, and emphasizes continuous learning over rigid adherence. ## Related Resources - [[Smart Bets]]: Deep dive into 4-week strategic experiments - [[Personal Experiments]]: Learn about 1-2 week discovery sprints - [[Goals]]: Creating Success Stories (weekly, quarterly, and 5-year) - [[Getting Started with Goals]]: Your introduction to the Goals system - [Daily Goals Email](https://my.maketimeflow.com/goals_email_preferences): Get experiments and Smart Bets delivered daily - [Preferences](https://my.maketimeflow.com/preferences): Customize your tracking settings - [[Focus Mode]]: Deep work sessions to accomplish your goals - [[Flourishing Map]]: Understanding the 6 domains of well-being --- *The shift from "Habits and KPIs" to "Experiments and Smart Bets" removes the pressure of permanent change and corporate metrics, replacing it with the excitement of personal discovery and strategic exploration.*