Playbook — Flow Design

Experiments 2026/05/08 5 min read

Plus / Minus / Next — the 5-minute weekly reflection that reduces carryover guilt

Three bullets, five minutes, once a week. Plus, Minus, Next. The smallest reflection ritual that exists. By week three, the Sunday-evening dread starts to soften — because the week has already been heard.

Experiments 2026/05/08 5 min read

Sensory sunset — the 7-day experiment that gives the nervous system two small doors out of overload

Eyes closed for one minute at midday. Electronics off by 8 p.m. Two small intervals of input-zero, every day for seven days. The body, given even brief sensory rest, pays it back the next morning. In clarity that didn't come from coffee.

Experiments 2026/05/08 5 min read

70% ship — the 7-day experiment that defines 'good enough' before you start

Most over-polishing isn't perfectionism. It's the absence of a stopping rule. For seven days, you write three bullets defining 'good enough' before you start a task — and stop the second the bullets are met. Output rises. Rumination drops.

Experiments 2026/05/08 5 min read

5-3-1 social health — the 7-day audit that maps what your social life actually looks like

Five different people a week, three close relationships actively invested in, one hour a day of meaningful connection. For seven days, you log it honestly. The number is almost always lower than you guessed — and that gap is the experiment.

HD Mechanics 2026/05/08 7 min read

The Spleen center — intuition, immunity, and why open Spleens hold on to what isn't good for them

There's a protective pattern that keeps gripping what's already gone toxic — the contract you still service for free, the ritual that stopped working. Underneath, the chart-level confirmation is an open Spleen with no signal of its own for what's safe.

Experiments 2026/05/08 5 min read

STOP — the 5-second pause that changes how you see the other person

Five seconds. One question: what is the other person actually showing me right now? For seven days, run STOP in any first-contact moment. The snap-judgment shrinks. Respect, not anxiety, gets to choose your first move.

Experiments 2026/05/08 6 min read

Stranger warmup — the 7-day experiment for one-person businesses who haven't talked to a stranger in years

One stranger a day, for seven days. Not networking. Not pitching. One genuine question, one real moment of contact. By day seven the fear of approach sits lower on the scale — and so does the fog of being online all day and met by no one.

Experiments 2026/05/08 5 min read

Tactical pause — the 5-minute experiment Lionel Messi taught the rest of us by accident

The most decorated soccer player in the world spent the first five minutes of every big match not playing. He was pausing — reading the field. Five minutes before the day's first screen does the same thing. Anxiety stops choosing your first move.

Experiments 2026/05/08 5 min read

Ten terrible ideas — the 7-day experiment that lowers perfection pressure by getting prolific at being bad

Ten minutes a day, listing ten terrible ideas. Then two minutes making one of them ten percent less terrible. Seven days. The seriousness drops. The novelty rises. The first few obvious answers stop running the show.

Experiments 2026/05/08 5 min read

The thinking walk — the 7-day experiment that uses footsteps as a tool

Thirty minutes. No phone, or phone buried somewhere annoying to reach. One question carried with you. Walking. Most decisions you've been struggling with at the desk are not desk problems — they're walk problems.

HD Mechanics 2026/05/08 7 min read

The Throat center — communication, manifestation, and why open Throats speak first and suffer later

When you keep speaking to be seen, the signal underneath is a body that broadcasts a curated self — and never gets witnessed back. The open Throat is the chart-level confirmation of that pattern, not the cause.

Experiments 2026/05/08 5 min read

Un-optimize week — the 7-day experiment that releases one good habit from a previous season

Pick one habit you've been forcing through guilt. Stop tracking it for seven days. Often a freer version comes back on its own — or you find the habit belonged to a season that already ended, and your body knew before your calendar did.