📝 8-Week Operating System for [NAME]
Based on everything you've learned over the past 4 weeks, the invitation now is to put it into practice by building your 'Personalised Nervous System regulating Operating System'. This template is designed to answer the simple question each morning:
Based on your answer to this question, either from doing an internal check-in, looking at your wearable's readiness score (or both) — you can then decide to operate from that day in two different modes of being, what I call #FLOWMODE & #RECOVERYMODE.
(Of course, this is your template so you can rename these as you wish)
🙋♂️ Please treat this template as a Choose Your Own Adventure—feel free to remove sections to simplify or add in ideas that come to you. It's preferable that you keep it simple in the beginning and be realistic about the extent of the changes you wish to make—starting small and then building from there.
💡 The blocks with the coloured background are automatically synced with your personal dashboard. Your personal dashboard will be filled out automatically by your input into this template.
There are FIVE steps to personalising this template for yourself:
- Writing your intention for the following 8 weeks.
- Designing & defining your two modes of being.
- Auditing & redesigning your environment to support your intentions.
- Mapping your mental, physical & emotional support structures.
- Reflecting on next year's calendar to schedule supportive practices.
🚀 YOUR "HUMAN OS" TEMPLATE 🚀
Table of Contents
🙏 1: Intention
🧠 2: Interoceptive Check-in
🏡 3: Environment Design
👪 4: Social Cartography Mapping
📆 5: Hedonic Calendaring
☑️ 6. Your "HUMAN OS" Dashboard
🙏 1: Intention
"I desire to wake up feeling more energised as well as structure in more recovery time during my days and weeks so that I can be present with my partner, feel inclined to play more music and wake up without an alarm clock at sunrise.
This is important to me because in the past I have had a tendency to over-effort and push myself in a way that is not sustainable in the long-term. I will track and reflect on my progress through a combination of tracking my HRV baseline score, the quality of my sleep as well as my interoceptive sense of how I feel each morning."
🧠 2: Interoceptive Check-in
It's not realistic to imagine that we will be able to perform at our best 24/7. Rather, the aim is to have an anti-fragile & adaptable set of habits, such that you can gauge in real-time each morning upon waking to sense what your body is ready for that day.
IF fully recovered & energized ———> THEN #FLOWMODE
IF under-rested & tired ———> THEN #RECOVERYMODE
I know I'm in #RECOVERYMODE when .... [e.g. my Oura score is below 75]
*Of course something may happen during the day which knocks you from an energized #FLOWMODE and into #RECOVERYMODE—in which case stay adaptable and listen to what your body needs.
*If you want to go the extra mile, you could even buy a reversible wristband (or similar) with two different colours to wear as a reminder during the day of which mode you're in.
- The first thing I will do is ....
- The second thing I will do is ....
- The third thing I will do is ....
- 🌬️ Morning Breath of Fire + Exhale Retentions practice
- 🧠 Take on a creative or strategic task in the morning
- ❄️ Ice bath or cold-water immersion
- 🏋️♂️ More intense than usual workout or exercise
- 🤐 Fast until lunch
- The first thing I will do is ....
- The second thing I will do is ....
- The third thing I will do is ....
- ✈️ Put smartphone on airplane mode
- 👃 Begin 4-7-8 breathing practice
- ⏳ Block out time for an NSDR practice (link)
- 📝 Consider tackling less cognitively challenging tasks or life admin
- 🌳 Schedule some time outside or in nature
- 🧘♂️ Schedule a yoga or light movement practice
- 🙅♂️ Consider cancelling or pushing back today's commitments
NB. keep in mind that with any habit change it's helpful to start with very small habits and build slowly from there (link to superb habit guide from James Clear)
🏡 3: Environment Design
The invitation for this section is to examine your daily life through the lens of how spaces impact your nervous system and to make adjustments based on your 8-week intention.
🍂 1 - Audit your Sensory Environment
The first step is to simply become acutely aware to how inputs arriving through our senses send signals to our nervous systems that either up or down-regulate our state. What I recommend is based on the creative constraints of how much autonomy and flexibility you have over your home + work environments. Visualise your typical home and work weekly flow and consider the following prompts:
Consider if you spend time looking at things close to you or have a view of a wide horizon. Are the colours relaxing or stimulating? Do you have access to nature? How is the quality of lighting at different times of day impacting you? (See examples of 'low arousal environment design in the ADHD study here)
For example, we can re-design our spaces using 'ontological design'—the design of the objects around us are impacting our state. Having access to wider horizons or less-cluttered spaces will have an impact on our nervous systems.
Perhaps obvious but still worth considering—if you live or work near loud sounds, consider investing in noise-cancelling headphones or explore the range of binaural beats offered by the Endel App.
For example, certain essential oils or incense can be either activating and stimulating (e.g. peppermint) or calming and relaxing (e.g. lavender incense)
Remember: you become the average of the five nervous systems you spend the most time with!
e.g. taking sugary foods out of the cupboards, blocking certain websites or not sleeping next to your smartphone...
🍃 2 - Action Steps to Re-design Your Environment
My advice is to keep these steps simple and achievable for longer term success! To the extent that is possible, these are the steps I'm taking to improve my home and work environments to better support my nervous system healthy and regulation:
👪 4: Social Cartography Mapping
The majority of the NSM protocols have been self-guided, these are essential, they also can only get us so far... putting in support scaffolding (both paid and unpaid) can make a huge difference.
Our support structures roughly map onto these three areas:
- Mental—perhaps a talk therapist, virtual assistant, mentor, life coach etc.
- Physical—perhaps a sleep coach, nutritionist, meditation mentor, personal trainer etc.
- Emotional—somatic therapist, trusted friend, pet, conflict or relationship coach etc.
- We often need emotional support (aka co-regulation) from others in times of uncertainty to help navigate the challenges.
- We struggle to see our own blind spots. We need what I call a challenge network—a group of people who trust us enough to give compassionate criticism and highlight what we can’t see by ourselves.
- By inviting others in we are creating external accountability structures to dedicate time + energy to our own regulation, resilience and thriving.
Q1. Which of these three areas do you feel well supported in?
...
...
...
Q2. What potential gaps are there?
...
...
...
📆 5: Hedonic Calendaring
The concept of 'hedonic calendaring' was initially pioneered by the Flow Research Genome project as a science-backed approach to generating more consistent flow and meaning in your life. Only you will know what will enable you to feel the best and lead to a well-regulated and thriving nervous system in the long run.
The key concept is to remember that we are cyclical creatures and to fully thrive we require different forms of regulation on a daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual basis — so penciling events (especially the longer getaways) into the calendar is a great way of ensuring that you make time for them.
- ...
- ...
- ...
- 🛌 Non-sleep-deep-rest (NSDR) Practice
- 👐 Acupuncture, Massage or Body-Work (depending on preference)
- 😅 Dopamine Detox (remove key dopamine sources for 24hrs)
- 🧘♂️ Yin yoga (long hold stretches to release sticky fascia)
- ...
- ...
- ...
👪 Join or start a peer support circle: one of the simplest and most impactful actions you can take is to join (or create) a virtual peer support circle. These vary in format, but the essence involves creating a safe space to express emotional challenges and forge meaningful connections. Can be virtual or IRL.
🤐 Extended Fast: if this is something that appeals consider scheduling an extended fast once a month (the Zero app is helpful for this).
👨🏼⚕️ Somatic Therapy: if you're drawn to understand yourself more deeply there are powerful benefits to be found from regular sessions with trauma-aware somatic therapists.
- ...
- ...
- ...
⛷️ Ski or Surf Trip: or whatever activity resonates with you that enables you to spend more time in the great outdoors.
⛰️ Travel Adventure: to the degree that this is possible... if travel is challenging then perhaps a microadventure in your backyard.
- ...
- ...
- ...
- 🧘 Meditation retreat: many meditators report not really learning how to meditate until their first retreat. Although not for the faint of heart, 10-day silent Vipassana meditation retreats are a common option, popularised recently by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (NB. no need to go all the way to Myanmar). If meditation feels like too much of a leap, try just taking a week off the grid to disconnect, ideally in nature.
- 🖋️ Annual review: Setting aside time to take stock of your life and career, to reflect if you feel aligned and in sync with your life values and current trajectory—as well as set clear intentions and design a roadmap for growth in the year to come (here's an in-depth template designed by Jonny to support with 'Reflecting Forwards').
☑️ 6. Your "HUMAN OS" Dashboard
Now that you're finished, you will find your answers on the "HUMAN OS Dashboard". The dashboard is automatically populated by your answers above.