The Body’s Slowest Upgrade
Welcome to Effective Habits, a weekly newsletter where I share evidence-based strategies and tools to help you live a happy, healthy, and productive life.
Today at a Glance:
The Nobel-Winning Psychologist Who Believed He Found the Secret to Happiness
The Slow Work of Becoming a Runner
The Stoic Reserve Clause: Plan Without Clinging
“The recipe for frustration is taking on something that requires a whole person, but only giving it half your time. Look at what you're trying to do. What is required? Some things can only be done well when they are pursued with full effort.”
🔦Lights, Camera, ...
Ever spent twenty minutes choosing a movie, only to feel too tired to watch it? Herbert Simon, a Nobel laureate and pioneer of cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence, believed this is what happens when we confuse more choice with better choice. He called his alternative “satisficing”: consider a few options, choose one that meets your needs, and move on. Simon practiced it literally—wearing one brand of socks, eating the same oatmeal, grapefruit, and coffee each morning, and staying in one home for 46 years—so small decisions couldn’t steal attention from the work and people he loved. Research later found that maximizers often feel less happy and more regretful, a problem magnified by endless scrolling and swiping. The lesson is simple: whether choosing a dishwasher, date, or show, decide what “good enough” means, stop when you find it, and save your energy for living.
🎬Action!
Set a stopping rule: define what “good enough” must include by figuring out your essential needs and deal-breakers. Once those conditions are met with no serious drawbacks, stop comparing and invest in your choice—reconsider only when new evidence emerges. Don’t continue just because there may be something slightly better. Examples:
Buying a laptop: It handles your work, has solid battery life, and fits your budget. Order it instead of sacrificing another weekend to comparison videos.
Choosing a restaurant: Everyone can find something to eat and the place looks enjoyable. Make the reservation instead of reading 40 more reviews.
Considering a job: The pay is fair, the work is meaningful, and the schedule suits your life. Judge the real opportunity, not a dream position that may never appear.
Dating: You enjoy being together, feel respected, and want similar things. Give the connection a real chance instead of wondering who might be one more swipe away.
The Slow Work of Becoming a Runner
Enrik Mundt
🔦Lights, Camera, ...
Pain is information, not a verdict. When a new runner’s knees begin to ache, it is easy to decide that running simply “isn’t for me.” Often, though, the issue is the dose. Muscles and tendons do not adapt at the same speed—or necessarily to the same training stimulus. Tendons have slower tissue turnover, while moderate strength or plyometric training can improve muscle strength without producing an equal tendon response. For a while, the engine can become more powerful before its springs are ready to transmit that force. Running progress therefore has two clocks: fitness can improve within weeks, but the durable capacity to run farther, more often and with fewer setbacks is built over seasons and years. Becoming a better runner is a long accumulation of small, recoverable efforts, not the result of a single ambitious training block. That is why early progress should feel deliberately conservative: start with a run you recover from well, increase one challenge at a time, and resist the occasional hero session. After injury, patience matters even more, because symptoms can settle before the tissue is ready for its old workload. Persistent or worsening pain deserves assessment, but an early ache is not automatically a verdict on your body; sometimes it is feedback to take a smaller step and give adaptation more time.
🎬Action!
Build a week you can repeat. Establish a manageable weekly distance before worrying about pace, intervals or impressive individual sessions.
Cap your longest run. As a useful guardrail, avoid making any run more than about 10% longer than your longest run from the previous 30 days.
Spread new volume across the week. Add small amounts to several easy runs instead of placing the entire increase into one oversized long run. Avoid adding another running day, extending your long run and introducing speed work all at once.
Keep most running easy. Aim for roughly 80–90% of your running time or distance at a conversational effort—you should be able to speak in full sentences. Easy running builds volume while preserving the energy and recovery capacity needed for the occasional long or fast session.
Earn the faster work. Structured speed is optional when you are starting. Once your weekly running feels consistent and recoverable, introduce one short faster session while keeping the hard running itself to roughly 10–20% of your total volume. Increase volume or intensity—not both at the same time.
Let recovery decide the next step. If pain persists, worsens or changes how you move, hold your current load or step back rather than progressing on schedule.
🔦Lights, Camera, ...
A plan becomes dangerous when it hardens into a demand: the project must succeed, the conversation must go your way, or the competition must be won. When your peace depends on results you can influence but never command, ambition quickly becomes anxiety. The Stoics answered this with the reserve clause: “I intend to do this, if nothing prevents it.” This is neither indifference nor an excuse for weak effort; it means preparing carefully, acting wholeheartedly, and preferring a result without staking your character on receiving it. If circumstances close one path, adapt and choose the next worthy action. The honest test is simple: Did the world block me, or did I avoid the work? Commit fully to what is yours—your judgment, effort, and response—while holding lightly what never was: a guaranteed outcome.
🎬Action!
The Seven-Day Reserve Clause Experiment. For seven days, test whether adding a condition to your plans helps you pursue results without assuming they are guaranteed. This is a modern exercise based on a Stoic principle—not an ancient prescription or a scientific test.
Choose one meaningful situation. Select the same type of situation each day—something that requires genuine effort but also depends on circumstances or other people. Examples include completing work for approval, navigating a difficult conversation, following a training plan, making a sale, or coordinating an event. Choose something meaningful but manageable, not a trivial task or a major personal crisis.
Write your plan with a reserve clause. At the start of each day, write: I intend to [action and preferred result], if nothing prevents it. If blocked, I will [specific constructive response].
For example: “I intend to reach agreement on the proposal, if nothing prevents it. If they decline, I will listen carefully and ask what would need to change.”
Make your fallback concrete and actionable. “I will remain calm” is vague; “I will ask one neutral question before responding” gives you something clear to do.
Make the effort and adapt. Work seriously toward your preferred result. If circumstances change, follow your fallback plan instead of giving up. Ask yourself honestly: Did circumstances block me, or did I avoid the work? The reserve clause accounts for genuine obstacles; it does not excuse poor preparation, fear, or half-hearted effort.
Record one result each evening. Use this checkbox: [ ] I made a reasonable effort and adapted when circumstances changed. Tick it only if you did both. Do not award partial credit or complete the record later. You may add a brief note about what happened, but judge the practice by your effort and response—not by whether you got the result you wanted.
Review the week. After seven days, ask:
Did the reserve clause change how I prepared?
Did it reduce anxiety or merely change my language?
When obstacles appeared, did I adapt or retreat?
Were some “obstacles” actually fear, reluctance, or poor planning?
Could sleep, workload, or unusually easy or difficult circumstances have affected the results?
Continue for another week if the practice helped. Rewrite vague fallback actions, or stop if the exercise becomes mechanical or encourages passivity. The goal is not to eliminate frustration or disappointment, but to keep uncertain outcomes from defining the quality of your choices. Make the plan. Add the condition. Do the work. Adapt when necessary.
TOOL TIP
A History of Menus is a Menu of History: An interactive exploration of 19th-century New York restaurant menus that reveals American social history through what people ate and how they ordered it.
FUN FACT
Sunsets on Mars are blue. Fine Martian dust lets blue light penetrate the atmosphere more efficiently, concentrating it around the setting Sun—the reverse of a typical sunset on Earth.
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Disclaimer: The information provided in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult a medical professional for advice, diagnosis, or treatment. We are not liable for any risks or issues that may arise from using this information.
