15 Experiments to run on yourself that may make your life better

I recently listened to an episode of the podcast Hidden Brain about getting unstuck. One of the things they talk about is taking a software development idea and applying it to your life.

How building software can influence building our lives

One of the best ways to build software is creating an MVP or minimum viable product. In this methodology, you create the leanest version of the product possible (like building one feature) and put it into the market. From there, you iterate on that feature, testing new things to see if they work, and moving on from there.

The best part of this method is fast learning that takes place. You test, see if something works, keep it or don’t, and then find the next thing to build and test.

Why not think about our lives this way? Instead of trying to make sweeping changes to our lives, or no change at all, why not consider running experiments on ourselves to see how new things work for us? We can easily run two-week experiments, experience the results, keep it or don’t, and then find the next things to test.

Running life experiments

Running life experiments seems like a great way to make incremental improvements in my life, creating the best version of myself. So, I’m going to give it a shot.

For my first experiment, I’m going to journal every evening about my day for 5-minutes. My focus will be on gratitude, closing out my day, and making sure my head is in the right place for the coming day. In two weeks, I’ll blog about my experience, and start on the next experiment I can run on myself.

If you are thinking you may want to give this a shot, but aren’t sure of an experiment to run, here are a few ideas:

15 experiments to run on yourself to make your life better

  1. Journal with a focus on gratitude
  2. Try running, walking, rucking or biking
  3. Yoga
  4. Meditation
  5. Prayer
  6. Reading
  7. Writing
  8. New morning or evening routine
  9. No screens for 1-hour before going to sleep
  10. No coffee until you have been awake for 90-minutes
  11. Drink two cups of water immediately on waking
  12. Wake up earlier
  13. Go to bed earlier
  14. Cut screen watching time by 20% or by 50%
  15. Listen to an audiobook or podcast on your commute. Might I recommend this book or this podcast?

Are you running any experiments on yourself? If so, what are they?

Photo by Yasin Arıbuğa on Unsplash