Questions
Summary
After collecting data on your Field Notes, we can analyze them and find what experiments to commit on.
PACT consists in committing yourself into simple and repeatable actions. it can be defined as
I will [action] for [duration]
The main characteristics:
- Simple: You don’t have to commit on complex and demanding activity. Let’s start easy, you can always adjust the effort as you go
- Repeatable: It must be something that can be sustainable and repeated over a defined period of time. E.G: Visit New York, this is not a PACT Get compounded interests (serial-order effect)
- Purposeful: you should find joy while doing it.
- Actionable: you should be able to start now
- Output instead of Outcome: You are focusing on what you are delivering instead of what the end result should look like: instead of saying I will run a marathon in 6 months (Typical of Linear Goals), you can say, “I will run every second day”. Instead of saying “I will write” a book, just try by writing every day 250 words.
- Doing Over Planning: This is a commitment to Action. William James’s quote:
Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.
myNotes
What are the main benefits of committing to a PACT?
I think that it can be an interesting alternative to the linear goals. It solves most of their drawbacks, but it still enables you with doing something purposeful. Moreover, not having any expectations might free yourself up from all the anxiety that you might have while working hard for a specific target that you are not even sure you’ll hit it.
My main doubt is related to the Output vs Outcome part: I’m worried that if you are not evaluating in any way the work that you are producing, you might end up doing something just for the sake of it. But maybe the fact the you are not entirely committed into doing some great work, might be a red flag itself about the fact that you are not really interested in the experiment you are working on: in this case, based on the past experiences, it can quite easy to filter out and decide what your next experiments should be about
Credits and References
- Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Tiny Experiments, Avery, 2025 (9780593715130)
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