Hitting my signals is my main goal every day Signals are behaviors that 1. I want to do every day 2. I won't do by default How it works - I usually track ~8 signals, and each day I have to hit 75% of them - Currently: - Journaling - Anki cards - Supplements - Lunch - Morning routine - Night routine - Exercise - Setting [[Weekly daily goals|daily tasks]] - I tried adding my [[Focus logging]] as a signal, but keeping it separate seems to work better. My signals set my day up for success, success generally means logging many hours and getting through my tasks - Most of them are yes/no, some are 1-5 scales, I've previously had some signals be in minutes - I update what I track regularly - If I start doing something by default every day, I no longer need to track it. This is a win - Maybe some day I no longer need to track signals because I'm doing it all by default, that would be ideal - If I change environment, e.g. vacation, travels, work sprint, I'll change to only track what's important during that - When I want to build a new habit, I often make it a signal. Always works (except for meditation) - Every % above 75% gives one saved point - Before adding this I found myself skipping some signals on purpose each day because there was no incentive to hit 100% - If I don't hit 75% on a day, I lose 100 points, and the streak doesn't increment - I'm worried that losing the streak triggers a down-period, so this can save me from that - As of Jun 12 2026, I am on an 86 day streak without missing a day I need a productivity system that is as close as possible to the things I want to do - Any productivity system is a proxy metric for what you actually want to do, so you have to find the closest proxy possible - This is why my system is a bit complex with weird rules. I basically never find myself doing something for the system, that doesn't seem like the best thing I could do - Except for a few 11pm runs (to get the exercise signal checked) - You could also just do the things you need to do, but then you lose out on a lot psychology tricks that motivate you (like streaks and hitting goals) If the system doesn't align 100% with what I want to do: - It doesn't work as well (obviously) - I can easilier convince myself to not follow it, becuase maxxing the system isn't "actually" the goal Handing over my decision-making to maxxing some number makes doing what I need to do very easy - I have a widget on my [[Jelly Star]] home screen that shows my current streak and if I hit the goal today - This alone has made me keep the streak - I was not able to keep the streak before adding this - It seems a huge reason for why Duolingo can keep people streaking for so long