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Ideas To Thrive

Think In Systems: The Skill Most People Never Learn

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Get The Systems Workbook with worked examples and fill-in prompts:

https://ideastosthrive.gumroad.com/l/systems-workbook?utm_source=acast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=systems_workbook&utm_content=show_notes


PREFER WATCHING?

Check out the video on my Youtube channel - https://youtu.be/t1xKo4spo3s


Most problems that keep coming back are not effort problems. They are structure problems. You have been working against a system without realising it.


This course teaches you 20 tools for reading the structure of any repeating problem - whether it is in your health, your work, your relationships, or your finances - so you can find where to intervene instead of applying more effort to something that has already failed more than once.


Seven parts. Twenty tools. One capstone to apply them all on a real problem of yours.


TIMESTAMPS


0:00 Introduction

1:37 Part 1 — Why Problems Keep Coming Back

1:46 Tool 1: The System Test

4:18 Tool 2: The Iceberg

7:17 Part 2 — Learning to See It

7:26 Tool 3: Variables and Links

10:25 Tool 4: The Reinforcing Loop

13:10 Tool 5: The Balancing Loop and the Set-Point

16:02 Tool 6: Loop Dominance

19:39 Part 3 — The Plumbing

19:46 Tool 7: Stocks and Flows

22:51 Tool 8: The Valve Rule

25:38 Tool 9: The Buffer

28:57 Tool 10: Rate vs Level

31:53 Part 4 — Why It Keeps Fooling You

32:06 Tool 11: The Delay

35:00 Tool 12: Overcorrection

39:26 Tool 13: The Bullwhip Effect

42:56 Part 5 — The Shapes Problems Take

43:10 Tool 14: Shifting the Burden

46:56 Tool 15: Fixes That Fail

50:25 Tool 16: Limits to Growth

53:48 Tool 17: The Commons Trap

57:44 Part 6 — Which Kind of Problem Is This?

57:54 Tool 18: The Cynefin Sort

63:15 Part 7 — Where to Actually Push

63:26 Tool 19: The Leverage Ladder

68:17 Tool 20: Niche Strategy

73:04 Capstone — Read the System

76:36 Close


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WHAT THIS COURSE COVERS


Part 1 introduces the core diagnostic: how to tell whether a problem is structural or an execution failure, and why the difference matters before you do anything else.


Part 2 teaches you to draw any system on a page. You will learn to identify variables, trace the links between them, and recognise the two loop types that drive almost every repeating pattern.


Part 3 covers stocks and flows — the actual plumbing of any system. Once you can name what is draining and find the valves that control it, the right intervention becomes obvious.


Part 4 explains delays and oscillations. Most bad decisions come from reading the wrong signal at the wrong time. These tools show you why, and how to stop.


Part 5 maps the four classic problem shapes: the patterns that trap people who are trying hard and still losing ground.


Part 6 gives you a sorting tool for problem type before you choose a method. The right technique applied to the wrong category of problem reliably fails.


Part 7 introduces leverage. Five rungs, ranked by impact. Most people operate on the bottom two without knowing it.


The capstone walks a four-question protocol on one real problem of yours from start to finish.


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THE COMPANION WORKBOOK


If you want to go further than notes, The Systems Workbook has all 20 tools with a worked example and a structured fill-in prompt for each one. Formats included: print PDF, fillable PDF with 51 fields.


https://ideastosthrive.gumroad.com/l/systems-workbook?utm_source=acast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=systems_workbook&utm_content=show_notes

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#SystemsThinking #MentalModels #DecisionMaking #FullCourse #PersonalDevelopment

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  • 9 Systems of People Who Get More Done With Less Effort

    20:48|
    Want to watch this instead? Check it here on Youtube - https://youtu.be/0S3gqpbbq-QPart of you wants to build something big. And part of you would really prefer to do as little as possible. Most advice tells you to get rid of the second part. Some of the most effective people in history kept it and put it to work.This video gives you nine systems for getting more done with less effort. Three shorten the work you can't avoid. Two get set up once and then run without you thinking about them. Three help you turn work down, including a rule for when to stop searching and choose. The last one takes your habit of putting things off and uses it to get the rest done. Each system comes with its steps and an example from everyday life, like getting out for a run, learning the guitar, clearing the loft or buying a house.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📝 GET THE FREE ONE-PAGE LAZY AUDITAll nine systems on one page, each with its steps and one question to answer about your own week. It takes about twenty minutes. It comes with a filled-in example, so you can see a finished page before you start. Editable PDF and HTML, free.https://ideastothrive.gumroad.com/l/one-page-lazy-audit?utm_source=acast&utm_medium=show-notes&utm_campaign=less-effort-systems━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CHAPTERS0:00 - Put Your Lazy Side to Work0:24 - 1. Count the Motions2:40 - 2. Pave the Path You Already Walk4:33 - 3. One at a Time Beats Batches7:44 - 4. Make the Mistake Impossible9:43 - 5. The Brown M&M Test11:35 - 6. Be Irresponsible on Purpose14:39 - 7. Miss More Planes16:43 - 8. The 37 Percent Rule18:55 - 9. Structured Procrastination20:36 - Your One-Page Lazy Audit━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━FEELING OVERWHELMED BY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER?Todoist helps you capture tasks, organize priorities, and focus on what matters next. Try Todoist here: https://get.todoist.io/hg3f62cx72zeAffiliate link: I may earn a commission if you upgrade, at no extra cost to you.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━WANT ONE SYSTEM FOR THE WHOLE YEAR?AOS, the Annual Operating System, gives you one place to plan the year, break it into quarters and weeks, and review it as you go:https://ideastothrive.gumroad.com/l/aos?utm_source=acast&utm_medium=show-notes&utm_campaign=less-effort-systems━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📚 BOOKS TO EXPLOREThe links below are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.The Art of Procrastination by John PerryGo deeper into System 9: using structured procrastination to turn avoidance into useful work.https://www.amazon.com/dp/0761171673?tag=ideastothrive-20Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian and Tom GriffithsGo deeper into System 8: optimal stopping, the 37 percent rule, and knowing when to stop searching and choose.https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250118360?tag=ideastothrive-20Effortless by Greg McKeownFurther reading on the video's central idea: making important work easier by removing unnecessary effort and setting up systems that keep paying off.https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593135644?tag=ideastothrive-20━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📩 Newsletter: https://ideastothrive.beehiiv.comWhich of the nine would save you the most work this week? Tell me below.Subscribe to Ideas to Thrive for practical systems you can run in your own life.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Productivity #SelfImprovement #Procrastination
  • 7 Things I Did To Finally Stop Wasting My Evenings After Work

    16:34|
    Prefer to watch instead? Check it here - https://youtu.be/fXeekYUNun0Your evenings are the only part of a working day that's really yours. So most of us try to protect them with a strict routine. Then, a few days in, dinner runs late or we're too tired, and we're back to scrolling until bed.This video is a one-page evening plan that expects life to get in the way. You'll count the evening you really have, decide tonight's one thing hours before you get home, build a short crossing between work and home, work out which kind of tired you are, find the refill your evenings are missing, and give each weeknight one job. The plan is firm at the start and loose after that, so it survives a bad week.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌙 GET THE FREE ONE-PAGE EVENING PLANThe blank template from the video, with a space for every line we write. Page 2 tracks two weeks of evenings with one line a night. It comes with a filled-in example, so you can see a finished plan before you start. Editable PDF and HTML, free.https://ideastothrive.gumroad.com/l/one-page-evening-plan?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=stop-wasting-evenings━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CHAPTERS0:00 - Why Strict Evening Routines Break0:27 - 1. Stop Calling It Wasted3:12 - 2. Decide Tonight Before You Get Home5:31 - 3. Plan It Loosely7:47 - 4. Build a Crossing10:34 - 5. Which Kind of Tired Are You?12:48 - 6. Pick the Refill That's Missing15:44 - 7. Give Each Evening Its Own Job17:37 - Your One-Page Plan18:03 - When a Week Goes Wrong━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━FEELING OVERWHELMED BY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER?Todoist helps you capture tasks, organize priorities, and focus on what matters next. Try Todoist here: https://get.todoist.io/hg3f62cx72zeAffiliate link: I may earn a commission if you upgrade, at no extra cost to you.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━WANT ONE SYSTEM FOR THE WHOLE YEAR?AOS, the Annual Operating System, gives you one place to plan the year, break it into quarters and weeks, and review it as you go:https://ideastothrive.gumroad.com/l/aos?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=stop-wasting-evenings━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━SOURCESChapter 1- Sharif, Mogilner & Hershfield (2021), Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: free time and well-being in more than 35,000 people.- Tonietto, Malkoc, Reczek & Norton (2021), Journal of Experimental Social Psychology: seeing leisure as wasteful makes it less enjoyable.Chapter 2- Read & van Leeuwen (1998), Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes: snacks chosen in advance versus on the day.Chapter 3- Tonietto & Malkoc (2016), Journal of Marketing Research: scheduled leisure feels more like work.- Uitdewilligen et al. (2023), Occupational Health Science: detailed evening plans did not help people switch off.Chapter 4- McAlpine & Piszczek (2022), Organizational Psychology Review: the commute as a space between roles.- Kreiner (2006), Journal of Organizational Behavior: keeping work and home apart versus mixing them.- Adam Fraser, The Third Space (2012): reflect, rest, reset.Chapter 5- Marcora, Staiano & Manning (2009), Journal of Applied Physiology: mental fatigue makes effort feel harder.Chapter 6- Sonnentag & Fritz (2007), Journal of Occupational Health Psychology: the four recovery experiences.- Kubey & Csikszentmihalyi (2002), Scientific American: how people feel during and after TV.- Guy Winch, "How to turn off work thoughts during your free time" (TED talk).Chapter 7- Etkin & Mogilner (2016), Journal of Consumer Research: variety across a week versus inside an hour.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📩 Newsletter: https://ideastothrive.beehiiv.comWhich refill do your evenings miss most: switching off, calming down, getting better at something, or choosing? Tell me below.Subscribe to Ideas to Thrive for practical systems you can run in your own life.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#EveningRoutine #AfterWork #SelfImprovement
  • 7 Things I Did To Finally Stop Wasting My Evenings After Work

    18:40|
    Prefer to watch instead? Check it here - https://youtu.be/fXeekYUNun0Your evenings are the only part of a working day that's really yours. So most of us try to protect them with a strict routine. Then, a few days in, dinner runs late or we're too tired, and we're back to scrolling until bed.This video is a one-page evening plan that expects life to get in the way. You'll count the evening you really have, decide tonight's one thing hours before you get home, build a short crossing between work and home, work out which kind of tired you are, find the refill your evenings are missing, and give each weeknight one job. The plan is firm at the start and loose after that, so it survives a bad week.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌙 GET THE FREE ONE-PAGE EVENING PLANThe blank template from the video, with a space for every line we write. Page 2 tracks two weeks of evenings with one line a night. It comes with a filled-in example, so you can see a finished plan before you start. Editable PDF and HTML, free.https://ideastothrive.gumroad.com/l/one-page-evening-plan?utm_source=acast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=stop-wasting-evenings━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CHAPTERS0:00 - Why Strict Evening Routines Break0:27 - 1. Stop Calling It Wasted3:12 - 2. Decide Tonight Before You Get Home5:31 - 3. Plan It Loosely7:47 - 4. Build a Crossing10:34 - 5. Which Kind of Tired Are You?12:48 - 6. Pick the Refill That's Missing15:44 - 7. Give Each Evening Its Own Job17:37 - Your One-Page Plan18:03 - When a Week Goes Wrong━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━FEELING OVERWHELMED BY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER?Todoist helps you capture tasks, organize priorities, and focus on what matters next. Try Todoist here: https://get.todoist.io/hg3f62cx72zeAffiliate link: I may earn a commission if you upgrade, at no extra cost to you.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━WANT ONE SYSTEM FOR THE WHOLE YEAR?AOS, the Annual Operating System, gives you one place to plan the year, break it into quarters and weeks, and review it as you go:https://ideastothrive.gumroad.com/l/aos?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=stop-wasting-evenings━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━SOURCESChapter 1- Sharif, Mogilner & Hershfield (2021), Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: free time and well-being in more than 35,000 people.- Tonietto, Malkoc, Reczek & Norton (2021), Journal of Experimental Social Psychology: seeing leisure as wasteful makes it less enjoyable.Chapter 2- Read & van Leeuwen (1998), Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes: snacks chosen in advance versus on the day.Chapter 3- Tonietto & Malkoc (2016), Journal of Marketing Research: scheduled leisure feels more like work.- Uitdewilligen et al. (2023), Occupational Health Science: detailed evening plans did not help people switch off.Chapter 4- McAlpine & Piszczek (2022), Organizational Psychology Review: the commute as a space between roles.- Kreiner (2006), Journal of Organizational Behavior: keeping work and home apart versus mixing them.- Adam Fraser, The Third Space (2012): reflect, rest, reset.Chapter 5- Marcora, Staiano & Manning (2009), Journal of Applied Physiology: mental fatigue makes effort feel harder.Chapter 6- Sonnentag & Fritz (2007), Journal of Occupational Health Psychology: the four recovery experiences.- Kubey & Csikszentmihalyi (2002), Scientific American: how people feel during and after TV.- Guy Winch, "How to turn off work thoughts during your free time" (TED talk).Chapter 7- Etkin & Mogilner (2016), Journal of Consumer Research: variety across a week versus inside an hour.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📩 Newsletter: https://ideastothrive.beehiiv.comWhich refill do your evenings miss most: switching off, calming down, getting better at something, or choosing? Tell me below.Subscribe to Ideas to Thrive for practical systems you can run in your own life.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#EveningRoutine #AfterWork #SelfImprovement