Turn your life into a lab with this 5 minute exercise from Tiny Experiments
Welcome to the Habit Chess newsletter where I talk about training your zone of genius.
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Last week, I stumbled across this chapter in a neuroscience book called "Tiny Experiments" by Anne-Laure LeCunff that changed how I think about thinking.
It was a simple metacognition exercise that I immediately put to use and found useful benefits right off the bat. Important enough that I dedicated an entire podcast episode to just this one chapter.
“We've lost the organic opportunities our ancestors had to shape their inner world. Those long walks, meditative moments while tending crops, nightly reflection before bed. Instead, we grind through a near-constant flood of social media and emails with little space for thinking—let alone thinking about thinking.
This leaves us disconnected from ourselves in ways that cascade into day-to-day dissatisfaction and missed opportunities for growth.”
The Problem With How We Track Progress
When's the last time somebody pointed out your errors in a way you could actually learn from them? Maybe in school when you were objectively being graded. Maybe in performance reviews. But even then, that feedback can feel personal, superficial, or irrelevant. You might not even be willing to listen to it because your guard is up.
This exercise oddly allows you to analyze your thinking without the charge that some prompts can have to them.
Here's what I noticed about my own habits: I'd write way more to-dos than I could possibly fit in a day. No matter how much I accomplished, there were still unchecked items staring back at me. Instead of feeling productive, I'd end up thinking "didn't do this today... guess it goes to tomorrow."
This exercise flips that completely. It gets you to analyze what was actually done today, not just what you planned to do. Traditional to-do lists make you feel like there's always more to do. This frames it with language that allows you to look at things more clinically—like turning your life into a personal lab where you can run experiments with tiny things throughout the day.
The Plus-Minus-Next Framework
The tool is called Plus-Minus-Next. Three columns:
Plus column: Positive observations about your day. Any accomplishments that made you proud—big or small. Could be completing a project at work, learning a new skill, or maintaining a consistent exercise routine. Don't neglect relationships, hobbies, and home life.
Minus column: Negative observations. What didn't work? What didn't you like? You don't get many chances to verbalize this stuff without it feeling charged or judgmental.
Next column: This combines insights from the plus and minus columns. You see a bunch of tiny experiments you could run in the next day.
Here's how I used it: Working out earlier in the day went in the plus column—felt really great about myself. The minus? It delayed my deep work by an hour. The next? Maybe do deep work even earlier, or workout one hour earlier.
Sounds small, right? That's the point. Tiny experiments you can test within 24 hours.
An example from the book in the plus column is "the constant joy I felt whenever I thought about where I'm at now, my partner and the new friend I made."
See how that's very different from just checking off tasks? You have space to actually think beyond objective accomplishments and notice what's actually energizing you.
These aren't earth-shattering insights, but they're immediately actionable adjustments that compound over time.
Why This Actually Works
“Plus-Minus-Next is a powerful way to inject metacognition into your daily life. It isn't about making big changes, crafting five-year plans, or finding your purpose. It focuses on incremental adjustments that compound over time.
You can identify what you want more of and proactively focus your attention on these sources of growth. A difficult interaction becomes an opportunity to define your preferred communication style. A failed project launch offers insights into team dynamics. A double-booked appointment makes you wonder about your current workload.
Even Leonardo da Vinci worked this way—his drawings were covered in smear marks and iterations. Scholars described how he would start sketching ideas without full understanding of how they worked, using the mistakes he discovered to propel his thinking forward.”
The Meta-Skill of Making Good Mistakes
There's this benefit of control you feel. You have a little more control over your day, your life, your thoughts in a world where there's not much of that. Having a healthy sense of control gives you an aerial view of your life that isn't some deep reflective exercise that might take weeks to uncover.
This is something you can begin with no matter what you do and how much you know about yourself.
“Because we seldom bring errors to conscious awareness, we miss the opportunity to grow from them. Change becomes unintentional. Adaptation becomes accidental. But there's so much to learn from our mistakes—we should learn to fall in love with them.
Plus-Minus-Next is fundamentally a tool for making good mistakes.”
How to Start Your Own Life Laboratory
Set a five-minute timer. Create three columns. Start documenting what worked, what didn't, and what to try next.
It's a funner way of coming up with priorities because you're getting to trace these things and look at three columns at once versus just "what do I need to do?" This gives you a more connected way of seeing all the things you're doing.
You'll notice it suppresses the ego. You're not focused on proving yourself—you're looking at it from a scientist's perspective. "I don't know, but let's find out." You can get to the truth easier and act on it more effectively instead of taking the expert's approach of "I have it all figured out."
It trains you to be curious about yourself and how you work. That's a pretty worthwhile skill to train.
By combining action with metacognitive practice, you've created your own life laboratory equipped with everything you need to learn through deliberate experimentation. It's like having a strength coach for your decision-making—someone pointing out your form, suggesting adjustments, and helping you progress your capabilities.
“Only through combined action and reflection can we achieve meaningful growth. Trial and error creates a feedback loop of guaranteed learning”—a successful cycle of experimentation that makes you harder to compete with.
In your corner,
Misbah Haque
Author & Consultant at Pod Mahal
Writer & Host of Habit Chess
P.S. Grab my book Pod Mahal: Build Your Own Table With Podcasting on Amazon here!
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