The Human Agency Lab

[agencylab]

Increasing capacity

I am currently exploring how I might increase my capacity to choose. This is a tough one to get my head around, never mind crack, but as with anything: I need to start somewhere.

I'm looking at this problem as an architect: what spaces can I use/design/re-purpose to help create the conditions for choosing. In my experience, environments in which I am able to choose well have the following characteristics:

Personal on my own, quiet, no distractions

Removed physically, from daily routine (eg. coffee shop, hillside, park bench)

Active involve physical doing that can be offloaded to my subconscious (eg. cleaning, showering, driving)

Next step: set up experiment.

[agencylab]

Residual effects

Last night I noticed a couple of things:

I am much less choice-aware, and make poorer choices when I am tired and hungry (was fasting yesterday).

Yesterday's experiment has sensitised me to my own agency. Wouldn't have noticed above point so clearly before. Would probably be useful to measure my choosing on a periodic basis, as a mechanism for habit development.

Exercised greater agency than normal last night (after feeding myself). Decided to start writing a book! #whoa

Next step: to explore ways in which I can begin to exercise agency over greater time periods.

[agencylab]

Measuring choosing: results

A fab experiment - highly recommended! Overall, feels like it's helping me to develop a more habitual awareness of my agency, although I peaked early and things began to fray as the day progressed.

There were times when I would catch myself lost in an activity and check that: a) it was a good choice of activity, and b) that my mental state while doing it was actively being chosen. This was a profoundly enriching experience. Several things to note:

It was difficult sometimes to distinguish between having a positive mental state and having chosen it.

Today was mostly a desk day. When I was interacting with others I didn't manage to record my progress at all!

The 15min counter didn't help me to focus on longer timespan agency > need to think of how I might do this.

The whole thing reminded me of This is Water which is a must see if you're interested enough to have read this far :)

[agencylab]

Measuring choosing

Today I'm going to have a crack at assessing the degree to which I am actively 'choosing' to do what I am doing. I'm going to set my alarm to go off every 15 minutes and record a scaled response (1=low, 3=high) to the following question:

To what extent have I chosen to do what I am doing right now?

Results and thoughts to follow.

[agencylab]

A bit of background

I've always been into the whole self-improvement thing. I know some people sneer at this field, but it's one of the few things that consistently motivates and excites me - the notion of striving to be the best person I can be. Part of this is undoubtedly the complexity of the challenge that it presents.

Over the last few years I've come to appreciate the concept of human agency - our capacity to act in this world. I'm still a long way off any kind of nuanced understanding: at the moment I tend to view it as a cocktail of awareness, choosing, skills/knowledge, and reflexion.

Next step: identify something that might lead to greater agency, try it on for size for a while and monitor/share what unfolds.