Science-Backed Goal Setting and Pursuit

These are my notes on Andrew Huberman’s Goals Toolkit: How to Set & Achieve Your Goals. His research and his episode; the summary and any errors are mine.

As with anyone else, over the years I’ve heard about and halfheartedly tried pursuing various goal setting methods with varying results. I’m hoping the fact that these methods are research backed appeals to the nerd in me, and gives me a better chance of getting to my goals in the long run.

Setting a Goal

It is highly recommended to pick one goal you want to try to achieve. Don’t get trapped with the “overhaul” approach of changing a lot of things at the same time.
To prioritise goals worth achieving, write out various things you want to do, cross out the low priority ones, and circle the highest priority ones.

✍️ Other useful approaches to prioritise goals include the Eisenhower Matrix or Pick Charts.
Specificity and measurability come up again and again in scientific literature (e.g. SMART goals), and are proven ways to get to goals more often.
Make sure to outline specific verbs and actions needed to achieve the goal.
- This is easy for finite goals, like running a marathon.
- If you can’t quantify the steps easily, quantify the time. For instance, the best authors don’t wait for inspiration to come, but block a time or write a number of words every day. Consistency is key.
In general, figuring out how many hours each week, on each day and which days a week is enough for 90% of goal pursuits.
The recommendation is to break down goals into 12 week cycles.

💡 Writing down the goal with pen or pencil engages your neural circuitry differently and embeds knowledge into your nervous system.

Myths

“If you set easier goals, you’re more likely to achieve them.”

❌ It’s difficult to generate lasting motivation if things are too easy to do.
✅ Instead, try setting a goal that’s slightly beyond your capabilities. It forces your brain to create conditions conducive to neuroplasticity.

“Sticking a post-it note with your goals somewhere will help you reach your goal.”

❌ Anything that shows up in your natural environment too often gets cancelled out.
✅ Write down a new post-it note every day and put it in different places in your natural environment.

“Tell everyone about your goals. Accountability helps you stick to them.”

❌ The positive feedback from social sharing engages reward systems early, and your energy to pursue the goal dissipates.
✅ Don’t tell anyone prior to taking action towards your goal. If you really want to tell someone, try telling someone who doesn’t believe in you. Or get one person who only gives you tough-love accountability and no validation.

Goal Pursuit and Staying Motivated

Initiating your goal pursuit

Counterintuitively, negative visualisation has been proven to increase levels of motivation. So the decision at the start of any work session is a short one:

First, ask whether you actually want to pursue this goal. If the answer is no, go back to goal setting — there’s no point optimising the pursuit of a goal you don’t want.
If the answer is yes, ask whether you’re motivated right now. If you are, visualise the positive outcome for one to three minutes. If you aren’t, visualise the negative outcome instead — what happens if you don’t do this.

Staying motivated

Vergence Eye Movements

Your readiness to do work is heavily anchored in your visual system.
When you want to relax, use your peripheral or panoramic vision. For instance, when you want to take your mind away from work, go look at the horizon.

💡 When you lack motivation, focus on a visual target within the general range of the work you’re performing, narrowing your cone of attention. Set a timer for 30 to 90 seconds.

This releases neurochemicals that increase alertness and arousal. It increases systolic blood pressure and dopamine release.
It’s proven to indicate a decreased level of perceived effort, and you get things done faster.
The effect is transient, so you might have to do it at regular intervals.

The Best Productivity App

It’s built into your phone. It’s called Airplane Mode, or the Off button.

Random Intermittent Reinforcement

Dopamine is the molecule of motivation.
- If you reward yourself every time you get something done, you reduce the potency.
- Also, if you only view accomplishment as reward, you undermine the probability of success.
A proven way to build muscles for self-generated motivation and neuroplasticity is by using random intermittent reinforcement — the same thing they use in casinos.
- Rewards can be physical (things, experiences) or cognitive (patting yourself on the back, positive reinforcement).

💡 Flip a coin after you do a task and let it decide whether you reward yourself.

The Middle Problem

With every goal pursuit, you have more motivation at the start and end, but not in the middle.
The simplest way to overcome it is by acknowledging it.
Another way is to divide the middle part into its own start, middle and end (chunking).

Circadian Rhythm and Attention

💡 For particularly hard goals, you have the most motivation 30 minutes, 3 hours and 11 hours after waking up.

It’s valuable to schedule work around these times.
It doesn’t have to be a hard rule — actually engaging in goal pursuit matters more.

Subjective feelings of energy

How positively you feel about your previous day, and what you want to get done in the current day, can affect your levels of energy.
Keep this in mind when gauging your energy levels.

Appendix

Brain parts involved

There are four hubs of the brain that contribute to goal setting and pursuit.

Amygdala: responsible for arousal, fear and positive valence experiences.
Basal ganglia: modulates go and no-go decisions.
Lateral prefrontal cortex: gives temporal awareness, and is involved in immediate and long-term planning.
Orbital frontal cortex: evaluation of current emotional state. Registers your anxiety and frustration when pursuing a goal and allows for neuroplasticity.

There are always other issues in play; don’t forget about them: sleep, psychology, stress, life events and so on.