Human decision-making is fraught with errors and biases, like our tendency to see only what we expect. Given how important managing our health well is, we need strategies that mitigate our natural behaviours.
Create SOPs
Standard Operating Procedures help overcome overwhelm and decision errors at critical points. They’ve been proven to reduce harm, for instance, they’re a major reason why flying on commercial airlines is so safe. You can create simple SOPs for managing your health. For example, when you notice a non-specific symptom, such as an eye twitch or constipation, note the date on your calendar. This will prevent misremembering when it started. Another basic SOP: the night before any doctor’s appointment, you write down everything to mention.
Incorporate redundancy. When I take a daily medication, I look at the label on the bottle and visually look at the pill before taking it. I also have a rule of never taking medication in the dark. Applying SOPs in standard conditions (e.g., when taking a familiar medication) builds habits for non-standard conditions (such as when taking a less familiar medication, or when you’re not at home).
Consider Scenarios
In the workplace, new SOPs are often created after “near misses”. Do the same when it comes to your health. If a health situation occurs and you wish you handled it better, create a SOP to make sure you do. Pay particular attention to avoiding accidents. If you fall off an unstable ladder, what procedures do you need so you don’t injure yourself working on your home?
Beyond near misses, think through and plan for scenarios that could happen. If you notice a funny-looking spot on your skin, what would you do that day? The next day? After a week? What practical or mental hurdles could occur? By imagining how you’ll need to react in specific scenarios, you’ll better prepare for messy realities. For instance, you think two weeks after a minor, non-specific symptom occurs is when you should get it checked out, but then realise that getting an appointment would take two more weeks. Good procedures often need to start earlier than we anticipate. A habit of wearing sunblock needs to incorporate putting it on your shopping list when your existing bottle is running out. The habit doesn’t start when you’re out in the sun.
Identify hazardous attitudes
We’re all prone to the most common hazardous attitudes at least occasionally. Even people who are naturally cautious or anxious sometimes think “It won’t happen to me” or “Just this once, I’ll do this unsafe thing. It’ll be fine”.
Our prior experiences feed into our attitudes. If you’ve had unhelpful experiences with health service providers, you might have a sense of resignation, such as a belief seeking help won’t actually help you. Another potentially hazardous attitude is an anti-authority stance (“Don’t tell me what to do”).
Consider your blind spots, like if you tend to worry about breast cancer because of family history, but not skin cancer.
Accountability
When you create SOPs for yourself, a dilemma is how to get yourself to comply with them. In employment situations, employers make sure we comply with SOPs, but what about when it’s just you? One solution, where applicable, is to use flows that become reflexive and automatic, like my example of checking I’m taking the correct medication.
To increase accountability, at minimum write down your SOPs and give a copy of your written SOPs to someone else. Consider what accountability mechanisms help you in other domains and apply those ideas to this area.
Develop a continuing competence programme
Many of us have continuing education or recurrent training requirements in our jobs. Take the same approach to your health and wellness. For instance, how can you ensure everyone in your household is comfortable doing CPR? New health research is emerging all the time. How can you identify what’s most important for you to know?
Use these tips in combination to improve how you manage your health and wellbeing. For example, a combination of Standard Operating Procedures and scenario-based thinking will be more effective than either alone. We often have effective tools and skills in our arsenal that we don’t think of applying to manage our health.
