Running simple experiments on yourself is the best way to test the merit of something.

People generally think of experiments as something which is the realm of highly trained scientists working in a specialist lab. The scientists test a whole bunch of different things in a methodical manner to work out what works and what doesn’t.

The good news is you can run your own experiments and be your very own lab rat It’s something that’s very easy to start doing.

There’s a wide variety of products to use and habits to form which have different results for different people. What works for someone else may not work for you. By running experiments you find out what does work for you.

You can make it as simple or as complex as you like. The key steps are to a) work out what you’re testing, b) run the test, c) observe the results.

Work out what you’re testing

You only need 2 things – the measurable variable you want to improve, and the different action you’ll take. “Using Shampoo X will treat my dandruff better than what I use currently” or “Increasing my coffee intake from 1 cup to 2 cups in the morning will increase my mental performance”.

Run the test

Aim to isolate the variable you’re testing. You want to reduce the number of other variables floating around so that you can more reliably say that you got a result because of this one specific action. If you’re testing what happens when you increase your morning coffee intake, ideally you’ll wake up at the same time and eat the same breakfast.

Observe the results

Measure the variable and write it down. If you’re testing anti-dandruff shampoo, keep a very simple log (a piece of paper) and write down the date, how bad dandruff was that day, and which days you used Shampoo X. Do the same with using your existing shampoo. This will give you quantifiable results to see which shampoo works better for you.

It may only take you 5 minutes!

I recently purchased an SLR camera and I became curious about the ISO performance of it. Basically what this means is I wanted to see how far I could let the camera lower the quality of photos in order to minimise blur from camera shake when shooting at night without a flash. I made a very crude setup by placing a few objects together on my desk and then taking a single photo of them at each of the different ISO settings. I then transferred the photos to my computer and renamed them to “100″, “200″, “400″, etc for their corresponding ISO settings. I then compared them side by side and worked out the ISO point where I thought the quality setting was still alright, so I could comfortably shoot with anything at that point or below. Cool! In all of 5 minutes worth of experimentation I worked out one of the more important settings on my camera so I now feel more confident shooting at night without a flash.

Experiments are easy!

The only way to find out how well something works is to run an experiment.

Experiment means taking action in the real world. Thinking about something is not taking action.

Thinking about something new or different is all well and good, but it doesn’t compare to actually doing something. The problem is you’re working within the constraints of your limited knowledge, but you’re thinking about something which is outside the realms of that knowledge.

Let’s say you want to wake up at 6am so that you can do creative writing before going to work. When you think about doing this how do you see it working out? Do you think it’s easy or does it seem really hard? Do you imagine yourself to be fully functional or so you see yourself as an early morning wreck? Will you intake of caffiene increase over a day or will it stay the same?

Unless you’ve actually woken up at 6am and done creative writing in the past or not, you really have no idea how you’ll react to doing it. You may love getting up really early and spring out of bed, or you may drag yourself out and swear a lot. You may be really productive in the morning, or you may just stare at your screen and then feel tired for the rest of the day. You may go from 2 to 4 coffees a day, or you may find yourself eating heaps more fruit and less coffee.

I honestly think you’d be better served by turning off the “speculate” part of your brain. The difference between speculating on something and actually doing is just so radically different.

One of the big problems with speculation is you draw early conclusions about things which may be incorrect. You think you’re right but you’re actually wrong. Often you’ll get attached to your conclusion and start defending it when people say otherwise. This makes you an idiot, it also makes you close-minded.

I love longboarding. If you don’t know what longboarding is, think of a giant skateboard which is shaped sort of like a surfboard. A long time ago I made an uninformed judgement about longboarding – “Not for me”. I thought they were for crazy fearless people or hippies who want to skate around saving trees. A friend of mine recently got me to go on a longboard and within about 1.5 minutes I was hooked and haven’t looked back. 1.5 minutes! Yet for years I thought that me and longboarding would never go together. Incorrect! My idle speculation turned out to be completely useless.

You really should spend less time thinking about things. Just do it and see what happens!