Review the bullseye weekly to track real movement
Re-mark each domain every week and compare — small outward or inward shifts are your feedback loop.
Key takeaways
- What it is: Re-mark each domain every week and compare — small outward or inward shifts are your feedback loop.
- Why it works: Without a feedback loop, values work can feel like an endless aspiration rather than a measurable practice. The weekly re-marking creates a behavioral feedback loop: movements inward are immediately reinforcing (evidence the practice works), and movements outward are diagnostic (signal that the action or frequency needs adjustment). This transforms the bullseye from a one-off assessment into a living instrument that changes behavior over time.
- Evidence: Backed by observational / correlational evidence.
- Avoid: Only doing the review when things are going badly, which turns it into a problem-analysis rather than a living practice. The review is most useful when things are going well too — that is how you see what is working.
Why it works
Without a feedback loop, values work can feel like an endless aspiration rather than a measurable practice. The weekly re-marking creates a behavioral feedback loop: movements inward are immediately reinforcing (evidence the practice works), and movements outward are diagnostic (signal that the action or frequency needs adjustment). This transforms the bullseye from a one-off assessment into a living instrument that changes behavior over time.
How to do it
- 1Set a fixed weekly time to re-mark all four domains (same day and time each week for reliability).
- 2Compare this week’s marks to last week’s — note changes, even small ones.
- 3Ask: "What did I do differently in domains that moved inward? What is missing in domains that moved outward?"
- 4Update the committed action for the coming week based on what you learn.
What the evidence says
ObservationalBehavioral self-monitoring is one of the most consistently supported behavior-change techniques across health, productivity, and clinical domains; the bullseye provides a structured, values-linked self-monitoring format.
Honest caveat: General self-monitoring evidence is strong; the specific weekly bullseye format has not been separately trialed outside broader ACT protocols.
- — Michie et al. (2009), behavior change techniques review, Annals of Behavioral Medicine
Common mistake
Only doing the review when things are going badly, which turns it into a problem-analysis rather than a living practice. The review is most useful when things are going well too — that is how you see what is working.
IX Coach builds the weekly bullseye review into your routine, presents a visual comparison of this week vs last week, and uses the shift to calibrate the coming week’s committed action.
Practice this with IX Coach →