Episode 74 - Don't be disciplined - build systems that work
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[00:00:00] Hey, and welcome back. I'm Grandmaster Noël Studer and you're listening to Next Level Chess podcast, and today is the end of the year. And I want to talk about new Year's resolution, or more specifically, how we can get ourselves to do the good stuff that is difficult and often a little bit less interesting,

over the more fun stuff that is short-term cool, but long-term, unhealthy and maybe bad for our chess. And this is really the main dilemma I would say we face in nearly all aspects of our life. If everything that was good for us was super easy, like everybody would have [00:01:00] six packs and we would be multimillionaires and whatever, super happy and everything would be great.

But it's not right. And I really like this quote of Namal, which says, quote, all self-help boils down to choose long term over short term, end of quote. So it really just is like, if you want to improve your chess, how do you not just sit down and play a few bullet games without thinking, but how are you actually taking a book, putting a difficult position in front of you, thinking and not executing moves before you are sure about your solution.

And then doing that over and over and over and over again. And for me, this is really difficult because it's funny that, many people have this kind of image of me that, you know, he's so disciplined and he always does his things and he focuses so much on doing the hard stuff and so on. But actually, I would say that I'm very undisciplined.

It's just that I have found ways to work around this. [00:02:00] So today I really want to work, want to talk about this, like don't be disciplined, but instead create systems. And I've talked about this before. I once shared a story of grandmaster Avetik Grigoryan, CEO of Chess mood actually telling me I think it was a podcast we did, where he said, ah, you're the most disciplined man I know.

And I was like, no, if you ask my wife, she will tell you that guy is not disciplined at all. He just forces himself to have systems. So this really comes from having tried it in so many different fields with willpower and discipline. Like again, new Year's resolution, right? So many times that I've said, oh, I want to be disciplined with going to the gym.

I want to eat very healthy. I want do whatever. There so many different things that I've tried doing, and usually it works in the beginning. I do it for a few weeks, for a few months, maybe even. But if I don't manage to create systems that help me, it will just go back to zero. And that's really, really bad because, [00:03:00] for example, with digital devices, I've done it a few times.

So I'm feeling like I use too much my digital devices. I would like more to be reading books or walking outside instead of watching a video or scrolling my phone, whatever it is. So I would do a detox, 30 days, basically, nothing at all. It's twice. I basically did it very well and a few more times that I tried doing it.

And then I would get to a moment where I was very disciplined. But I didn't manage to implement the systems. So what happens is I would get sick at some point. By the way, if you hear some noise in the background, that's my robot cleaning our house. I'm sorry for that. So anyway, back to discipline.

Let's see if I can stay disciplined and not get distracted by this stupid robot.

So I would have these moments where my digital consumption was very good, but then what happened? I would get out of rhythm and for [00:04:00] example, I get sick. And just my pure kind of willpower of saying, no, I am attracted to my phone, but I'm not doing, it will be way lower if I'm sick. And it's frankly, extremely boring, right?

So I would lie on the sofa. And what would I do? I would say, okay, during this period when I'm sick, I'm allowing myself to watch films and scroll my phone and whatever. And even just a few days of it. And I would just be fully back to all of the bad habits from before because when I healthy again, it's just, I just used willpower and it's, again, so hard to get back away from all these addictive things, and yeah, the habit is gone.

So this is basically a vicious cycle that I've tried for so many times. And that's also one reason why I like the book Atomic Habits so much. I've recommended it many times. I think every single chess improver that really is serious about their chess improvement should read.

It [00:05:00] might be more important than any chess book you ever read. So definitely highly recommend at Atomic Habits by James Clear. And I listened to an interview of his with Tim Ferris, and he shared that some of his readers are even using a so-called kitchen safe. So this is basically just a thing that you program it from a time to a certain time that it's closing and you have no way to unlock it.

Okay? So people are using to put snacks in there from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM. Because they know that if they would wake up in the night or in the evening, they get a craving. They want to eat some snacks, but if they have all their snacks in there, then well, they are gone. They can't do it.

So it's all about creating moments or creating systems that, getting back to Naval's quote, right, make the long term easier and make the short term harder. So this is the whole goal. Instead of just using motivation, using [00:06:00] discipline and saying, I know this is good for me, I'll just be strong and do this.

Instead of that, you prepare and think about, okay, what is the short term thing that I wanna make harder? What is the long term thing that I wanna make easier? So here are a few ideas for your chess. For example, if you want to study more tactics, so you're saying tactics is important, then prepare your tactic book the night before and open it up on the puzzles.

So like the page you need to work on, you open it up. Maybe you put a piece of paper in there because you want to write down your solutions. You put a pen in there and it's visible for you. And if it is even on the kitchen table or whatever, if the first thing in the morning is trying to solve some puzzles, if it's already open, it's making it easier.

For example, if instead you would wake up and scroll your phone or go online and see some chess [00:07:00] news or play some games on your phone without focus, right? You can deinstall these chess playing apps, which makes it harder to do what is easy otherwise. Yeah. And what is short term good, long term not very good.

You can, for example, I have some accounts where I don't know my password. I have it saved somewhere. And only when I'm at a certain computer at a certain time, I can access these apps. So for example, for me, something that I don't wanna do is check results from YouTube, check emails, check these things on my phone.

So instead of just saying, oh, I just don't do it, I just don't have these apps installed. And ideally I don't even know how to log into these things, it's just impossible for me to do it. Then it gets easier because it's impossible. Or I would have to walk to the computer, write down my password, and then go back.

So it is way, way harder. So this is one of the ideas [00:08:00] to make my own life better, which is just basically force myself to do what I want to do long term by making the short term things way harder.

And here are four steps you can do to apply this to your own chess in the next year. And as very often, it also works with other things in your life. So first step, write down the easy thing that doesn't serve you, but you have a hard time saying no to. So, let's say it's chess, blitz, or bullet games without focus.

Okay? Second step, write down what you want to do instead. For example, it would be solving tactical puzzles. Third step, find a way to make the easy thing harder. So what I don't wanna do, but I often do, how can I make this harder? Log out of your account, switch off your phone in the night... There are apps like Freedom, for example, which block certain sites at certain times.

So there are so many ways [00:09:00] to create that difficulty. And sometimes I think there's even studies on that. Like even 5, 10, 15 seconds can help a lot. So it's just like, instead of seeing the snack on your kitchen table, that's again, back to my stuff, right? Just having it somewhere in a cupboard where I have to open it or going down to the basement where I have to walk outside of my apartment, go down to the basement, get it, walk up.

It takes me a minute. But it's a minute that will stop me from doing it so, so often. So really just small kind of difficulties can help there a lot. And then once you did that, you go to step number four. Now, make the hard thing easier. So if you have a puzzle book or if you think, oh, if I go online and they solve puzzles there, it's tricky because there are all these ways of going wrong.

Then maybe it's really time to get a physical chess book that you can open up. And you have it already on your kitchen table, or you bring it on your commute to work or, [00:10:00] or whatever it is, right? The thing that you want to do needs to be harder. One example that gets thrown around a lot in exercise, for example, is if you want to go jog in the morning, instead of just saying, okay, I'll just do it, you actually prepare all your clothes the evening before, right?

So everything is ready. You just have to walk out. You just have to put them on your shoes already, and then you go for a run. You could even bring this to the next level and sleep in your running clothes. Don't recommend that, by the way, but that would be kind of the next step, right?

Just, you just need to wake up and walk out. So make the hard thing easier. Make the easy thing harder, and, in my experience. Now, I'm not perfect. I fail a lot at these things, okay? But in my experience, that is the only way to make these things stick for a longer amount of time. It's really not about motivation or discipline, or actually, I could put it differently.

It's the [00:11:00] motivation that you want to use to then create systems that make it so that you don't have to use as much discipline. Okay, so now you're motivated. It's the end of the year. You're saying next year I want to do better. So use that motivation, not to just sprint ahead and train as much as possible, but use the motivation to create systems to make what you don't wanna do harder, what you want to do easier, and then it's more likely that you're actually sticking to it and you have a good 2026 for your chess.

I hope you all have a great end to the year and a wonderful start to 2026. See ya in the next year.

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