Coaching practices for Values Based Planning

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Values Based Planning, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• My budget is just neutral buckets
• I’m still funneling money toward priorities I set years ago, and my life has moved on since then
• My whole week is just a pile of work tasks, and the parts of me that matter
• I’m about to lock in a plan that feels airtight from the inside
• If someone asked me what I actually care about, I’m not sure I could answer honestly

Practices that may help

1. Values-Based Spending, Made Practical
   Values-based spending is the practice of deliberately allocating money toward what you have identified as genuinely important to you — and cutting spending that does not reflect those priorities. It is not minimalism or frugality; it is a decision framework that uses your stated values as the filter for every financial choice. The evidence base is primarily from financial psychology and hedonic wellbeing research, not clinical trials.
2. Values-Based Action (ACT), Made Practical
   Values-based action in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) means choosing behaviors that are consistent with what matters most to you — your values — rather than behaviors driven by avoidance of pain or approval-seeking. ACT distinguishes values (directions, ongoing) from goals (destinations, finishable); the emphasis is on the quality of action in the present rather than outcome attainment. ACT has robust meta-analytic support; values-based action is identified as a core mechanism.
3. Design conscious spending categories around your values
   Replace generic budget categories with value-named buckets so every allocation is self-evidently justified or not.
   Values-Based Spending, Made Practical
4. Run an annual values-spending alignment review
   Review your spending against your values once a year — values shift, and so should the allocation.
   Values-Based Spending, Made Practical
5. Plan from roles and goals, not from tasks
   Before listing tasks, list your key roles this week and name one meaningful goal for each.
   Big Rocks First
6. Invoke the outside view before committing to any significant plan
   Before finalizing a plan or forecast, ask "How did similar things go?" as the first checkpoint.
   The Outside View
7. Values Clarification, Made Practical
   Values clarification is the work of naming what matters most to you, sorting the genuine priorities from the inherited ones, and using them to guide real choices. The methods — card sorts, ranking, value-consistent action — draw heavily on values work in acceptance-and-commitment therapy (ACT), which has clinical support; living in line with your values correlates with wellbeing in observational research.
8. Values clarification: what matters most to you?
   Identify 3–5 core values — not what you should value, but what actually matters when life is stripped back.
   Values-Based Action (ACT), Made Practical
9. Identify the right reference class for your situation
   Find a well-defined set of past situations that are structurally similar to yours and collect their outcome data.
   Reference Class Forecasting
10. Values clarification through lived evidence
    Infer your actual values from your past behaviour, not from what you wish you valued.
    Svadhyaya: Self-Study as a Daily Practice

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.