Personal Operating System (POS) – Scoping Questionnaire

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Basic Info (optional)

1. Emotional Regulation & Inner Experience

1.1 How quickly do you usually notice a strong emotion?
1.2 Which emotions overwhelm you most? (check all that apply)
1.3 When overwhelmed, what bodily sensations show up?
1.4 What do you typically do when emotions spike?
1.5 What has helped regulate emotions (even slightly)?
1.6 What reliably makes emotional states worse?
1.7 Your default emotional style tends toward:
1.8 Sitting with an emotion without fixing it feels:
1.9 Which emotion do you most try to avoid?
1.10 Which emotion feels “not allowed” for you?
Notes / reflections (optional)

2. Stress Response & Nervous System Patterns

2.1 Under stress, you most often shift into:
2.2 Acute stress looks like:
2.3 Chronic stress shows up as:
2.4 Early warning signs you often ignore:
2.5 Primary stress triggers:
2.6 Typical recovery time after stress:
2.7 What helps your nervous system downshift?
2.8 Environments that regulate you:
2.9 Environments that dysregulate you:
2.10 Under overwhelm, you tend to:
Notes / reflections (optional)

3. Attention, Focus & Cognitive Patterns

3.1 Baseline attention feels:
3.2 More difficult for you:
3.3 Tasks that hold attention:
3.4 Tasks that drain you fastest:
3.5 When unfocused, your mind:
3.6 Interruptions feel:
3.7 Boredom leads to:
3.8 Thinking style:
3.9 Presence in daily life:
3.10 Fastest pull out of presence:
Notes / reflections (optional)

4. Work Style & Productivity

4.1 Peak functioning time:
4.2 Best work conditions:
4.3 Work is sabotaged by:
4.4 Preferred pacing:
4.5 Deadlines make you:
4.6 Ambiguity feels:
4.7 Tendency toward:
4.8 Burnout signals:
4.9 You know to stop working when:
4.10 Helpful structure is:
Notes / reflections (optional)

5. Relationships & Attachment

5.1 Core fear in relationships:
5.2 What you crave most:
5.3 When emotionally threatened, you:
5.4 Conflict response:
5.5 Emotional intimacy feels:
5.6 Repeating relationship pattern:
5.7 People who feel safest:
5.8 People who destabilize you:
5.9 Hardest boundaries:
Notes / reflections (optional)

6. Trauma, Sensitivity & Safety

6.1 Trauma themes (if applicable):
6.2 Triggers include:
6.3 Feeling safe means:
6.4 Reaction to criticism:
6.5 Under threat, blame goes:
6.6 Powerlessness leads to:
6.7 Regaining agency through:
Notes / reflections (optional)

7. Substance Use & Compensatory Behaviors (Optional)

7.1 Have you used substances or behaviors to regulate emotions?
Examples: alcohol, cannabis, stimulants; overeating, porn, gambling, compulsive spending, excessive work, excessive exercise, doom scrolling.
7.2 Primary function served:
7.3 High-risk situations:
7.4 Hardest emotions without coping aids:
7.5 What helps urges pass:
Notes / reflections (optional)

8. Identity, Values & Meaning

8.1 Core non-negotiable values:
8.2 Primary sources of meaning:
8.3 Where actions diverge from values:
8.4 Relationship to impermanence:
8.5 Response to uncertainty:
Sexual Identity & Intimacy Context
8.6 Sexual identity:
8.7 How settled does your sexual identity feel?
8.8 Sexual or romantic intimacy currently feels:
Relationship Status
8.9 Current relationship status:
8.10 How does your current relationship status feel?
8.11 If divorced/separated (if applicable), the experience feels:
8.12 Centrality of partnership to meaning right now:
Notes / reflections (optional)

9. Destabilization & Failure Modes

9.1 Fast destabilizers:
9.2 Deep destabilizers:
9.3 Slow destabilizers:
9.4 Early signals you ignore:
9.5 Common destabilized thoughts:
9.6 Support you resist but need:
9.7 Most reliable return to center:
Notes / reflections (optional)

10. Desired POS Outcomes

10.1 Optimize for:
10.2 Protect:
10.3 Deprioritize:
10.4 Under stress, the system should:
10.5 Success in 6 months looks like:
10.6 Success in 5 years looks like:
Final notes (optional)