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Know how you’re wired before you buy another tool.

Three assessments, in the order I would take them, with my own results and what each one changed. Half the things on this site only make sense once you know which of these you are.

Why this order

The first is free and takes twelve minutes, so there is no excuse. The second tells you what you are good at, so you stop trying to fix what is already fine. The third tells you how you take action, which is the one that changes what you do on a Monday morning.

Treat them as a vocabulary for noticing patterns you already half knew about yourself.

01

16Personalities

A free online test that sorts you into one of sixteen types across four pairs: where you get your energy, how you take in information, how you decide, and how you like to organise your life. A fifth scale adds how confident you are in all of that.

My result

Logistician

Practical and fact-minded, with a strong sense of duty and a preference for order. Logisticians honour their commitments and are at their best with a clear plan and a system to run it.

What it changedThe first one I took, and the cheapest way to start noticing patterns. It told me I like order and I like finishing things, which anyone who has seen my task list could have told you. What it gave me was the vocabulary.

Free. About twelve minutes.

02

CliftonStrengths 34

Gallup’s assessment ranks 34 talent themes from your strongest to your weakest, grouped into four domains: executing, influencing, relationship building and strategic thinking. The premise is that you get further by building on what you naturally do best than by patching what you do not.

My result

Achiever · Intellection · Consistency · Learner · Harmony

My top five, with Restorative, Responsibility, Discipline, Competition and Analytical making up the ten. I lead with executing themes: I make things happen, I think things through, and I like the same rules to apply to everyone.

What it changedAchiever and Learner at the top explain the ultras and the reading. Consistency at number three explains why I like the same morning routine, even on the days I don’t keep it. It also told me what I am not: Woo, Communication and Activator sit near the bottom, so I stopped pretending I would ever be the loud one in the room.

Paid. The top five report is the cheaper option; the full 34 ranks everything.

03

Kolbe A Index

Different from the other two. Kolbe measures conation, meaning how you instinctively take action, not what you prefer or what you are good at. Four modes, each scored one to ten: Fact Finder (how you gather information), Follow Thru (how you organise), Quick Start (how you handle risk and the unknown) and Implementor (how you handle the physical and tangible).

My result

7 · 7 · 1 · 7

Fact Finder 7, Follow Thru 7, Quick Start 1, Implementor 7. I initiate by gathering the specifics, building the system and making it tangible. The 1 in Quick Start means I stabilise rather than improvise: I will not start until the plan is set, and I resist being rushed into it.

What it changedThe 1 in Quick Start was the useful number. It is why I research before I start, and why a deadline on its own never got me moving. Every project now gets a start date as well as a due date, and the research gets a time box, or it never ends.

Paid. One index, no subscription.

Reading your own results

  • Look for the same pattern in two of the three. One result is a mood; two is a trait.
  • Hand your lowest scores to someone else, or to a tool.
  • Write one sentence on what you will do differently this week. Then take the next one.