The willpower has failed in the adoption of habits, but the brain has a better trick: personal automation

Bet everything to willpower when you want to acquire a new habit It does not usually work. That I knew San Mateo: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

James Clear, author of the Best Seller ‘Atomic habits‘He already warns that leaving the acquisition of habits to willpower is a decision that brings you a little more to failure. Our brain is not designed to constantly fight against what is comfortable and known.

Clear bet for creating systems that lead to the execution of the new habits that you want to acquire to achieve your goals without having to depend on discipline and constancy. However, there is a method that can simplify it much more: Personal automation.

Habit, what a habit?

One of the best strategies for acquire a new habit Without depending on willpower, it is simply not having to think that there is that new habit. That is to say, Automate habit In the same way you don’t think when you wash your teeth or what breakfasts daily.

An example of personal automation can be the one used by Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg (before Your style change) in which They had adapted their wardrobe to reduce the number of decisions they made up to date, and thus reduce their mental load.

Neither Jobs nor Zuckerberg were planted every day before their closet thinking about what they were going to put that day, they simply opened the closet and took a clothing that was already previously selected, without mental debate.

In fact, the brain has a natural tendency to procedure. The creation of habits is based on cerebral plasticity or, which is the same, the brain learns to perform a task Based on the repetition of the sameuntil he learns, optimizes it and executes it unconsciously and involuntary.

Do you think every movement of the fingers when you tie you a shoe, brush your teeth or scrub your dishes? Obviously not, because it is something you have practiced so much that Your brain has automated it.

Now think of your new habit as that automated action and how you can assimilate it without even having to think about it. The key to generating that automation is to integrate the habit into a specific routine and in a specific order, to repeat it every day, in the same way that every morning you get up, show you, you dress, breakfast in a certain order.

It is not usual to change that order once you have acquired it because you have automated the process and the strange thing will be to skip one of those steps, so it will not depend on whether you woke up without wanting to shower, or breakfast. You don’t even consider it, you simply do it.

The benefits of personal automation

Such and As they point out from Thinkwasabione of the greatest benefits of personal automation is mental energy saving. However, this system helps reinforce Acquisition of new habits or objectives without leaving any loophole to temptation not to do so.

In addition, personal automation can stimulate your creativity and ability to solve problems. When the automation process of a certain action or habit is already very settled, the brain enters “autopilot” while this process is carried out, which leaves space for creative thinking by promoting the “Eureka” moments.

Ideally, start little by little, choosing one or two things you can automate in your daily routine, and then add more progressively. For example, if one of your goals is to eat healthier or save, you can start by integrating in your weekend routine the elaboration of A menu for the whole week. By having it prepared, you will not have to think about your diet daily or worry about cooking during the week to eat healthy.

If your goal is start sportsprepare your shoes and sports clothes in advance so that you just have to hear them and run. Having to look for them under the bed can become a more than enough excuse for your brain to mine your willpower. Do not give that advantage.

The key to this technique is in the consistency and anticipation. Make small actions repeatedly until they become automatic habits.

In Xataka | Until recently, people were very proud of how little I slept: today they are candidates to suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s

In Xataka | The simple habit that provides a surprising impact on productivity: order the work space before starting

Image | Unspash (Isaac Smith)