Hello my Charmed Ones!
As you may already know, I have been doing a lot of research into the human brain over the past two years to learn more about how it functions, how our neural net is created and it’s role in helping us achieve patterns of positive productivity and success in our lives. When it comes to success and productivity, so much of our results in life come from the idea of establishing strategic habits and routines that make our ability to plan, organize and execute a naturally integrated part of our personalities. For example, it’s fair to say I am an organized and productive person, but that’s not a result of any natural instincts or talents, instead, that is a result of years of repetition and work nailing key habits that lead to routines for success in my life. No one is naturally wired to be productive, maybe some of us have some inborn traits that make it easier for us to reason the most effective plan, or give us an edge when it comes to spacial organization, but all god-given talents are absolutely useless unless they are acted upon consistently.
This is both good news and bad news for those of us who strive to improve our lives because on one hand it means that anything someone else has achieved is also achievable for you with work and dedication, but on the downside, it means we have to focus a lot more on being intentional with each action and habit we establish in our lives. If you’ve ever tried to establish a new habit in your life, you know how hard it can be to achieve this, because unfortunately the way our brains function, things that we have done in the past create an often automated response by our brain that compels us to perform a habit, out of…well, habit!
This is because for a majority of our days, our brains are in an autopilot like mode controlled by an area of our brain known as the basal ganglia. In may ways the basal ganglia appears to be something of a central hub of our brains, it controls many of our body’s automatic functions and responses. Many functions we don’t give any strategic thought to, like the movement of our eyes, the way our body moves, our thoughts and even our emotions. Most notably however, the basal ganglia controls our learning and, you guessed it, our habits!
So, throughout the course of our days, the basal ganglia is in control of the show. Which means that in order to change a habit, to make new choices for our lives and build up a pattern of repetition for any new habit, we need to switch off the basal ganglia strategically during the day. Obviously, we don’t want to turn it off entirely, we absolutely need it to function, and it’s not like you can ever truly turn off an area of your brain anyway, but, if we want to successfully make a switch in our routines, add in a new habit or swap a bad habit for a better one, wouldn’t it be awesome if we could temporarily silence that voice in our head that automatically tells us NOT to do that new awesome habit we know will change our lives? Because that voice is coming from the BG, and I don’t know about yours, but my BG is a complete loud mouth who often screams bloody murder if I want to make even a tiny little change that will benefit my day. Sure, he might let me try something new once, but if I try to repeat a new task to start paving the new neural pathway for the establishment of that habit, you’d think I was fugitive from the law the way my BG calls me out and emotionally tracks me down until I turn myself in and submit to its will. But, alas, there is a way to silence the basal ganglia, to mute it’s cries and demands for attention in your moment of need when you are trying to make a better more productive choice.
A few weeks ago I learned about an ingenious little hack that you can use to switch the the center of control on you brain away from your basal ganglia and focus it on the part of your brain known as the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex or PFC is the area of your brain that controls, of all things, planning and complex decision making. So, hitting mute on BG and metaphorically changing the channel to give the PFC more control during strategic moments of habit formation is exactly the hack to master in order to make the often difficult process of establishing new habits and routines, easier! It’s not a miracle cure by any means, but when you switch control from the BG to PFC, it makes it easier to make the right choice, to choose that new better habit and to say no to any bad habits that don’t serve you but your BG just can’t shut the heck up about!
Are you ready for the hack? It’s so simple, but the most profound lessons in life often are!
All you need to do to hack your brain to switch control from your basal ganglia to your prefrontal cortex is spell the current day of the week backwards right before you go to execute your new habit.
I know, it sounds silly, right? But, I promise you, this is well researched and tested science! Let me explain how it works.
So, I will admit, it’s not necessarily the day of the week that figures into the effectiveness of this hack. But rather, it’s the fact that spelling a word backwards, a word you might not know backwards by heart, activates your PFC because it requires you to envision the word in your mind and then carefully list out each letter back to front. So, this hack could be used with any word. You can spell the current month backwards, you could spell your name, your pet’s name, your street address- all of it works to activate the PFC! I just think that for me, if I choose the same word to use everyday, like my name, eventually I am going to start memorizing it and this hack could loose it’s effectiveness. So, by choosing to follow this hack with the days of the week, everyday when I go to do this task is a new opportunity for me to have to remember what day it is (and most days I can’t even tell you what month it is accurately without some thought) and then take the time to spell it. So, I’ve put my own little spin on this hack, but feel free to do what works for you!
So, let me explain a little more in depth how I’d expect you to use this hack.
Let’s say you have chosen a new habit to integrate into your life, working out is a nice generic example! And you have struggled to get yourself to go to the gym in the past. Well, before we even get to using the hack, you’d probably benefit from choosing another habit to override or swap with the new habit of going to the gym. So, if you are someone who perhaps comes home from work and then hits the couch to watch TV, perhaps that would be a good habit to swap out. You’ll need to have a plan in place for how you’re going to execute on a regular basis, so identifying that old habit of come home from work and plop on couch as the cue and habit we are going to override with the new habit of come home from work and grab gym bag to drive to gym, is a nice seamless override. Maybe you could even do one better and instead of coming directly home from work, you drive directly to the gym, bag already packed and in your car (but that requires a few extra steps for accountability). Whatever you choose as your cue and old habit to override, you need to solidify it as your ongoing plan in your mind and ideally in your planner and with an alert or reminder on your phone because the first step to successfully executing a new habit is to remember it’s the new habit!
Once you’ve taken care of those formalities, now you are ready to execute the hack as a means of overcoming obstacles and objections you know your BG is going to flood you with as soon as you see that reminder and stop to decide whether or not you are going to follow through with the plan! So, as soon as you see your alert (or better yet, add this as the name of your alert that way you don’t forget to perform the hack either) ask yourself to spell the day of the week backwards.
First, you’ll identify what day it is, then you’ll see the word in your mind, and then you’ll start spelling it out one letter at a time in the reverse.
Achievement unlocked- your prefrontal cortex is now activated!
From here, you’ll now tell yourself it’s time to execute on the plan and guess what? With the intelligent and mature portion of your brain now in control, you should encounter far less mental resistance. Your PFC will send you messages that this is actually a good idea and praise you for remembering to prioritize this important habit. It’s like you’ve got your own personal hype man in your head, as opposed to that downer friend who is always low key doubting you and sabotaging your success. Of course, at the end of the day, this is still your brain and you still need to take action. Your PFC isn’t going to suddenly override all your functions and do the work for you, but it will make it easier for you to make the right decision and not fall into the temptation of laziness the way your BG would.
So, I hope this little hack helps you to make some strategic changes to your habits and keep you accountable to yourself and to your own brain for the routines and results you develop with your choices and actions! I’d love to hear how you enjoyed this hack and how it works out for you. I definitely think this is one of those hacks that will serve you better as a reminder in your phone for when you’ve planned to do that habit swap, so make sure you don’t miss that key step because you want the PFC to get in control of your decision making function before the BG has a chance to rain on your parade!
Thanks for checking out this post, leave me a comment with your thoughts down below and I am wishing you a very productive week ahead!
xoxo,