28 - Zombies Everywhere

Just imagine backing out

of a driveway for the first time ever in your life.

For some of you, that might seem like a pretty exciting proposition.

The first time you might do this,

you would be in hyper alert.

The deluge of information coming at you would

make the job seem almost impossibly difficult.

But once you’ve chunked how to back up down your driveway,

all you have to do is think,

let’s go!

And off you go.

Your brain goes into this sort of zombie mode,

where it is only semi-aware of

a few key factors instead of being overwhelmed by all the data.

It’s the same idea with riding a bicycle.

At first it’s really hard later, it’s easy.

Neuroscientifically speaking, chunking is related to habit.

Habit is an energy saver for us.

It allows us to free our mind for other types of activities.

You go into this habitual zombie mode far more often than you might think,

that’s the point of habit.

You don’t have to think in a focused manner about what you’re

doing while you’re performing the habit, it saves energy.

Habits can be good and bad,

they can be brief like absently brushing back your hair or they can be long for

example when you take a walk or watch

television for a few hours after you get home from work.

You can think of habits as having four parts,

the first, is the cue.

This is the trigger that launches you into zombie mode,

the cue may be something as simple as seeing the first item in your to-do list.

Time to start next week’s homework or seeing a text message from a friend,

time to stop work.

A cue by itself is neither helpful or harmful.

It’s the routine, what we do in reaction to that cue.

That’s what matters.

Number two, the routine.

This is your zombie mode,

the routine habitual response

your brain is used to falling into when it receives the cue.

Zombie responses can be useful,

harmless or sometimes harmful.

Number three, the reward.

Every habit develops and continues because it rewards us.

It gives us an immediate little feeling of pleasure.

Procrastination is an easy habit to develop because the reward,

moving your mind’s focus to something more pleasant happens so quickly and easily.

But good habits can also be rewarded.

Finding ways to reward good study habits is important for escaping procrastination.

Number four, the belief.

Habits have power because of your belief in them.

For example, you might feel you’ll never be able to

change your habits of putting off your studies until late in the day.

To change a habit,

you’ll need to change your underlying belief.

I’m Barbara Oakley, thanks for learning how to learn.