Subway Surfers is a popular childhood game which involves simple rules of jumping up, rolling down, swiping left or right, or choosing boosters/headstarts to advance further in the game. When you crash, you can save yourself with diamonds or watch a 30-second advertisement to keep the game going.
Okay, maybe you don’t play games. But surely you eat breakfast?
So, let’s say you have cereal for breakfast. Do you put milk into the bowl first or do you add cereal in first? Perhaps adding milk first would cause the cereal to get soggy later or maybe inedible, yet adding cereal first may make you too full. Does adding milk first make the cereal less favorable or maybe it just doesn’t matter?
Ok maybe you don’t eat cereal. But at least you do brush your teeth?
When you brush your teeth, do you pay attention to which hand you use to brush your teeth, and have you ever tried to brush your teeth with the less dominant hand? Most of us wouldn’t bother changing the hand we use to brush our teeth because first of all, it is more challenging to use your less dominant hand, simply because you’re not used to it. And… it’s early morning, why would you even care to which hand you use as long as you get the job done?
What is Living on Autopilot?
Our lives consist of many daily habits and routines. They shape how our days go and they fulfill our necessities – taking care of our hygiene, eating, working, exercising and so on. Yet, have you ever wondered the multitude of actions we undertake without conscious consideration in our daily lives? Do we pause to contemplate or reflect upon the reasons behind our daily routines?
Autopilot is a ‘system used to control the path of air, marine or space craft without requiring constant control by a human operator’. Similarly, for our daily activities, being on autopilot involves “zoning out” – losing focus yet being able to continue doing something without “really thinking”.
Being on autopilot isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
For instance, autopilot can be a great tool for maintaining discipline when used in the right way. Many of our New Year’s resolutions, such as weight management, overcoming addictive habits, or learning a new language, often falter due to a mixture of emotions and goals. By operating on autopilot, we can perform them without “really thinking”, and in doing so, we can focus solely on the task at hand, and we may even achieve our resolutions.
Whenever we have a thought, it typically triggers an associated emotion, and vice versa—when we experience emotions, we often contemplate what to do about them. Being on autopilot circumvents this cycle of thought-emotion interaction, minimising “overthinking” and spending more time actually doing.
However, some may argue that it doesn’t truly constitute living one’s life; instead, it’s akin to mere existence. Habits and routines are inherent to the human mind; they are regular practices that evolve over time and are often triggered by other actions.
For instance, everyone has different morning routines. Some prefers showering immediately after they wake up in the morning, some may make their bed first, and some prefer heading for their first cup of coffee before starting their day. The point here is that we are predisposed to engage in certain actions—whilst most of the time this tendency serves us well, are we always aware of what it is that we are doing?
Being conscious of what you do daily is a big part of being on autopilot, because in our daily lives, we are used to the habits we take on, but may not always think why we do it or how we do it.
How to Know that I Am Autopiloting?
Here are a few ways you might be on autopilot without even you knowing and why you should try to get out of it.
1. You may be Reacting instead of Responding.
Being on autopilot would cause you to react instead of responding. It’s pretty easy to confuse these two actions as both of them are based on your individualities. But being aware of them may benefit you in order to think critically and deeply about your daily habits.
| Reacting | Responding |
|---|---|
| Instinctive and reflexive | Thoughtful processing |
| Immediate | Takes time |
| Emotional, flight or fight system | Rational, reasoning faculty |
Example of Reacting
When a driver in front of you cuts you, the first reaction may be to “react” angrily or honk. When you start to head home from work during the usual rush hour, your mind may immediately get into a negative mode for you to get used to the long wait of the jam. This is a reaction and it is to prepare you mentally for the upcoming situations you may not want to experience.
Example of Responding
If a driver cuts you over, you simply give it some time before you see what you should do next. Taking some time to calm down and not react immediately. Responding takes time and deliberation which breaks the autopilot mode you are in, because you’re absorbing the information that you have at the moment instead of reacting for the sake of it.
2. Your Brain is Idle
Our daily routines are based on functions. If A happens, I do B. If A doesn’t happen, I do C. And these routined functions are predictable and they keep the brain idle.
The COVID-19 pandemic created an abundance of idle and repetitive habits, as many of us transitioned to remote work and experienced limited exposure to the outside world and its unpredictable interactions. A typical day might involve waking up, having breakfast, perusing the news, completing online work tasks, and then retiring for the night.
The way to break brain idleness is by switching up minimal habits, such as trying to cook yourself breakfast or waking up an hour earlier. One small change leads to a big impact. Who knows - maybe trying to cook your own breakfast in the morning may spark an interest in culinary, and waking up an hour earlier may motivate you to get involved in a new sport or diving into a new book. Even things as small as brushing your teeth with your less dominant hand may spark new findings.
3. You are Desensitised
Desensitization occurs when constant exposure to something diminishes the impact of our emotions or feelings towards it. This leads to normalization, where we become less reactive because we’ve grown accustomed to the emotion or stimulus.
Consider this:
Whenever you watch stand-up comedy or any type of show, do you ever question why you enjoy it so much or find out what really makes you laugh at the jokes? Or are we simply mindlessly absorbing the entertainment because it makes us feel happy? One may argue that hormones such as dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins are all released when we engage in activities we enjoy, causing our brain goes to autopilot to focus on the enjoyment. But perhaps we simply choose not to think as it requires too much effort. Why bother thinking when you can just laugh and have fun, right?
Yet, overconsumption or repetitive absorption of media without questioning can lead us to normalisation. Just like when you first watch shows with violence, it may provoke a sense of pity, disgust and anger, but as you begin to watch it daily, you become indifferent because your mind is so used to it. Similarly, with comedy–where racist and sexist banters are brought up most of the time–do we ever question why we find such jokes amusing?
What Can We Do about Our Autopilot Tendencies?
1. Put Your Autopilot Tendency to Good Use
Autopilot mode is activated through repetition and consistency, similar to how habits are created. You can redirect your autopilot tendency to for goals-planning and execution.
Think about some of the goals or new year resolutions that you may or may not have achieved over the years… losing weight? Trying a new hobby? Learning a new skill?
The first step is to write them down so that you know what you want to focus on. The next step is to build consistency and repetition. Start small and let your body get used to it before increasing the difficulty.
So, for instance, your goal is to run at least 2.5km everyday for a week. As you consistently achieve this target, it gradually becomes easier and your body adapts to the routine. Once 2.5km becomes manageable, you can consider increasing the distance or incorporating different types of workouts to challenge yourself further.
Over time, your body becomes accustomed to the routine, and you may find yourself naturally yearning for a workout in the afternoon or at whichever time you’ve established as your exercise period, as your body becomes attuned to the positive sensations associated with physical activity at that specific time.
2. Stimulates Deep Work and Overcomes Procrastination with Autopilot Habits
Procrastination is a problem many of us face because we spend a lot of time think about doing the work rather than actually doing the work itself. Being on autopilot eliminates that process and can actually help with overcoming procrastination. How so?
Firstly, creating a familiar environment is essential to enter the autopilot state of mind. This could be done through establishing routines over time and by engaging our senses such as smell, taste, and location.
For instance, the next time need to get into this “deep work” state, you can light a certain scented candle or drink a cup of tea. Additionally, you can also you can dedicate an area where you only do “work” and nothing else. This helps train your brain to associate that location solely with focused productivity, eliminating distractions like watching funny cat videos or memes.
The key to entering “deep work” is to simply not think too much and “just do.” Whilst thinking is good, we don’t want to overthink our daily tasks, especially non-negotiable ones such as exercising, completing work tasks, and consuming a balanced diet.
Living Life on Autopilot vs Living Mindfully
So… does life have to always be efficient?
The short answer is “nope”.
It’s important to strike a balance and not rely solely on autopilot in life. While it can be beneficial for productivity, too much reliance on autopilot may lead to a lack of spontaneity and creativity in our lives.
Try contemplating and reflecting on your actions, beliefs, and values from time to time, and question information you receive to embrace a more conscious, intentional living. Take a step back and take things slow when life gets a bit too busy and over-productive.
Efficiency itself is a social construct. Efficiency itself is a social construct. We strive to be ‘efficient’ or ‘productive’ because we have tasks to accomplish, which often leads us to sacrifice our time and energy in service to society.
However, this drive for efficiency can distance us from connecting with ourselves and developing meaningful friendships and relationships. Sometimes, we can have days where we simply just ‘blank out’ and do absolutely nothing—ahem, Sundays—and that’s perfectly acceptable.
Our minds are essential tools for navigating daily routines, and giving them a break can go a long way.