Your Life on Autopilot

“Once you get used to accomplishing a specific type of task at the same time on the same days, the overhead required for their execution plummets.” This is one of the key ideas behind what Cal Newport calls the “autopilot schedule.” 

When I don’t carve out regularly recurring times for projects, they weigh on me. For example, I didn’t have a recurring time for working on home improvements and so I spent a significant amount of time and energy thinking about getting around to working on them. In contrast, last week I made the decision that I will work for one hour on house projects after another regularly occurring work meeting on Mondays and Thursdays. I already feel a sense of relief and now my light bulbs are replaced and some trim has an extra coat of paint on it. I know that sticking to this routine will lead to progress, so my mind is at ease. 

This applies to smaller tasks as well. I don’t yet have a regular time of day for praying the Rosary, and so some of my mental bandwidth is devoted to fitting it in. In contrast, I always brush my teeth when I get up and when I go to sleep. Virtually no thought is given to figuring out how to get this done. 

This week, I invite you to consider: 

What projects and tasks are burning through my mental reserves due to repeated decision making? If there were just one project that I could carve out regular weekly time for, what would that be and when would I work on it? If there were just one daily task that I could change to autopilot what would that be and when would I do it? 

God bless,
Dan