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Most things in life revolve around routines. People live their lives through routines. It’s just there, it’s just life. Right? And it’s not like you’re in some sort of perpetual state of constantly failing into routines, of course not. But you can’t deny that routines define/control your life.

And even when you go out of your way to try to shake things up, and even if you successfully break out of this cycle, at one point, you still somehow end up going back to what’s familiar. For some, this is just fine since it feels safe and cozy – familiar. But for others, it’s pure frustration;  even though they don’t know what to do about it. 

Well, there IS something you can do. But first, it’s important not to mistake routine for laziness, procrastination, or something more basic, such as a lack of imagination. 

Every day, your brain handles an enormous amount of choices and signals, and it has to find a way for all that not to turn into complete chaos. So it looks for patterns it can reuse, and once it finds one that works ‘well enough’, it sticks to it. 

This is why change is uncomfortable. 

You’re not only learning something new, but you’re also making your brain spend more energy and tolerate way more uncertainty than it prefers. 

Your Brain’s ‘Energy Saving’ Mode

From the moment you wake up, your brain’s deciding where to spend effort and attention, so if it can make anything easier or faster, it sure will. 

And now we come to repetition. Let’s say you’re learning a new skill.

The first time you do it, your brain is fully engaged and has to think through each step, check for mistakes, etc. That takes a lot of energy. But once you repeat the action over and over, the brain recognizes that what you’re doing is safe and reliable, so it loosens up a bit. Control goes from conscious effort into automatic processing. 

At this point, you’re running a pattern that’s already been tested. 

That’s basically how your brain lowers what’s called ‘cognitive load’. 

Cognitive load is basically the amount of mental effort you’re carrying at any given time. And anything that activates your brain (e.g., making decisions, dealing with unfamiliar situations, etc., etc.) will increase it. 

Routines lower your cognitive load – that’s a good thing. Lower it. From the brain’s point of view, fewer decisions mean fewer chances of error and less energy wasted – because you’re basically on ‘autopilot’. Well, ‘semi-autopilot’ would be more precise.

When you try resisting routine, your brain starts reacting to this increased effort, even if the change you’re going through is positive. You also get more emotional than usual because emotion is the brain’s feedback tool. 

If the change is negative, the loss of routine is even harder on you. 

Here’s a quick example to better paint the picture of what’s going on:

Imagine someone who’s just gone through a traumatic brain injury after a bike crash. 

Their whole life changed in an instant, and even the tiniest little tasks start to feel overwhelming/exhausting. Your ‘efficient’ system of routines got disrupted, and your brain now needs to work overtime just to get by.

And not only the medical and financial strain, but they now also have to deal with all the legal issues that come with the accident. Even though you heard from a friend that you’ll have a good chance of getting compensation, you find out that each state has its own set of laws. 

And since the victim is in Chicago (Illinois law), they’ll have to find a lawyer who handles bicycle traumatic brain injury cases in Chicago to even have a chance. 

This is because under Illinois law, fault works on a sliding scale, so you can still get compensated even if you were partially at fault, while if you were from Richmond (Virginia law), you’d have trouble even if you were 1%. 

But you, as the victim, don’t understand any of it. All you have are questions, stress, and MORE decisions to make.

When you’re dealing with stuff like this (on top of everything familiar in your life changing), your brain spends a whole lot more energy than it wants to. 

Why Routine Feels ‘Limiting’ Even When It’s Helpful

Routines can make your life smoother, but they can also make it feel stale. 

On one hand, structure helps you think more clearly, but on the other, you still want to push against it.

What You Can Predict = GOOD & Uncertainty = BAD

What’s familiar takes less effort, so if your brain knows what to expect, it doesn’t have to stay alert or work as hard. Efficient.

But when you take experiences (good or bad) that are new, they need MUCH more attention and energy. Regardless of your personality type, your brain naturally leans toward what’s familiar/safe simply because that’s more energy conserving.

Habits > Goals

This is the reason why so many people try to escape the routine cycle, but most eventually fall back into it.

Habits (aka routines) work automatically; that’s before conscious thought even kicks in. Goals will help you notice this, but they can’t instantly override familiar behaviors. 

It takes MUCH more time and effort to accomplish goals. And it takes continuous effort to maintain those new goals up to the point that the new goals become the new routine.

Change ‘Feels’ Inefficient (at First)

Key word ‘feels’. This is why, sometimes, even if the change is ultimately good, at first it still feels like a bad thing. 

Take this A and B situation as a quick example:

A works and doesn’t take a lot of effort. B ‘might’ work, but it takes quite a bit of energy. 

What’s more efficient? Early on, the brain reads B as effort and strain, not progress. Until a behavior becomes familiar, it feels much harder than sticking to what you already know (A).

Conclusion

Routine is often thought of as a ‘negative’. And sure, it CAN sometimes be. But it’s not really routine, that’s the problem.

The REAL problem is that you expect your brain to work in a way that it wasn’t designed for. Your brain gets tired. It has a limited supply of energy to work with. And because of it, it’ll try to be efficient. And if routines are the only thing, they’re efficient.

This doesn’t mean that change is off the table. No. 

You’ll just need to work with the brain instead of against it to make that change happen.