Changing your default thinking - Deepstash






Give Your Brain a Destination

Changing your default thinking

You have conscious control of about 10% of your brain. Most of your judgments, prioritizations, decisions, and actions are happening in your subconscious. Many of these processes are running on default programs to maintain the current position.

One reason change is hard is that you're often working against these defaults. You can change the defaults by giving your brain a concrete goal.


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Give Your Brain a Destination

Give Your Brain a Destination


Key Ideas

More than one way to reach your destination

Willpower is known to be a limited resource.

Most people focus on how to increase willpower with exercises and strategies to make themselves more productive. That is useful, but willpower alone will not help you reach your destination. Finding other ways to stay on track can increase your progress.

Changing your default thinking



Set your autopilot

A well worked out goal sets the compass in your subconscious. It's not going to change your bad habits instantly but will serve as a guide when you make a choice.

When your brain is set on a course, it helps those default programs work for you instead of against you.

Setting your navigation

You can't just tell your brain to get to work on a goal. There are some steps to take.

  • Believe it can happen. Aim for something small enough to take you in the right direction.
  • Identify a few actions you need to take. Make two lists: specific steps that need to happen, and repeated actions that need to be taken.
  • Set a timeline for your specific steps. Understanding what you need to accomplish this week helps your brain to keep you on track.
  • Designate a time to review and revise. Life will probably not follow the exact timeline or milestones you planned. Regular evaluation once a month will help you to readjust and try again.


Describing mental fatigue
Describing mental fatigue

It is the feeling that your brain just won't function properly. People will describe it as brain fog. You can't concentrate, and simple tasks take too long. You find th...

Causes of mental fatigue

Contributing factors to mental fatigue are poor nutrition, lack of sleep, hormonal imbalances, or cognitive overload. Cognitive overload can take the following forms:

  • When you focus on a single task for an extended period of time.
  • When you spread your attention across too many things.
  • Worrying about tasks. It is as mentally taxing as doing the task.
Give your brain high-quality fuel

Your brain is fuelled with the same food as your muscles. What you eat has an enormous impact on your cognitive functioning.

  • Cut down on refined sugars as it decreases alertness. Aim for sustained energy levels throughout the day.
  • Plan your meals in advance. If you wait until you're hungry, you're already low on energy and willpower and will reach for a quick energy boost in the form of sugar.
  • Don't skip breakfast. Without it, you may likely crash in the middle of the morning. Eat more eggs, yogurt, and oatmeal to sustain your energy levels until lunch.
  • Snack mid-morning and mid-afternoon to give your body consistent fuel.
  • Stay hydrated with water. Mild hydration can negatively impact cognitive performance.
  • Listen to your body to figure out what makes you feel best. The same nutrition advice won't work for everyone.

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Design trumps willpower

Your behavior defaults to what is most convenient.

For example, if there is junk food in your fridge, you’re probably going to eat it. However, if there is junk food sitting right o...

10-minute night routine
  • Decide the time you’re going to wake up and set the alarm for that time (put your alarm clock in a different room so you physically have to get out of bed to turn it off).
  • Have a few key objectives for your morning.
  • Set up literally everything that needs to be set up so that you don’t have to waste mental energy during your morning.
Reasons you’re on your phone
Reasons you’re on your phone

Our phones, especially social media apps, may drain our time and energy. Scrolling often starts when you're responding to a message, reading an article, or looking at a few pictures. Then, four...

Consider posting less

If you find yourself posting a lot, ask what specifically you're seeking and if there are other ways that would leave you feeling better.

It's worthwhile to consider what you are posting to the world. Posting stories, tweeting, and messaging lead to back-and-forth responses that glues you to your feeds.

Use your phone for its main purpose: calling people

Even if you love a good text conversation, it might mean that you are more online than you otherwise might be.

One solution is to treat your phone like a phone. If you feel uncomfortable phoning, consider informing your friends that you will start calling more often, so they don't assume the worst when they hear your voice.

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Creative Momentum
Creative Momentum

It happens when your habit has overcome the initial inertia and is now in constant motion, with positive results visible. Creative momentum is possible when:

  • You are consist...
An Unstoppable Force

Creative momentum happens when using the combination of consistency, progress and motivation, you go from being an immovable object to an unstoppable force.

Your transformation leads to a ripple effect and impacts other aspects of your life. Your consistent work starts to resonate and after the momentum is built, you can start to leverage the benefits and reap the rewards.

Leveraging The Power Of Creative Momentum
  • Take the minimum first steps towards your positive habit, no matter how small.
  • Honour your commitments by doing what is possible to be done, and to reinforce your habit by affirmative action.
  • Measure your progress using a whiteboard or a tracking app.
Weak Words Used Often

Every word you use while working expresses something about your personal brand, your confidence, state of mind, authority and knowledge. The verbs that we put in sentences are key to our ima...


We use "I think: often while at work, but it's a dysfunctional addition to a start of a sentence, that while ok to use occasionally in trivial situations, is to be avoided in meetings or one-on-ones. 

Try replacing it with "I'm confident".


When we use "I need" at the start of a sentence it sounds like pleading rather than empowered. It makes us sound needy.

Swap "I need" with "Please" to sound polite and confident.

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Learn To Use Procrastination
Learn To Use Procrastination


Observe Your Need To Procrastinate
The Real Enemy of Flow



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The Fallacy Of Arguments
The Fallacy Of Arguments

The fallacy of our seemingly perfect argument lies in the fact that we assume that the other person is reasonable and logical, just as we are. That is not true in both cases.

How Confirmation Bias Influences Our Communication
  • When we confront new information, we interpret it to support our existing beliefs. Any thought or discussion that confirms our prejudice and thought patterns seems appealing to us and is known as confirmation bias.
  • When we try to argue our case (because of course, we are right!) it strengthens the defence of the opposition.
  • However wrong it seems to us, their arguments are correct too according to the confirmation bias they have experienced, which has solidified their point of view.
Figuring Out Your Opponent's Point Of View

Get into the other person’s shoes and figure out why their point of view is so important for them.

Conflict is almost inevitable in an argument due to both the parties ‘doubling down’ on their confirmation bias. Instead of going the way of souring your relations, a better approach is to have an open mind and simply understand the other person’s point of view.

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Self-Discipline During Hard Times
Self-Discipline During Hard Times

Self Discipline is crucial in these strange times when our freedom to go out and enjoy life has been curbed and when we still have to keep working while trying to take care of our family, health, a...

Holding Yourself Accountable

Make yourself accountable for what you do or don’t do. You don’t have to do things to prove something to others.

Make a To-Do list with your goals, intentions and proposed actions, and try to stick to it.

Being Honest

If we are not honest in our communication due to any internal fear, we are not taken seriously. People can tell when we are not honest.

There is no need to hide anything or play the victim card. Honesty seems difficult as it requires humility, but if followed, it is easier to be self-disciplined.

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The thoughts in your mind
The thoughts in your mind

We are so intimate with our thoughts that we never really stop to pay close attention to our wandering minds. When we do look at our thoughts, they turn out to be more interesting than we imagined....

Inner experiences

There are five categories of inner experiences:

  • Inner speaking, which comes in many forms
  • Inner seeing, which comes from things you've seen in real life or imaginary visuals
  • Feeling, such as happiness or anger
  • Sensory awareness, like being aware of the feeling of a carpet
  • Unsymbolized thinking, which is a thought that doesn't manifest as words or images.
Different inner voices

Most of us are aware of the internal dialogue – rather than a monologue - where we talk to someone inside our head. Often, that other voice is another aspect of ourselves.

There are four kinds of inner voices: the faithful friend, the ambivalent parent, the proud rival, and the helpless child. We might adopt these different roles to help ourselves get through situations.

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