Do It Tomorrow: Reactive vs. Rational Sides of the Brain

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I'm reading through the Do It Tomorrow book by Mark Forster...

From Chapter 1, "What This Book Is About"...

There are two parts to the brain: the reactive (stimulus -> reaction) and the rational (thought -> decision -> action). Resistance to completing a task is often because the reactive part of the brain sees a task as a "threat" (even if that threat is nothing more than awakening itself out of just being lazy and comfortable doing nothing!). The rational part of the brain can help here by persuading the reactive part of the brain that you're not going to do the task. For example, "I'm not really going to write that report now, but I'll just get the file out."

I tried to apply this to getting out for some fresh air at lunch time yesterday. I didn't want to get out of my office chair and take a brief walk, but I convinced my reactive part of the brain by simply saying "I'm going to put my jacket on and go check my mail slot downstairs" which was next to the door outside. Then I said "I'm going to just walk a block." Then I said "I'm going to just walk to the first stoplight." By then, the rest of the walk was a breeze.

I'm going to try this with some of my backlogged tasks and projects today. Hopefully I can get them unblocked and moving.

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