# Subroutines

**Published by:** [Citizen Earth](https://paragraph.com/@citizenearth/)
**Published on:** 2024-05-21
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@citizenearth/subroutines

## Content

Finally, the weekend. I woke up and initiated my daily morning routine:make and rate my coffeeguess my sleep score (I’m testing my intuition - I’m currently 9.4% off)morning journalingmeditationThroughout the morning, I found myself continuously opening my work Slack and as expected, finding no new messages. “You’re sick” I thought to myself as I fought back the urge to pick up where I left off on my latest work project. Like some kind of NPC, I occasionally catch myself in these automated loops. Some years ago, I lost my phone and decided to see how long I could get by with a non-smart phone (nicknamed my “potato phone”). Any moment there was downtime, entering an elevator or waiting on a bus, I’d subconsciously pull out the potato phone and stare at it for a second. Realizing there was no dopamine hit to be had, I’d sheepishly put it back in my pocket. Imagine you’re in a snow covered forest - a blank slate. As we walk through this forest each day, the routes that we take clear out the snow and make these paths easier to traverse. Pretty soon, the paths are packed down so well and the snow off the path is so deep that it’d nearly be impossible to explore any other direction. This is how our habits impact the brain. The human brain consumes a massive amount of energy - around 20% of resting energy is spent on the brain (compared to 9% for other primates). To save energy and reduce cognitive load, the brain does its best to take shortcuts. Instead of constantly considering all possible options for what to do next, it leans on recent habits, especially those that have resulted in a some kind of reward in the past. Every time you catch yourself subconsciously opening the fridge or pulling out your phone, your brain is walking down a path with a high probability of dopamine. This mechanism isn’t inherently good or bad. We’d lose our ability to function if we had to consciously consider every action that we take. But it would be nice every now and then to reset to a blank slate and set new paths with intention. Traveling seems to do this for me. In a new place and timezone, there’s naturally a high cognitive load for everything. The brain is trying to identify threats, remember new locations, and figure out why the fuck the sun is out at 3 am. The subconscious brain isn’t quite sure yet which subroutines apply to the new location and defers to the conscious brain to set up new habits. Once the habits are set, the subconscious brain happily takes the wheel and follows the pattern. Just for one day, try to observe the subconscious habits that you have - which apps you open on your phone, where you store things, what you gravitate towards doing when you have free time. How much of it is well thought out vs some automated subroutine your brain is running. Try to change one habit in your life - something as simple as which arm you put first in your jacket. It’s surprisingly difficult. However, by at least being aware of some of these subconscious behaviors, we can start to understand if they serve us and gradually make adjustments over time to help us go from being an NPC to the main character again.

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