ESYB2 105 - Procedural Memory and Visualization Techniques
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[00:00:00] Of all the habit building techniques, I think the most sensical one that I found that works for me and for others is based on a certain kind of memory we have, and it's called procedural memory. It's kind of a fancy term. It basically means that we remember steps in a process. So what that means for habit, habit building is Let's say you want tomorrow to wake up and start working.

Alright, if you just tell that to yourself, and tomorrow rolls around, and you have no plan, There is a less, lower chance that you will do exactly as you want. But, if you channel your procedural memory, which is basically this. You would picture yourself, I'm going to wake up, I'm going to brush my teeth, wash my face, do all the things you need to do to clean up, okay.

I'm going to do, okay, I need to, uh, send the kids to school. Whatever you have to do. And then I'm going to sit down, I'm [00:01:00] going to turn off everything else. I'm going to sit down, I'm going to work at the computer. I'm going to plan out what I'm going to do. Oh, I'm going to call such and such person. I'm going to do this and that.

I'm going to really step by step. And you visualize it and picture yourself doing each step. Then your brain already starts to associate these actions together. And so the next day they'll be more natural. There will be less surprises, you know. Oh, I have to spend time with the kids, or I want to get to work faster.

No, you're like, okay, this is what I'm going to do. This is how I'm going to do it. Okay, the kids are organized. They're off to school. Great. My workspace is organized. Great, I'm ready to work. Oh, the first task, I was ready for it. I've been already thinking about it since yesterday. Great, I'm going to do this task, next task, next task, next task.

And that way It already starts to make, become easier to do the things that you want to do instead of if you just [00:02:00] started doing things randomly the next day, you know, random is worst, right? Because if we plan, especially if we do this kind of hack our, how our memory works, you just increase your chances of getting it right.

Is that going to build your habit all by itself? No. But it is going to increase the likelihood of the chance that the Steps you need to do the positive things that are going to things that are going to improve your life positively get so that's just One simple thing you can immediately try with your next morning next evening The things that you haven't need to do but haven't been able to do Now try to use your procedural memory and literally picture yourself doing each step.

I'm going to sit down at my desk. I'm going to open the computer. I'm going to focus on this first task. I'm going to do this first step of this task, second step of this task. And you picture every step, and when you sit down, it will [00:03:00] be much more natural, calm, less stress, organized, and you'll actually much more likely do the things you need to do.

