Your Brain is an Outlaw! Here’s How to Control It and Get More Done

If you struggle to stay on task, to consistently move your key projects forward, you're not alone and this post is for you.

So many of the coaches I know and those I work with are, like their clients, in a constant battle with their brain, their energy, willpower, etc.

I often hear things like, “There’s so freakin' much work. My brain can barely keep up with it all. And when I try to work on the toughest (i.e., most important) tasks, my brain just finds something else to do instead.” 

Why is this so?

Our brain’s an outlaw!  Left to its own devices, our brain wants to do wrong. Not criminal wrong. But, well, crimes of productivity.

And even if you’re a hard-working, law-abiding coach, you’re the one having to make bail! Cuz...

Our Outlaw Brain Wants to Do the Easy Tasks

Notwithstanding our stated priorities and calendar entries for the day, our outlaw brain doesn’t prioritize that tough task we’ve been putting off. It instead prioritizes something way more titillating or less difficult than that: Some 'pseudo-productive work' that’s way easier than that tough project. Or (re-)checking emails...or news headlines...or social media.

It also doesn't care what kind of food we put in our bodies: It's easier to snack on crap than to make a protein-packed nosh. And it sure as heck doesn't wanna wind down so we can get to sleep: It's easier to stay up with a brain-pleasing stream of dopamine than to turn off the phone and the lights. 

Our Outlaw Brain Wants to Stay in Its Comfort Zone

It doesn’t take kindly to discomfort. Which is actually baked into our DNA.

Huh?

Our outlaw brain is our default operating system (aka, our reptilian brain), which defaults to avoidance of discomfort and pursuit of short-term pleasure or relief. So, in the absence of some intervening "crisis", we are comfort-seekers and discomfort-avoiders.

As such, when things get tough or stressful or overwhelming, our outlaw brain takes over from our more evolved frontal cortex, and thoughtful, rational, in-our-best-interest thinking goes out the window.

We then retreat to a "safer place" -- where there are immediate rewards and no discomfort.

Of course, doing the right things – working on the tougher tasks, sticking to a disciplined process, etc., involves inherent...discomfort!
 

Our Outlaw Brain Is a Liar and Persuasive Con Artist

For instance, it conspires with Temporal Discounting by telling us, “Don’t worry, we got plenty of time before we have to write and send those marketing emails. Trust me.” Thus giving us "permission" to postpone that uncomfortable work to some vague future date where we'll supposedly have the energy and willpower to take it on.

A couple other ways our outlaw brain lies to us:

Planning via Magical Thinking: Long to-do list with lots of tricky items? "No worries," outlaw brain says. “This weekend, we'll bang out this, that, these four other things, then handle those such-and-such items as well. So let's not worry about any of those until Saturday, OK? Awesome!”

Shelf Esteem: This is the phenomenon of filling one's bookshelf with trendy novels and literary classics but never actually reading any. We do something similar when we buy a course, sign up for a webinar, or order a personal development book – we get the dopamine hit of purchasing or signing up – but then our outlaw brain cleverly coaxes us away from the discomfort of finishing the course, attending the webinar or reading book – or taking action on the info shared in them!

So, to quickly recap, left to its own devices our outlaw brain is constantly helping us to avoid discomfort by steering us to easier or more fun activities. But...

...the more savvy we are to its outlaw ways, the better we can protect ourselves from its criminal intent.

I'll just share one simple thing that hopefully already doing at least most days, which I'll preface with this great quote from the late Jim Rohn (with one word changed by me)...

"If you don't design your own plan for your day, then you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much."

It’s certainly not going to include your big, important projects! And that "someone else" is just as likely to be your own outlaw brain as it is your boss or colleague or neighbor.

The upshot being that one powerful reform for our outlaw brain is just having some kind of brief morning planning ritual where we pause to ask these 3 questions:

1. "Where do I need to show up today?"
2. "Where's there a time slot, ideally in my mentally strongest time of day, where I can work on my tough stuff?" and...
3. "What's ONE THING I'll move forward in that time slot?"

Now, if you'd like some secrets to manage your brain's energy so you can better fight back against your outlaw brain...

...get my complimentary video, 5 Mental Performance Secrets I Wish I Knew as a Struggling Executive. In it, I share the main secret to managing your brain’s energy; a simple hack for rebooting your brain; and other “brain hacks” that’ll help you get your toughest work done.

https://www.alanpbrown.com/mental-performance-secrets

I'd love to know your thoughts on this topic, so feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] or DM me on Instagram @alanpbrown.

Bless,

APB