"You Too" - The Power of Automatization

When I work at the access desk at the Y, I frequently tell people to "have a good workout" or "enjoy your swim." 

The most common reply?  "You too."

I am clearly not going into the pool fully dressed during my shift, but we were all trained well in manners. As a result, this is not something we think about and make a choice to do; we just do it reflexively. People have answered the same way when I wished them a happy birthday. I once talked to a man whose wife was in state of low consciousness (not quite a coma). He said that she couldn't say his name or ask for water, but when someone gave her water, she said, "Thank you." It was just automatic.

And the reality is that much of what we do during the day is not borne out of conscious decision making. We rely on habit for everything from our morning caffeine hit to the route we drive home from work. Something might interfere with the norm that requires us to consciously make a change (failed alarm, crash slowing down our normal route), but for the most part, we operate on autopilot for much of our daily activity.

This is a design feature, not a bug.

For one thing, our brains don't like to think. It takes energy to think, so the brain conserves where it can by taking shortcuts. Rational decision making takes up space in our working memory. How does our brain free up that space? Yep, shortcuts. We have a variety of biases, heuristics, and habits to allow ourselves lower friction throughout the day. My favorite book on this subject is You are Not So Smart by David McRaney; if you want a deeper technical dive, try Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. 

Life would slow down considerably and undesirably if we didn't assume a chair would hold us up when we sat down or if we had to stop and really consider whether we would be able to make it all the way to the top of a flight of stairs. If I have to weight the pros and cons of brushing my teeth before I leave the house every day, I'm not going to have time to think about what shoe goes on which foot or whether I should lock the door behind me on the way out. Do you see what I mean? We can't possibly make all of these decisions that require conscious thought, or we would go insane.

So, what does that mean for your classroom? 

It means that automatization is powerful, and we can harness that power if we are crafty about it. If there is something you want students to do as they enter your classroom EVERY day, explicitly teach it and practice it until it becomes automatic. Don't do it once and hope they will remember. If you want them to respond to your cue for quiet, you have to require it every time until it is a reflex. You can't hope they will absorb it, or they will automatize something else. 

And that's important to remember. They will do SOMETHING automatically. They will. As I said earlier, our brains just can't help it. If you let them create their routine without guidance, your classroom will be a chaotic mess of 30 different habits (The kid who comes in and sets his books down and asks to leave for the bathroom does it every day because he's made it his routine. The kid who comes in and says, "So, what are we doing today?" hasn't made a decision to ask; it has just become his reflex a few weeks into the school year. If you want them to come in, get out their class supplies, and look at the board for the Bellwork "(Do Now" for my friends across the pond) every single day, then you must teach it, practice it, and hold them accountable to doing it every single day. Early on, it feels ridiculous to say, "Sorry guys, we didn't do that correctly, so we are going to do it again the right way." But, when the routine is something they do without thinking about it, you'll be glad you powered through those awkward moments.