Image by Got Sarah via Flickr

Recently I was typing an email to my wife on my iPad and the autocorrect function changed a nickname I call her to nag. Thankfully I caught the autocorrect change and made a manual change back to her nickname. I don’t want to imagine what that conversation would have been like had I not corrected it. I probably would not have faired well.

Is Your Life on Autocorrect?

This snafu with the autocorrect function got me thinking about my own life and do I live too much relying on “autocorrect?” What things in my life do I do automatically instead of being aware of what I am doing? This function exists so that you do not have to think about spelling but can just type and mistakes will be corrected for you (there is still a long way to go with this technology correcting things perfectly). Theoretically, it allows your brain to go on autopilot as far as spelling goes and not have to worry about that one aspect of writing.

Obviously there are things in life that are best left to the automatic function: breathing, heart beating, blinking, body gets tired when it needs rest, if something is wrong it hurts, etc. If you constantly had to manually make any of those things happen it would be exhausting and you might forget at some point. Which might make it game over and there is no autocorrect for that.

But, it can be very dangerous to put everything in your life on autocorrect or autopilot.

• You can get sloppy. When you are on automatic pilot your life begins to get sloppy and chaotic. The things you are doing will suffer in quality because you are not maintaining focus.
• You can forget. If you put things on automatic, you will forget why you are even doing them in the first place. Sometimes doing things in the wrong situations because you lose track of what it is you are trying to accomplish.
• You can be a danger to yourself and others. Certain things in life should not be done on automatic. Driving a car while your brain is on automatic and not paying attention will get someone seriously injured or killed.

Ways to Keep From Relying on Automatic

• Focus. This one is obvious, but it is the mother of all ways to keep from drifting into automatic. When you lose focus on whatever it is you are doing, the likelihood for failure will increase.
• Get a hobby. Getting a hobby, hanging out with friends, spending time alone, taking a nap, all allow you to do something that does not require you to be consistently focused (unless your hobby is chainsaw juggling). This will recharge your brain and help it to focus when important.
• Get sleep. I don’t know about you, but when I am tired I have a really hard time focusing. I drift into autopilot and rely on my body and mind to just know what they should be doing. It is easy to make bad decisions and take stupid actions while tired.
• Create rules to live by. In a previous post I talked about the importance of living by rules. Having rules allows your brain to focus more quickly and more easily, allowing your brain to not be taxed as much.

If you are living life on autocorrect right now, pick one of the areas above to work on and improve.

Also, share in the comment section below ways that you prevent yourself from drifting into autocorrect.