Why routines are good for the brain — and why they need to evolve

New year, new resolutions. Every year, we tend to rely on motivation to change our habits. Yet neuroscience shows that what truly makes a difference is not so much willpower or short-term effort, but the routines we build into our daily lives.

The brain seeks to conserve energy

From a neuroscientific perspective, routines are grounded in a fundamental principle: cognitive economy. The brain has limited resources and continuously seeks to minimize the effort required to function efficiently. Repeating an action in a stable context gradually leads to it becoming automated.

When this occurs, the action relies less on brain regions involved in conscious decision-making — notably the prefrontal cortex — and increasingly engages neural circuits specialized in habits, particularly within the basal ganglia. These circuits enable behaviors to be executed more quickly, more smoothly, and with a lower energetic cost.

This process of automation offers several tangible benefits in everyday life:

• it reduces cognitive load by limiting repetitive decision-making,
• it preserves cognitive resources for more complex tasks,
• it reduces stress through predictability,
• it helps stabilize emotions by providing daily structure.

For this reason, well-established habits are often more effective than motivation alone, which is inherently variable.

When automation becomes a trap

However, routines are not always beneficial. When a behavior becomes overly automated, it can lead to a form of mental autopilot. Attention decreases, engagement weakens, and actions are carried out with little conscious awareness.

Recent research shows that while automation facilitates performance, it can also reduce behavioral flexibility. In changing environments — or when personal goals evolve — overly rigid habits may become maladaptive or even counterproductive.

Flexible routines, not fixed ones

Neuroscience therefore points to a nuanced approach. An effective routine is neither rigid nor immutable. Such routines benefit from being regularly reassessed, adjusted, and occasionally modified.

Introducing small variations, questioning one’s automatic behaviours, or adapting routines to new goals helps maintain cognitive engagement while preserving the advantages of automation. The aim is not to eliminate routines, but to keep them dynamic and adaptable.

Automating what matters to free the mind

By automating key actions in daily life, the brain is relieved of unnecessary decisions and can devote more resources to what truly matters: learning, creating, interacting, or making complex decisions.

The real question, then, is not “Am I motivated enough?” but rather:
“Do my routines still help me move forward today?”

 

Sources

• Buabang, Eike K. et al., Leveraging cognitive neuroscience for making and breaking real-world habits, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Volume 29, Issue 1, 41 – 59. https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(24)00266-3
• Krause, AK., Breitwieser, J. & Brod, G. Understanding Learning Strategy Use Through the Lens of Habit. Educ Psychol Rev 37, 109 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-10087-3
• Greenstreet, F., Vergara, H.M., Johansson, Y. et al. Dopaminergic action prediction errors serve as a value-free teaching signal. Nature 643, 1333–1342 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09008-9