A neurologist’s guide to using your prefrontal cortex (or, how to plan to make a plan)
Think back to a time when one of your friends got a bad haircut. Unbeknownst to your friend, this initiated a gargantuan cascade of neuronal processing in a part of your brain called the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain right behind your forehead). First, you had to make a judgment: “Wow, this looks terrible.” Then, you may have wondered if the haircut was intentional on behalf of your friend, the stylist, or both. After that, you might have made a guess if your friend was happy or in agony with the result. Finally (and most importantly), you had to decide what to say when they asked you what you thought. Did you tell them the truth, risking offending them but giving valuable feedback to get a different cut next time, and/or maybe a new stylist? Or did you lie and give them a compliment, avoiding the risk of offense but withholding feedback that might have actually been useful to them? If you think you handled the situation well, you have your prefrontal cortex to thank. This part of the brain is responsible for something called “executive function,” which includes management of goal-directed behavior, making assessments, and designing/executing plans. You might have heard the phrase “kids say the darndest things.” Well, they say those things because their prefrontal cortex is not yet fully developed (it’s estimated this region continues to develop until around year 25). Lacking a fully developed prefrontal cortex, a child may have little or even no reservation telling you that your haircut is ugly. Later in life, the prefrontal cortex doesn’t work as well as it used to, often leading to those awkward/uncomfortable conversations with some elderly relatives at Thanksgiving.
So, you have a marvel of evolutionary neurobiology right behind your forehead. The key to optimizing its function (besides having good general brain health which I discuss in the link below)
is to use it with *intention.* This means making a conscious effort to *plan* to make a plan. For some people, their planning is so effortless that they might not even realize they’re doing it. For others, planning must be more deliberate to be optimally effective. The goal of this article is to help you facilitate this process.
The first part of the planning process is the pre-plan: deciding what you want. Choose a time and place to sit down, and actually write down what you come up with. Don’t worry about having writer’s block here… just imagine that whatever you write down (or type out) will be magically granted to you as soon as you write it. I’ll start you off with an example that I did myself: “I want to eat healthy, but I also want to enjoy what I eat and not feel deprived of foods that bring me joy.” Now, using my prefrontal cortex, I can determine *how* to make this happen. I write that I need a particular calorie goal per day which will result in a healthy weight (but not make me feel starved), and I need a way to stick to that calorie number…how can I do this? Use a calorie counter app! I need to find foods that are healthy and actually satiating/enjoyable to eat. How can I do this? Explore recipes online, maybe get some cookbooks, or ask family/friends for some suggestions of what’s worked for them. I need to find the time to actually make my meals! How can I do this? Make a weekly plan of grocery store trips and stick to a daily schedule (which is itself another plan). If you continue with this process, you *will* create a tailored healthy diet plan which will work for you. The two golden rules to make this process work for ANY plan are:
1. WRITE… IT… DOWN
2. At least once per week (I recommend choosing a specific date/time), evaluate how effective your plan has been, and make any modifications that you think may be helpful.
For rule 2, this must also be written down. Think of this part as making a journal entry. Write down what worked and what didn’t work. Write what might work better and give it a shot! This process can work for any plan you can think of: diet, fitness, jobs, relationships, finances… the sky is the limit! In fact, there really shouldn’t be a major aspect of your life that you *don’t* make a plan for. This does NOT mean that there is no role for spontaneity in life. Spontaneity is one of the joys of life! It means that in general, you are more likely to achieve your goals if you have a plan. And you are more likely to follow that plan if you write it down in detail and regularly modify it to make it work best for you. Don’t be hard on yourself if you make a plan which ends up being a complete failure. Bad plans can be modified and improved, so even a bad plan is better than having no plan at all.
Remember: you have a miracle of biology right behind your forehead which is designed to help you plan. Use it with intention!