[Procyona]

Acting on autopilot means that you are unaware and act only by habit. When you want to improve your life and be better at what you do, autopilot can be harmful for your goals.

But, are there times when acting on autopilot can be beneficial or even helpful?

I would not recommend being on autopilot with any action. However, when I am learning to be aware of myself, actions I do on autopilot give me much material to study myself. When I actively notice what I do, I can make a decision to either keep it or change it. Also, without some autopilot, my mind would be full of calculations and decisions, so acting on autopilot helps me change in small steps. So, being on autopilot actually makes learning possible for me.

But what do you think?   

[Gra-ach]

I was "attending" an e-course called "Brain and how it works" or something like that. And one of the topics there was about the "autopilot". The main idea of autopilot is that the more familiar you are with the task at hand the more easily your subconscious can do this task for you so you don't have to pay conscious effort to getting this thing done.

The great example in adult age is when you're learning to drive. At first when everything is unfamiliar you can't understand how can you look everywhere, process what's going on on the road and in your car while turning the wheel and pushing the right pedals. But the more time you spend behind the wheel the easier it is, the more comfortable and confident you become. And at some point it's perfectly OK to start the music or converse with a passenger, weaken the death grip on the wheel and so on

With the need to become more aware, this awareness comes sometimes at a very inopportune moments - for example in the middle of going down or up the stairs. I catch myself sometimes almost falling when I have to consciously think about how to move to the next step while I'm in the middle of the action when this happens. And it's very disorienting, because my brain is very used to me walking and it gets info from my eyes and past experience about the height of the stairs step and can calculate what the height of my step should be, but when I became very aware of my movement, my subconscious has to suddenly delegate this function and all calculations and input to conscious part for it to work things out. And it takes time, because it's been quite a while since I learned how to walk so I may stumble.   

[Юрий Николаевич]

Good afternoon. I want to share my thoughts on the phenomena of autopilot in everyday life. In most cases, I look at the status of the autopilot as an undesirable condition. Separately, I highlight a number of situations when this is more than welcome. For example, by the way, for me this is a certain meditation. So this action can be called. Essence ... I take a broom and within an hour sweep the territory around my private house. Cleanliness is important, but the main purpose for which I do it is to fixing the physical actions by cycles. In this state, after a certain time, my brain takes to the front flank the most pressing issues for me now. I update them and capture them in my attention. After I write down and have the opportunity to pay attention to each separately.   

[Роман Мельник]

It seems you don't act with pleasure.   

[Gra-ach]

Well, while you're doing some menial tasks on autopilot you can concentrate on something important, for example how to solve a problem, what you're going to do, make a plan for your presentation etc. Basically, you don't need to involve higher thought process in simple tasks like sweeping the floor or doing dishes.   

[nektoalex]

The bad thing about auto piloting though is that you're acting with low if any level of self-conscience. From my experience it's the case when down on the street you can't remember if you locked the door, turned off the electricity etc. There's a good japanese mnemo technic (I've read it somewhere), they invented it in underground rail service to decrease the quantity of accidents by machinists - you have to point your finger on what you've just done and pronounce in sound what was the action. The result was very optimistic.   

[Gra-ach]

You need to be aware when you go into autopilot mode You don't need lots of brainpower to wash the dishes, to wash clothes or something like that. You definitely don't usually use conscious thought when you go up or downstairs - your legs just know what's the height of the step and so on. But when you switch from autopilot to conscious stepping, you can trip and smash your face on the stairs   

[nektoalex]

I see some polarity here - recently I was constantly told about awareness, mindfulness and self-conscience (that's in a one more or less known academy)
Next time I will try to wash dishes and walk the step with some rate of internal atention.   

[Gra-ach]

Talking about awareness (or mindfulness) here is a course on FutureLearn about it: Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance