I have been retraining my 9-year old dog. There were too many bad habits and we had rather given up with her. However, we have been working hard on changing her behaviour, and with varying degrees of success. However, what is clear is that consistency and repetition is crucial.
It is just the same when it comes to Excel shortcuts. I think some of the attendees on my financial modelling courses are horrified when I ask them to remove the mouse (and preferably throw it in the dustbin). It is like asking somebody to learn to drive a car a completely different way.
The brain finds relearning very difficult. I often find that, at the end of the first day of my training courses, at least one person will apologise for being slow and finding it hard to learn the shortcuts. I always tell them not to worry: a good night’s sleep will rewire the brain, they may perhaps have nightmares about certain shortcuts, but on the next day they will be refreshed and the shortcuts will begin to come automatically.
Psychologist Ginny Smith, in her new book, Overloaded, describes how our brain neurons do indeed rewire overnight. The sleep process helps our brains sort through new information and make connections between the new facts and our memories. Experiments have shown that, having been exposed to a maze, the brains of sleeping rats activate the same neurons they used during the day, as if they were reliving the maze whilst sleeping. Repetition is key; Smith gives an analogy of walking through a wood, clearing brambles and making a path. Each time we go through that path it becomes easier.
It is also becoming easier to walk my dog. And I promise that if you stick to the shortcuts in Excel, after a few days you will not even be thinking about them; these will now be automatic and the brain will be freed up to think about the modelling instead.