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 Trick your brain before dopamine stimulants do

You procrastinate not because you are not disciplined enough, not capable, or not deserving of your dreams. You procrastinate because you are overstimulated. How often do you feel calm and focused?

Think about this: You wake up in the morning, check your phone, scroll through social media, make breakfast, and decide to watch a video while you’re eating. You chat with someone, drink another coffee, reply on Instagram, and scroll through stories for 40 minutes. Back to TikTok, send a random email, and do your laundry. You are on a hamster wheel of small tasks that give you a quick dopamine fix. Your essential duties seem uninteresting and dull compared to these tasks. Boom! Welcome to procrastination! You may say that it’s not precisely your pattern of morning procrastination, so think about what your distraction loop looks like.

Action: Learn to find joy in simple and non-stimulating activities.

Here are the top four lies your mind will tell you to trick you into overstimulation:

1. You can return to work anytime. What difference will 10 minutes make? Wait, is that you laughing I hear? The truth is, if you are not in control of your actions, there is a high chance you will lose hours.

2. You can postpone the task for later. But wait, how many goals have you failed to achieve because of delays? There is a risk it will become a habit.

3. Do something else because it’s fun and exciting. Exciting doesn’t mean fulfilling. Both feelings are important but separate concepts; a comfortable balance should exist between them.

4. You will miss opportunities if you don’t check your social media and emails. But possibilities are everywhere; there will always be plenty of new things.

Rate these lies on a scale from 1 to 10 to reflect what keeps you feeling overstimulated.

Productivity consists of three main components: consistency, impact, and focus. Consistency means developing a routine; the impact is choosing what’s most important for you. To be more focused, follow these points:

• Eliminate distractions.

• Practice being at the same place at the same time for work.

• Inspiration and concentration also come from doing, so simply starting the task can help.

• Work without interruptions for a while; you can do 45-minute cycles of work and a 10-15-minute break.

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Make space for meaningful things

Humans have evolved for millions of years; many of your present behaviors exist because your ancestors believed they were crucial for survival. For example, consuming sugar and fat produces dopamine. In the past, sweet and fatty food helped people survive; it contained energy and provided more calories. So, you must thank evolution for your taste preferences, as those who liked sweet and fatty food had more chances to survive and reproduce. Overstimulation and craving more comes from sugar and fat, as well. So, reflecting on your daily dose is a good idea.

Similarly, social media makes you expect fast feedback through a like, comment, or message. It programs people to desire quick results, which differs from how you reach your long-term goals.

It’s easy to fall for short-term gratification and feel good immediately. But this keeps you from pursuing long-term happiness as you jump from one fleeting pleasure to another, aiming to fill the void of emptiness and unfulfillment as quickly as possible. But the funny thing is sometimes you need that void; you need it to fill up with things that make you truly happy. And when you overload it with junk food or excessive use of social media, you have no desire to pursue your deeper values.

Action: Resist the urge to check for updates and messages constantly. 

You dive into this world filled with success stories and feel insufficient. And when you feel jealous or not enough, the hustle to suppress it with quick dopamine and overstimulation is even greater. Here are the main things you can do in this case:

• Ask yourself, “What feelings do I invite with the activity I am doing now? Do I want it to be this way?”

• Then, ask, “Where is my focus right now? Where do I want to be?”

• Practice patience to help you pursue more meaningful things.

• Get rid of the distractions that leave you feeling restless.

• Develop long-term thinking about your goals. Remove or reduce whatever stands in your way.

"Dopamine and constant stimulation can impair your ability to think long term." ~ Thibaut Meurisse

Did you know? Steve Jobs didn’t allow his kids to use iPhones or iPads because of the underlying dangers and risks of addiction these devices can pose. Bill Gates didn’t give his kids phones until they were 14.

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Your life is what you focus on

There are dopamine traps you can fall into by seeking constant stimulation. The more you encourage the release of dopamine, the more you crave it again, which can become an addiction. You can get in a loop of constant shopping, Netflix, sex, work, or alcohol, leading to lost focus, low productivity, and no fulfillment. There are many ways to seek short-term rewards or gratification; it’s no surprise they may trick your brain.

Your focus is so valuable that major corporations want it. Amazon, Facebook, and YouTube strive to steal your attention with sophisticated algorithms. You watch one video, and the app recommends another, trying to keep you there as long as possible. But these algorithms don’t have your best interests in mind; they aim to show you advertisements and make you buy things. Tons of notifications scream at you to stop whatever you are doing and give your time to them. That’s how the dopamine neurotransmitters in your brain are hijacked and manipulated.

Adjusting your focus to concentrate on the right things isn’t easy. Yet, when you act on the knowledge you’ll discover in this summary, you’ll be more powerful than those billion-dollar companies.

Whenever a notification pops up, you expect a like or a message from a friend. You check your emails or YouTube, hoping to find something exciting or fun. And then comes overstimulation and loss of focus.

Action: Limit notifications to minimize constant digital interruptions.

Overstimulation happens when you excessively engage in activities that create bursts of pleasure, anticipation, and reward. The feelings you get from it are incredibly fleeting and short-term, and pursuing goals that give you long-term fulfillment doesn’t feel like fun. Why would you strain yourself for a real reward when the world offers you a bonus at this exact second? The problem with short-term rewards is that they leave you as quickly as sand through your fingers. And then you feel empty. Instead, you can dedicate time and energy to building a sandcastle you value so much that you want to nourish it over the long term.

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Hacking happiness

Your brain is like a city filled with buildings called neurons. These buildings must communicate for you to move, feel, and think. They send messages to each other with chemical substances known as neurotransmitters, which then travel from neuron to neuron, making you feel, know, or do something. Dopamine is one of these neurotransmitters.

Dopamine is not solely responsible for pleasure; its release in response to an event does not necessarily mean it is enjoyable. On the contrary, feeling empty immediately after the reward is common.

Action: Rediscover offline joys, like nature walks, journaling, and art.

Humans seek the stimulation of dopamine through engaging with the world and mistakenly think that this arousal of senses will lead to fulfillment. Remember that day you spent lying in bed, watching Netflix with chocolate crumbs all over the blanket? At times like this, you feel like the world stops, and you need a rest from constantly performing. But how did you feel afterward?

Action: Find balanced, healthy ways to achieve happiness.

Sometimes, being human is tough; you want to hit pause and hide under a warm blanket. We all know these moments, and let’s give them a round of applause for keeping us alive and rested. But constantly escaping reality due to fleeting satisfactions will not fulfill you. It will not make you feel love, connection, belonging, or a sense of purpose. So, take care of yourself by being attentive to your deeper aspirations and desires.

What satisfies you? How does it make you feel? You lose control and focus by pursuing these things for a quick dopamine release. Then, you trade your dreams or time with your loved ones for time-wasting activities like social media. It's a slippery slope of distraction.

Dopamine is an essential element in your evolutionary backpack — whenever you do something beneficial for your survival, it pushes you to repeat it. But society has created new ways to trigger dopamine, and not all of them contribute to our well-being. So, remind all these new dopamine-stimulating inventions who is in command! Don’t miss out on embodying what you value most.

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Stuck on step one

Have you ever felt strongly about your dreams, but your enthusiasm evaporated when it came to taking action? The gap between wanting and doing can feel too wide to leap, but thankfully, a power player in our brains can help us.

What is dopamine? Dopamine is a neurotransmitter responsible for reward anticipation. It makes you look forward to good things like chocolate or a kiss, and then your brain stores pleasant memories and motivates you to act this way again.

But what if dopamine — your brain’s personal cheerleader — starts juggling too many pom-poms at once? Procrastination and fuzzy focus sneak in if you get lost in the need for immediate entertainment and distractions. And when you perform fewer tasks, you might start thinking less of yourself. Confidence wanes while apathy and despair enter the picture, and before you know it, you end up sidetracked, fussing over the little things and pushing your big dreams to the sidelines.

Sounds familiar? It's a sign you might benefit from a dopamine detox.

A dopamine detox is a period of abstaining from the quick-fix, high-reward behaviors (like incessant smartphone use) that flood our brains with dopamine. The idea is to make us appreciate more meaningful pleasures in life.

Undergoing a dopamine detox also creates time for reflection. When you declutter your mind, you can take a better look inside. That’s a great way to get closer to your wishes and stay on the right path. 

Action: Write down your fears and try to understand what they mean.

Imagine you can create order and peace in your current emotional state. Your level of emotional well-being is invisible, but it’s a mighty bubble that either fills you with energy or weighs you down. Stick around to discover the scientific magic a dopamine detox uses to create a more positive emotional bubble.