Book Byte #89 "Dopamine Detox" by Thibaut Meurisse
A Short Guide to Remove Distractions and Get Your Brain to Do Hard Things
📣 Curious Quotes from the Author
“Build the foundations for success one brick at a time. Build them strong so that they won’t collapse at the first obstacle or setback.”
“Dopamine gives us the desire to take action to earn the exciting reward that’s waiting for us. It is the force that makes us act.”
“By receiving constant feedback, whether through likes, comments, or immediate replies to our messages, we condition ourselves to expect fast results with everything we do.”
“Here’s my point. The world is working against you. There will always be someone trying to grab your attention. As such, you have two choices. You can protect your focus by building habits and systems, or you can remain unprepared and let anyone distract you from the important things you should be doing with your time.”
“Trick #3—excitement is not the same thing as fulfillment”
“Reflect on your life When we’re constantly busy and overstimulated, we sometimes fail to take a step back. We can’t see the forest for the trees. Use your dopamine detox as a way to zoom out. To do so: Reflect on your goals. What goals are you pursuing? Are they the right ones for you? Are you making progress toward them each day? And if you keep doing what you’re doing, will you reach them? Assess how you’re using your time. Are you being truly productive each day? Do you spend time on things that matter? Which activities or projects do you really need to focus on? Which ones do you want to stop doing? Self-reflect. Are you where you want to be in life? What inner work could you do to improve yourself?”
“Dopamine and constant stimulation can impair your ability to think long term”
“Social media notifications are a great example of how your brain is being hijacked. Whenever you see a notification, you anticipate the reward you’ll receive when clicking on it, which triggers the release of dopamine in your brain. However, this doesn’t make you happy or fulfill you—at least not for long.”
“Build the foundations for success one brick at a time. Build them strong so that they won’t collapse at the first obstacle or setback.”
“Studies have shown that one of the best predictors of success is the ability to think long term. People who repeatedly focus on where they want to be in the future, make better decisions in the present. They tend to eat healthier food, be more productive at work and save and invest more money than others.”
“Identify your biggest temptations and/or distractions and write them down on the sheet of paper. Then, make sure you put the sheet in a prominent position.”
“No, watching motivational videos all day long won’t help you reach your goals. But, performing daily consistent actions, sustained over a long period of time will. Staying calm and focusing on the one task in front of you every day will. The point is, to achieve long-term goals in your personal or professional life, you must regain control of your attention and rewire your brain to focus on the long term. To do so, you should start by staying away from highly stimulating activities.”
“I believe that social media, and the internet as a whole, have negatively impacted our ability to both think long-term and to focus deeply on the task in front of us. It is no surprise, therefore, that Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, prohibited his children from using phones or tablets—even though his business was to sell millions of them to his customers! The billionaire investor and former senior executive at Facebook, Chamath Palihapitiya, argues that we must rewire our brain to focus on the long term, which starts by removing social media apps from our phones. In his words, such apps, “wire your brain for super-fast feedback.” By receiving constant feedback, whether through likes, comments, or immediate replies to our messages, we condition ourselves to expect fast results with everything we do. And this feeling is certainly reinforced through ads for schemes to help us “get rich quick”, and through cognitive biases (i.e., we only hear about the richest and most successful YouTubers, not about the ones who fail). As we demand more and more stimulation, our focus is increasingly geared toward the short term and our vision of reality becomes distorted. This leads us to adopt inaccurate mental models such as: Success should come quickly and easily, or I don’t need to work hard to lose weight or make money. Ultimately, this erroneous concept distorts our vision of reality and our perception of time. We can feel jealous of people who seem to have achieved overnight success. We can even resent popular YouTubers. Even worse, we feel inadequate. It can lead us to think we are just not good enough, smart enough, or disciplined enough. Therefore, we feel the need to compensate by hustling harder. We have to hurry before we miss the opportunity. We have to find the secret that will help us become successful. And, in this frenetic race, we forget one of the most important values of all: patience. No, watching motivational videos all day long won’t help you reach your goals. But, performing daily consistent actions, sustained over a long period of time will. Staying calm and focusing on the one task in front of you every day will. The point is, to achieve long-term goals in your personal or professional life, you must regain control of your attention and rewire your brain to focus on the long term. To do so, you should start by staying away from highly stimulating activities.”
“While there are thousands of books on productivity, only a few principles matter. I believe the most important one is to identify your key task and tackle it first thing in the morning—and do this consistently.”
📚 Cognition of the Book’s Big Idea:
Dopamine, which is much more than a pleasure molecule, motivates you to seek out rewarding events. This in-depth look into the role of dopamine in your life has shown how it can contribute to overstimulation, particularly in a world full of digital distractions. You've realized that hobbies that promise instant gratification can actually reduce your ability to focus and complete long-term goals.
A dopamine detox can help reset your brain's response to overstimulation. First, identify your primary distractions, then add friction to reduce engagement in high-dopamine activities, and last, build a morning routine that sets a positive tone for the day. You can refocus your attention on more rewarding pursuits by actively decreasing your involvement in activities such as social media or excessive TV watching.
Your adventure does not end with the detox. Maintaining the benefits necessitates vigilance and preparation. Plan your day, prioritize important chores, and cultivate a laser-like focus. Regularly engage in activities that promote tranquility and presence, such as meditation and profound social connections, to sustain the equilibrium you attained throughout your detox.
Finally, it is critical that you incorporate these techniques into your daily life over time. Maintain self-awareness, build a balanced attitude to digital media, and participate in challenges like the 30-day challenge to establish new habits. This road to a more focused, productive, and balanced existence is ongoing, and the results can be significant.
So, take charge of your focus and don't let your surroundings distract you. Accept the lessons from your dopamine detox, and you'll find yourself better capable of handling huge tasks, experiencing a deeper sense of fulfillment, and eventually leading a healthier and more productive life.
🛠️Fixing the Tech Industry
Dopamine is a heckuva drug. It tempts us to do things we wouldn’t normally do. We know this extensively in our line of work as we build that functionality directly into our apps and websites we work on everyday.
It’s important to note that without detoxing from it, we’ll never realize that Dopamine seeking is not the same as fulfillment. Actually, the most fulfilling things in life doesn’t release a lot of dopamine: Reading Books, Walks, Excercise, and even Sex. It’s the steady release of it that fulfills us and gives us just enough to keep going, not binging it all until you can’t feel anything anymore. or you can’t find joy in the little things.
If you want to live a more fulfilled life, set aside time to do the things that are fulfilling and lessen your distractions that cause you to Dopamine Seek.
🤝Collaborate with others with this Social Media Prompt:
What thing do you do in the morning that you know you shouldn’t do anymore? Let’s change it today shall we?