The online course I talk about in the end of the video can be found here.

Did you know that dopamine isn't really about pleasure?

Dopamine is more about motivation and drive. 

Or to put it another way, it's more about the anticipation of reward. 

This is why dopamine is playing a big part on procrastination as well.

Let's take a look....

Dopamine's Role In Procrastination

Have you ever suffered from procrastination?

Well if so, you want to make sure to stay with me to the end here because this is gonna help you so much.

You see, we procrastinate because we are picturing the work we have in front of us and think that it’s going to take a lot of effort.

Or then we do it because we are unsure of ourselves and we don’t know if what we are about to do is going to turn out well or we procrastinate because we think the task is  going to be scary or just in some way make us feel uncomfortable

 So now that we understand all of that we can now take a look at a few smart ways to help us with this…

#1 Don’t make the gap too wide

So what do I mean by this?

Well, here’s an example. If you start your day by instantly picking up your phone, and start scrolling on social media you are feeding yourself with a lot of cheap dopamine. 

Doing that is going to make it harder for you to do something that takes effort afterwards. 

Why?

Because you increased the gap.

Think of it this way. If you eat junk food all day long then how much would you look forward to eating just a plain boring salad when the night time comes?

The more you feed yourself with stimulating things prior to your work the more boring your work will feel because it pales in comparison to that highly dopaminergic activity  you were just doing. 

This is what I mean when I say that you “increase the gap”.

So avoid your phone as much as possible until the later part of your day.

I personally don’t allow myself to enjoy any digital recreation until I have at least done a good chunk of my daily work and let me tell you, it makes a night and day difference. 

#2 Use Jim Kwik’s formula

Jim Kwik has a cool little formula for getting stuff done, and here it is…

Px Ex S3

Purpose...

P stands for purpose. You have to be crystal clear on why you are doing what you are doing, and not only that, in order to fuel your motivation you have to remind yourself of that reason.

But purpose alone is not enough, you might still not be motivated if you don’t have the “E” which stands for “energy”.

Energy...

If you’re depleted or if you didn't sleep well or if you just eat a big unhealthy meal you are not going to have the proper energy to get you going. 

It sounds so simple, but don’t underestimate this. I mean just think about it, energy is what drives things forward. And if you want to reduce your procrastination you need to make sure you’re taking care of your health to have the proper energy.

If we lack energy, we tend to procrastinate...

Now, you can have purpose and high amounts of energy, but still procrastinate. Because you feel overwhelmed by what's in front of you. It’s too intimidating, it’s too ambiguous, it’s too confusing and a confused mind won’t do anything.

This is where the 3 S enter the picture. 

Simple - small - steps...

They stand for Simple, small, steps.

Break your task into the simplest possible step you can think of and just attack that step first and only after that you focus on the following step.

It’s amazing how much you can chunk up a task when you think of it and whenever you feel overwhelmed this is exactly what you need to do.

#3 Read at night - To help 'refill your dopamine'...

Ok so this one might sound surprising to you, but hear me out here.

I live more and less dopamine healthy in periods over the year and recently I again started turning off all technology in my house 2 hours prior to bedtime.

And once again I was amazed by how much more energy and drive I have the following day because of that compared to periods where I mindlessly scroll online.

The readily available pool of dopamine...

Did you know that by shutting things down you help actually help refill the readily available pool of dopamine you have in your brain. So that the following day you literally have more fuel in your motivation tank.

Now, this one is a bit related to tip number one that we started with, but it’s still not the same because by reading a book and being mindful the last hours of the day you actually increase your serotonin levels as well, and they will then help to reset your dopamine during the night.

Serotonin helps reset your dopamine...

So you will have a higher baseline level of dopamine the following day, in a good way, because as you remember dopamine is the very motivation and drive chemical.

And is that wasn’t enough, if you avoid looking at a screen two hours before bed your sleep quality will of course be so much better as well, which will help with your energy levels the following day, which, as you remember is a component in Jim’s very formula for motivation here P X E X S3

Dopamine fasting is probably the best tool for beating procrastination...

And if you really want to skyrocket your productivity then you should know that nothing has boosted my own productivity like implementing different dopamine fasting protocols throughout the year. 

And if this is something that you are interested in you can read about my Dopamine Focused Fasting online course.

And if you’re struggling to stay away from those dopamine draining adult sites, and that’s your biggest problem, then take a look at a video I made a while back where I share how I overcame that problem myself.

Related posts...

• Is dopamine fasting really worth it?
• Can a dopamine fast speed up NoFap recovery?
• NoFap and cold showers - And dopamine receptors
• Dopamine and reward deficiency syndrome