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Dopamine Fast – Why you should start one today

By Havard Mela on 02 August 2024

Why You Should Do A “Dopamine Fast” Today

The value of stillness in today’s world is underrated. It might be time for a dopamine fast.

It is simply astonishing how helpful it can be to unplug from the constant distractions we encounter online.

The big tech platforms have both a “tool component” and a “drug component”. To overcome the “drug component” that makes us addicted and waste a lot of time, we need conscious strategies.

The benefits of being conscious of our digital use are immense. If we limit our exposure, we will avoid the constant dopamine spikes we get from scrolling and overstimulation in general. Adding a few more tweaks will help us optimize our dopamine levels.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that motivates us to do stuff and gives us pleasure when reaching rewards such as sex, food, and money.

A man walking scrolling on is mobile phone.

By optimizing your dopamine levels, you will experience:

  • Excitement
  • Increased motivation
  • Confidence and drive
  • Becoming more goal-oriented
 

Everything will feel much more exciting, and you will have much more energy to get things done.

Dopamine will give you the ability to work hard towards your goals. Without it, you will be lazy and unmotivated. I remember the days when I used the internet in an unfocused, limitless way. It turned into a couch potato, and the reason was that all the easy pleasure I got online had a really bad effect on my dopamine system.

Anything that harms your dopamine system will make you less willing to work hard and be

disciplined. As we all know, to become successful or even live happy and meaningful lives, we have to make an effort and show up every day. And that becomes easier if your dopamine system works in your favor.

So, how do we prepare for a “dopamine fast”? Here are two necessary steps:

1. Become conscious of your digital life

Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous (ITAA) has developed some great tools. However, you don’t have to be addicted to benefit from their models.

ITAA has a framework to classify different online behaviors. Determining what kinds of digital activities you need to be careful with, what are beneficial uses, and what is not an issue for you can be very useful. Using their framework made a big difference for me.

Their system is divided into bottom, middle, and top lines:

1.                   Bottom lines: We should abstain from digital activities at all costs.

 

These are our digital compulsions or addictions. When we engage in these activities, we cannot stop and we get lost in them. We lose self-esteem every time we spend time on our bottom lines. I recommend using Focusme to block your bottom lines.

2.                   Middle lines: These digital activities can trigger us.

Knowing what can trigger us to access our bottom lines is very important. Personally, I used to struggle with porn addiction, and for me watching porn is a bottom line. I am very conscious about anything that can trigger that unwanted behaviour, such as scrolling through Instagram or watching certain movies. Middle lines are digital activities that can lead us down the slippery slope to our bottom lines by triggering us by showing pictures and videos or evoking emotional states that make us vulnerable.

3.                   Top lines: These are healthy activities offline or with screens that empower us and improve how we feel about ourselves.

These kinds of activities keep us satisfied and happy and are beneficial to our lives. Top lines can be beneficial uses of technology, such as researching things, watching video lectures, recording music, and so on. Our top lines encompass healthy hobbies and activities we engage with outside tech that make our lives better.

Everyone’s bottom, middle, and top lines are different. We use different apps and digital activities online, and we have different interests and triggers. So, figuring out your bottom, middle, and top lines is a very useful exercise to gain some clarity.

By consciously thinking about what can trigger you, you are in a much better position to manage your digital use. That will help you become more aware and disciplined in your life.

Too many digital distractions

2. Identify other ways you go for instant gratification

Here are some other typical ways to go for easy pleasure:

  • “Doomscrolling”
  • Playing video games
  • Excessive procrastination
  • Online gambling
  • And so on…
 

You are set when you have identified the other typical ways you go for instant gratification online.

The big benefits of a dopamine fast.

You don’t have to become a monk. Simply having some small habits you do every day can make a huge difference and reset your dopamine levels.

Fasting from dopamine isn’t possible and not desirable. After all, we need dopamine to get motivated, and it is technically impossible.

Instead, “dopamine fasting” is about minimizing exposure to cheap dopamine from social media, online porn, and so on.

Here are some examples that I have used:

  • No social media use for the first hour after waking
  • No social media use for the last hour before
  • Avoiding bottom lines (your problematic internet habits).
  • Going to the gym and leaving your phone at
  • Putting your phone in a different room for two hours while
 

If you avoid your bottom lines and also limit how much you go for instant gratification, your dopamine system will thank you.

Final thoughts

What matters most is that we limit the cheap pleasures in our lives. Otherwise, our brain’s reward system will become desensitized to the smaller pleasures in life. And your ability to work hard will disappear since your dopamine system is desensitized.

If you have too many easy pleasures in your life, the things you do to give you pleasure will produce pain.

It might not seem like fun to place restrictions on ourselves, but it will actually cause you to enjoy life a lot more and make the smaller things more enjoyable.

My life has improved by being more conscious about easy online pleasures. Having a healthy

dopamine system has also skyrocketed my ability to work hard. And the same can happen to you, too. Havard Mela is an author, coach, and digital minimalist. You can check out his website here.

If you feel it’s time for a dopamine fast, why not try FocusMe? Our FREE trial will get you on track for more productivity guaranteed! Click the button below to start a free trial today.