Dopamine and discipline, fix these two to fix your life

Modern life is breaking your dopamine and messing up your life. Here are the most common examples of high dopamine low effort activities:

Social media scrolling (Instagram, TikTok, etc.)

Pornography

Ultra-processed food (sugar, fast food, snacks)

Video games

Binge-watching shows/movies

Online shopping

Gambling / betting apps

Drugs, alcohol, nicotine

Constant texting & notifications

Chasing likes/comments/followers

If you check the list above, then you will find at least one activity that makes you feel guilty. You feel guilty because you know that you could cut that activity and do something that could lead you to reaching your goals and give you more freedom in life.

I feel the same way, so to learn more about how dopamine (reward system works), I listened to Impact Theory podcast with guest Andrew Huberman and learned about how this process happens. Just knowing how this process works does not guarantee immediate results, however it gives more understanding and space to self – improvement.

How dopamine and the reward system work

Dopamine = Motivation, not pleasure. It drives you to pursue things, not enjoy them. You can enjoy food without dopamine, but you won’t work to get it.

Pursuit feeds dopamine. Most of dopamine is released before you get the reward – during craving, friction, or effort. If you enjoy the pursuit, you can stay motivated longer.

Pain amplifies pleasure. The harder or more painful the effort, the greater the dopamine release afterward. Ice bath, hard work, or even failing and recovering can increase motivation.

Reward prediction error. If reality is worse than expected, your dopamine drops, and you feel disappointed. If better than expected, it spikes. Manage your expectations to avoid burning out.

Post-win dopamine crash. After success, you feel a natural drop. Instead of chasing the next hit right away, rest. Let your dopamine baseline reset.

“No-Go” circuit. Deliberately resisting urger (like checking your phone) builds self-control. This strengthens discipline at the brain level.

 

How modern life destroys motivation

Too much easy pleasure. Social media, junk food, porn, and binge content give dopamine without effort. This damages your brain’s ability to get motivated from real challenges.

Overstimulation =Burnout. Constant dopamine spikes make you numb. You need more stimulation for the same pleasure. This can feel like low motivation or even mild depression.

Context switching. Apps like TikTok overload your brain with constant change. This leads to restlessness, distraction, and stress.

Addiction shrinks joy. Addiction narrows the range of what gives you pleasure. A meaningful life requires expanding what makes you happy – especially effort-based joy.

Sleep disruption = emotional instability. Light between 10 pm and 4 am suppresses dopamine and emotional reset during REM sleep. Night scrolling = more anxiety, less motivation.

 

How to Build discipline and healthy routines

Attach dopamine to effort. Learn to love the process. This rewires your brain for long-term success.

Delay gratification. Celebrate wins gently. Don’t spike dopamine too high or you’ll crash harder. Let the journey be the reward.

Use voluntary friction. Do hard things or purpose(cold exposure, workouts, mental challenges). They make your brain stronger and raise baseline dopamine.

Dopamine fasting. Take breaks from instant pleasures. No phone, no sugar, no binge content. This resets your reward system and makes real-life effort feel good again.

Stick to rules. Build an identity: “I do what I say I will do.” Create personal rules and follow them strictly. This reinforces discipline.

Sleep right. Protect sleep by avoiding bright lights late at night. It’s vital for motivation, mood, and mental clarity.

Balance activation and rest. Alternate between intense focus/work (dopamine-driven) and real rest. This “arousal-relaxation dance” keeps you going for the long term.

Don’t feed trolls. Arguing online gives others a dopamine hit. Ignoring them protects your own focus and weakens their cycle.

 If you want to listen to podcast and learn more, then here is the link: 

Neuroscientist: "Even A Little Bit Of Social Media & Porn Does This To Your Life!" | Andrew Huberman

You’re Losing the Social Media Game — and You Don’t Even Realize It

You keep wasting time on technology and social media. Every fix you try works for a while… then you’re back at it. The worst part? You don’t even notice when it happens. By the time you do, you’re already deep into mindless scrolling, and even though you know it’s screwing up your life—you don’t want to stop.

Why? Because this isn’t just your fault. It’s a trap. You’re playing a game rigged by people who want you to lose. Social media companies don’t care about your goals, your time, or your mental state. They care about one thing: money. How do they get it?

Keep your eyes glued to the screen.
Harvest your data.
Sell you stuff you didn’t ask for.

That’s the game. And they’re damn good at it.

These platforms are engineered to hijack your brain—bright colors, endless notifications, algorithmic dopamine hits. It’s not a fair fight. You’re not addicted because you're weak. You’re addicted because they made sure you would be.

So, is there a way out? Yes—but it’s not easy. No app or productivity hack is going to fix this for you. You need to take control back, step by step. Here's how:

Step 1: Get Clear on What Matters

Grab a pen and paper. Write down:
What are your goals?
What do you care about?
What kind of life do you want?

If you’ve already done this—good. If not, do it now. This list is your compass. Without it, you’ll keep drifting and will not find a fix to problem of social media.

Step 2: Watch Yourself

Start tracking how you spend time. Use screen time apps or browser trackers. Don’t try to change anything yet—just observe. Get real with yourself.


Step 3: Audit Your Feeds

When you scroll, ask:
Does this help me reach my goals?
Is this actually useful?
Do I know the person who posted this?

If the answer is no—unsubscribe, unfollow, unfriend. Make this a daily habit. Don’t try to wipe it all out in a day—you’ll burn out. Instead, everyday work on it. Very soon you will notice how all media you use becomes less time consuming and more aligned with your goals.

Keep only:
Just-in-time info (relevant now)
People you know or learn from

Delete everything else. “Just in case” is a trap.


Step 4: Set Boundaries

Pick a specific time for entertainment or scrolling. Never do it during work or learning—your focus will take a hit.

Over time, start reducing this window. Track your screen time weekly. Celebrate progress.


Final Note 

Not everything you do “online” is helping your main goals. Be ruthless. If it’s not useful, it’s a distraction—no matter how productive it feels.

Start following information diet to regain mental clarity

Pearl by Pawel Kuczynski

Do you feel constant urge to check your mobile and social media?

Do you spend most of your time staring at screen?

Do you often forget what you have heard few seconds ago or what you need to do?

Do you feel as if your peers are doing great things and achieving their goals while you are stuck in the same place?

Are you failing at focusing at task at hand and not reaching your life goals?

If you are answering yes to above written questions then I suspect you are not following information diet and consuming more content than you can process. Too much information and constant use of information technologies will have a negative impact on your mental health and your life in general. You start wasting huge amount of precious time on useless things, fail to finish your tasks for the day and be stuck in the same place (career position, financial condition, and professional level) for many years.

I was very bad at following information diet for many years. Several years ago, I even did not know that I have such a problem. It seemed to me that diving into Internet and spending time in social media for several hours a day is a normal thing and assumed that many friends of mine do this. Furthermore this was and still is such a fun thing to do. However, by passage of time, it became clear that I need to limit my time and care more about what I am directing and spending my attention in daily basis. Then I learned about information diet and started following it. In last few years, I made good progress at cutting out most of information that do not make any useful contribution to my life. During this period I came up with few ideas that made good changes in my life. I want to share them with you here. Most of these ideas are not new or innovative, I learned them from Internet, and you also can search, learn and follow information diet, here is the link. So let’s start.

Information diet

Practice info diet – ignore all irrelevant, time consuming and unactionable information. Most of things you learn do not make any contribution to your life at all, why you spend time on them? Start cutting out such useless information from your life.

Maintain peaceful environment. Spend more time in quiet and peaceful environment. Eliminate all noise. Set distraction free mode in all devices and information channels so they do not beep or give some noise to pull your attention.

Limit news, social media TV, music, and movies. News and social media feeds are the most useless and junk information you inject to your brain. Limit time you spend in front of TV and watch only few movies in one week. Limit time you spend on social media (mine is 30 - 50 minutes per day, want to limit even more) and do not check email 1^st thing in the morning.

Make search list in advance & avoid netsurfing (jumping into rabbit hole of hyperlinks). Start forming a habit of making search list to search later or cut out social media while you are working on your device so you can focus on your task and finish it.

Select fun stuff wisely & limit its number. Choose few best movies, books or TV shows from available options, less is more. I try to be selective at reading books and watch up to 2 movies a week not more.

Socialize with your community. Spend more time with friends and do not use mobile phone while having fun with your friends.

Information channels

TV set. Choose few important channels and unsubscribe from the rest.

Radio and music. Select few radio channels and music lists and delete the rest.

Mobile phone. Set your mobile on distraction free mode. Turn off all notifications except few important ones. Delete everything useless in inbox, sent & draft messages, contacts, pictures, audios, videos, apps and other files.

Emails. Maintain empty email. Delete useless information from inbox, sent, archive, contact lists and other folders. Avoid posting and sharing your email in public web pages. Set spam filters.

Browsers. Sort out and delete old tabs. Uninstall useless and annoying apps, widgets, gadgets, and add-ons. Install apps that block ads and other distractions. Update browsers.

Social networks. Update all your profiles. Follow few important friends, influencers, groups and block the rest. Turn off email notifications. Modify privacy settings to limit distractions. Deactivate useless accounts.

Blog and news websites. Choose few important blogs and unsubscribe from the rest of information sources.

Podcasts. Unsubscribe from all podcasts you do not listen and keep only 2-3 of them that you listen on regular basis.

Computer. Set simple theme on desktop. Select and backup essential materials and delete the rest. Go through documents, pictures, audios, videos, software and other files. Update essential programs, firewall and antivirus.

So far these are the ideas and practices I learned and following till this day. They were very useful to me and I made pretty good changes in my habits and life. I hope this information will be useful to you and you also will be more conscious about information you are consuming in daily basis.