8 slow dopamine habits that are saving me from brainrot

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Do you ever get that feeling that you know exactly what you need to do to get the things you want in life, but you just can't really ever seem to find the motivation to actually do it? Like you're writing the to-do list, you're saving the inspirational Tik Toks, you're setting your alarm early, but when the time comes to actually do the thing, you just wind up scrolling on your phone looking at the latest cat video just to get some kind of sense of relief. No, but I really am. I'm obsessed with this cat. But I did realize this one important thing, and that it's not a laziness, motivation, or a knowledge problem. It's a dopamine problem. And quite frankly, I've been feeling it, too. I feel like I'm losing my attention span. I feel like I'm getting dumber. I feel like the things that bring me joy are getting harder to do. And it all really comes back down to this damn phone. So, today I'm going to be sharing eight tiny habits that I've been doing lately to start favoring slow and expensive dopamine over the cheap and fast stuff so I can rewire my brain.

[00:00:53]And it all starts with this first non-negotiable. And that's starting your day with creating instead of consuming because my mornings started to look a little something like this. And it's a little bit more embarrassing than I'd like to admit. But let me know if this sounds familiar. You wake up to an alarm going off on your phone. And then the first thing you do is open up social media. Let's just do a cheeky little scroll to start the day. It's not going to be a big deal. But when you choose to do that, you are overloading your brain with cheap dopamine and over stimulation first thing in the morning. And then you wonder why doing anything else later on in the day, like making a decision, focusing, or being productive, becomes so much harder. But that's not necessarily your fault. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that all of us have, and its main role is played in motivation and reward. If you do something that your brain likes and considers rewarding, dopamine gets released, and it basically says, "Huh, that was good. Let's do it again." But the problem with it is that when you start indulging in hyper satisfying, hyperrewarding activities is that it quickly spikes your dopamine really high and really fast. So if you do something really pleasurable and spike it really high, in order to get back to that balance, it's going to have to come crashing back down. And that's where the problem is. And if you start your day this way, then you've already hijacked your dopamine receptors. You're just setting yourself up for a day of lost focus and distractions. And believe me, I was feeling this bad. Even though I love starting my day kind of getting an update on what my favorite foster cat is up to, she let her pet her. I felt like my brain was a scattered mess for the rest of the day, and I felt like I wasted so much more time scrolling and checking my phone when I was really looking to be productive. So, to combat this, I've been working on protecting my mornings. For me, it's getting right out of bed and going straight to the gym.

[00:02:38]For you, it could be writing in a journal for 5 minutes. It could be staying in bed and meditating or doing some gratitude affirmations before you actually get up and start your morning routine. But it's important to start your day with something that requires a little bit of effort and a little friction, especially if you're trying to rewire your brain away from cheap sources of dopamine and over stimulation. And if you do start your day with a little bit of friction, it's going to make any other things you do later on in that day feel a lot more rewarding. you just set yourself up for focus, success, and the things that you want to be doing rather than your phone just stealing your time all day long.

[00:03:12]And speaking of friction, this brings me into habit number two, and that is you guys, we have to learn to embrace boredom. Like, as a society, our inability to be bored is kind of alarming. The average global screen time in 2026 has gone up to 7 hours a day.

[00:03:29]And I don't know if you taken a second to think about the math there, but that adds up to 49 hours a week, aka two full days of just scrolling on a phone.

[00:03:41]But you know how people say that their best ideas come to them in the shower?

[00:03:45]Well, I'm starting to think it's because it's the only time that we give ourselves away from our devices. So, I've been working on giving myself essentially shower time throughout the day. Basically, you need to get used to the discomfort of letting yourself do nothing. Because if you really think about it, we use our phones and turn to our phones because we just don't want to deal. And it's what we've essentially conditioned ourselves to reach for whenever we feel any bit of boredom, sadness, stress, or loneliness.

[00:04:13]Basically, any feeling that you just want to avoid. But I'm slowly learning to choose to either feel a feeling or just embrace doing nothing in order to get my brain back, lower my stimulation, and just let that pass. And I do think that is a better trade-off than doom scrolling for 2 hours and feeling like absolute afterwards. And this is going to be a lot easier to do if you start doing this next thing, and that is to put your freaking phone away. This thing is not allowed in three places. in the bedroom, in the bathroom, and in my office. And you know why? Because if it's within arms reach, I'm going for it. Simple as that. Setting no phone zones has been especially beneficial if I'm trying to do some productive and deep work because I noticed that if I end up doing something hard like writing a script for example, I find I end up reaching for my phone literally the second I start to feel uncomfortable, the moment that I start self-editing, the moment that I start feeling like what I'm writing is stupid or this doesn't sound right, if my phone is within reach, I will stop, reach for it, and then I will immediately feel a sense of relief. It's actually kind of scary.

[00:05:20]When your phone is not within reach, you can start to develop that tolerance for discomfort that we all need. I needed to build up a tolerance for the discomfort of getting started on work that I thought was hard. I needed to develop a tolerance for not reaching for my phone the second I wanted to take a break. And it's even helping me build a tolerance of finding more reward in the process of doing deep and creative work rather than seeking even more of those cheap dopamine hits scrolling Tik Tok. But you know what? On the same token, none of us are perfect. you're gonna want to do a silly little scroll sometimes. And when that happens, I like to do this next step. I actually need this. So, what you're going to do is you're going to find things to replace the habit instead of completely removing it. So, instead of trying to force myself to go full cold turkey on my phone, which I just don't think I'm ready to do yet, I have been replacing my worst habit, which is scrolling social media, with things that I find more enjoyable, less stimulating, and more fulfilling. And one of the apps that I have been turning to a lot, especially when I want to have me a silly little doom scroll, is Index.

[00:06:22]Index is a digital wardrobe and styling app that I have been using for the last 2 years to track my closet, track my cost per wear, and even build wish lists so that I can see if the thing that I want to buy will work with my actual clothes in my closet. You upload photos of your own clothes. And if you want a better idea of how to do that, I have a whole tutorial right here that you can watch after this. But what I particularly love about Index is that it gives me something creative to do on my phone that isn't just giving in to passive scrolling. Like instead of opening up Tik Tok when I'm bored on my commutes downtown, I've been opening up Index and just building cute little outfits. It's actually so much fun. But I find it way less stimulating, much more creative, and I've even saved money in the long run because I'm learning to shop my own closet a lot more effectively rather than the internet just telling me what to buy next. And the best part about all of it is is that Index is completely free. There are some paid features on the app. But if you just want to get started in doing things like digitizing your wardrobe, creating outfits, and shopping your own closet, then you can check out my link down below where you can download Index free for Android and iOS. And rather than trying to fight against the urge to reach for your phone all the time, you can have some backup activities on your phone, whether it be an app like Index or having a book on there that you can read, just giving yourself an alternative that has a little bit of friction to it and requires some input rather than indulging in the slot machine that is social media. This next habit is a bit more related to the things that I'm choosing to consume because I realize that probably like 95% of any content that I watch is all through my phone. And I have recently made it a bit more of a habit and a point to start watching more low stimulation shows and movies, specifically cartoons and movies from like the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.

[00:08:09]>> TV be more funny. One of my favorite shows ever is The Simpsons, and I pretty much only watch seasons 1 through 15.

[00:08:16]Anything after that, I don't know. I'm just a bit too much of a purist. Um, I've been watching old movies from the '90s, like Clueless, Legally Blonde. I love me a romcom. I love me a makeover montage. What can I say? But basically, I've just been focusing on watching shows that don't have like a bunch of flashing lights and having the plot explained to me like 50 different times because I'm not paying attention and scrolling on my phone instead. If you're trying to minimize the amount of short form content that you watch, I think a really nice next step is to focus on transitioning to more long- form content. And doing that with a bit more intention, and I think watching it on a big screen rather than your tiny screen or on your laptop can just signal to your brain that like, hey, okay, we're ready to sit down and pay attention to something. But let me know down in the comments below your favorite show from the '9s.

[00:09:01]>> Uh, TV respects me. It laughs with me, not at me. you stupid.

[00:09:09]>> But if you're looking to take a break from screens altogether, then the next thing you can think about doing is finding a hobby. Hobbies are coming back and I am here for it. But I think it's even more important to start a hobby that is tactile, creative, and something that you do for no particular reason. As in there's no kind of like end goal in mind with it. So this could be reading, cooking, strength training, running. And I think it is important to embrace these hobbies for the pure and simple enjoyment of them for that sake alone rather than having some end goal or end result tied to it. There's something that I recently learned about in neuroscience called the overjustification effect where if you start to turn the things you enjoy into tasks rather than doing them just because then your brain actually starts to resist against doing them. So, for example, if you love running and then you say, "Gh, I need to get my cardio in," you're not going to actually want to do it. And this becomes a problem if you're trying to find ways to build up more expensive slowreleas dopamine, as in doing tasks that require a bit more friction to get started, but make you feel amazing at the end. If you turn it into a task that you need to do, then your brain will actually start to resist against it. So, do your hobbies for the sake and pure joy of doing them. So, not only does this encourage more friction and slow dopamine in your life, it also kind of just encourages more joy and whimsy. You just do something for the sake of it rather than the end result.

[00:10:35]Which brings me into the next slow dopamine habit. And it's something that I think we all can do more of, and that is to go and touch some grass, aka go outside. Like, what's better, this or this?

[00:10:50]But here's the new way I've been doing it. I have been going out in silence.

[00:10:55]So, no AirPods, no headphones. I don't take any calls. I don't listen to any podcasts, audiobooks. I don't even listen to music. Because the point here is to give yourself and your brain a real break. Even though things like music, podcasts, and audiobooks are all really important in their own way. I think they all have a place, you don't need to have something in your ear all the time. Your brain is actually begging you for a break. The point here is to really shut off and let kind of like the ambient sounds of nature and the city and wherever you are be your entertainment. And I'm not saying don't bring your phone with you. I still bring my phone with me everywhere for safety reasons, but I do have it on do not disturb and I don't bring any headphones or AirPods with me on purpose. And even just going around the block for 5 minutes always helps me come back to whatever I want to do next with a lot more calm and clarity. We are truly kidding ourselves whenever we say we're taking a scrolling break because you are just not. You're always going to come out feeling worse, less clear, more foggy, and more overstimulated. Just go outside. It's free and it works. And even though slow dopamine is all about adding a little bit of friction in your life, a little bit of push back, this next habit that I've been doing actually feels really good. And that is dopamine anchoring. Right now, if you couple a lot of your daily activities to your phone, like for example, having a video on while you're doing the dishes or putting away laundry or while you're cooking, all of this is still extremely overstimulating for your brain and you're not really giving it a proper break. And you're not really decoupling from your phone this way because minimizing the cheap sources of dopamine in your life is hard. You're basically trying to break some bad habits here.

[00:12:36]And if it always feels hard and like not that enjoyable to do, then guess what?

[00:12:40]you're just going to push back and rebel. You're not going to do it. So, all you need to do is change the anchor.

[00:12:45]So, you can do things like going to write your essay at the coffee shop. You can put on your favorite outfit before you get started. And, you know, you can use index to do that. Or you can do things like calling a friend while you're cooking instead of having a video on. The whole point here is that you're coupling a task that is either perceived to be a little bit hard or that you don't really want to do with something that feels just as rewarding but far less overstimulating. So, the goal with all these habits isn't necessarily to become fully analog and completely disconnect from our phones. I feel like that's really hard for a lot of people.

[00:13:14]I think instead is to be more intentional with the time that you do spend on it because we're all still going to except you need to be the one who's in control. So, let me know in the comments down below how you're adding some good dopamine and good friction into your life. And if you do find yourself still struggling with things like motivation, in this video I break down exactly how you can start relying on things like discipline instead. It's a whole lot easier. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next week.

[00:13:39]Bye.