"Dopamine Loading" is the Cheat Code for Productivity

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]If the first thing you do when you open your eyes in the morning is you grab your phone, you start scrolling through TikTok, Instagram, perhaps even go to pornography, congratulations, you belong to this ever-growing group right here.

[00:00:12]Normies. Normies are people with big ambitions, big goals. They want to start their own business, they want to make money, they want to get good grades, they want to be in great shape, but whenever they sit down to do any kind of work, their brain just says, "Nope."

[00:00:28]While on the other hand, we have the Chads of the world. They have the same exact goals and aspirations as normies, but the difference is they are laser-focused. They show up every single day and they get closer to their goals, eventually achieving them. Now, why is that? Are Chads smarter than normies?

[00:00:48]No. Do they have better genetics, maybe?

[00:00:50]Nope.

[00:00:51]Actually, I know what it is. They must not have social media. No, it's none of those things. These guys still use Instagram, they still watch YouTube, they still watch Netflix and play video games with their boys, but the difference is they understand how their dopamine system works and they use it to their advantage. They are dopamine loading.

[00:01:15]So, welcome to class. My name is Neboisha for those of you who don't know me. I have a PhD in biology and today's topic is dopamine loading and we're going to go over what dopamine loading is, why it works so well, and make it all the way to the end of the video, I don't promise that you'll be a millionaire with a six-pack, but I do promise that I'll teach you how you can apply dopamine loading into your own life, so you can stop procrastinating on the things that you know you should be doing and you can still have your fun, because ultimately, you don't need to lock yourself in a room, destroy your phone, and freaking meditate for 2 hours in an ice bath to be productive. No. You can get all of your work done, you can be productive and then still have your fun, too, by dopamine loading. So, firstly, what is dopamine loading?

[00:02:10]Well, to answer that question, I've read many, many books on productivity, focus, and work, like Flow from Mihaly, like Four-Hour Work Week by Mr. Tim Ferriss, and Deep Work by Cal Newport, and they're all great books. You should give them a read, but the core idea is always the same, which is basically dopamine loading. You should delay your high-stimulation, high-dopamine stimulation activities for later on in the day once you've finished all of your cognitively demanding tasks and once you've ticked off all of your to-do list.

[00:02:50]Now, why does dopamine loading work?

[00:02:53]Well, firstly, dopamine loading is the opposite of what most people do, because most people, what they do is soon as they wake up, we know they grab their phone and they spike their dopamine levels through the roof. And then, once they are up here, they realize, "Oh my god, I've spent 2 hours in my stinky bed. I should probably get up and get some work done." So, their dopamine levels crash down and then, once they sit down to do some kind of work, they can't focus. They are tired already, so they get frustrated. And then, that frustration leads them to grabbing their phone to feel better, which then spikes their dopamine through the roof again, and then they are in panic mode, "I'm wasting my time." And then, they sit down to do work again, and then they are constantly in this up-and-down, up-and-down roller coaster of dopamine, which is exactly why they can't get anything productive done in their day. At the end of the day, they go to bed disappointed because they've been unproductive and they lie to themselves saying, "Tomorrow will be different." But it's never different because once they wake up tomorrow, the first thing they do is grab their phones. While on the other hand, Chads understand how their dopamine system works, which is why after waking up, they go straight to work, which allows them to have hours and hours of undistracted, focused work on the tasks that actually get them closer to their goals. And eventually, once they're done with all of their tasks, then they can have their fun and do whatever the hell they want. Now, why does dopamine dopamine loading work? The first reason dopamine loading works is because our brains basically reset every single time that we go to bed to sleep. They don't fully factory reset like our phones. You can't really undo the damage that you've done by years of scrolling, but every single morning, your dopamine levels are back to whatever your current baseline is, which means if you're at zero and then you spike your dopamine through the roof, then, once you're down here, eventually, what comes up must come down, eventually, when you're here down with your dopamine, of course, then work feels hard and miserable. But on in this case, in Chad's case, when they're dopamine loading, if they go straight to work after waking up, then, of course, work will feel much more manageable and not that miserable.

[00:05:27]Second reason why dopamine loading works so well is because our brains are great at comparing and contrasting things.

[00:05:35]What I mean by that is your brain is constantly comparing what you're currently doing to what you did prior to that. In practice, that means that an activity will either feel good or bad depending on what came before it, which is exactly why work feels miserable here, because once you sit down to work, then your brain is comparing freaking studying for an hour to watching Squid Game on Netflix for an hour. Of course, studying can't match that kind of a dopamine high. It just can't. It falls in comparison. Whereas in this case, your brain is comparing work to basically nothing, because you just woke up. It has no artificial highs to compare it to. Then, of course, you will feel easier.

[00:06:24]Cool. The third reason dopamine loading works so well is because you can do the work and then reward yourself later. You can have the reward without ruining your whole day by structuring your day like this instead of like this, because you can have your cake and eat it, too, as they say.

[00:06:46]Now, to give you an example of to really drive this point home, I want you to think of this for a second. Our brains are freshest in the morning and if you start your day by bombarding it with fake, cheap dopamine, then, of course, that will dictate how the rest of your day unfolds. In the same way, when you wake up, your brain is freshest because it has no fatigue.

[00:07:14]There's no information that has entered here.

[00:07:17]So, for example, if I asked you to do 20 push-ups right now, when you're fresh, you would probably do it no problem. But if I asked you to do the same 20 push-ups, but I asked you to do 100 burpees beforehand, then all of a sudden, those same 20 push-ups are going to feel so much harder, right?

[00:07:38]Now, before we get into how you can apply dopamine loading into your own life, I'll quickly walk you how I structure my own days, so you can get an idea.

[00:07:49]I wake up around 5:00 a.m. every morning.

[00:07:52]I go straight to a cold shower. I hydrate heavily with water and electrolytes, because side note, hydration is incredibly important and it's something that gets overlooked often.

[00:08:06]Every morning that you wake up, you're going to be dehydrated because your body has used all of those fluids to recover your body and your brains. So, I recommend getting down at least half a liter of water with a pinch of salt into your system as soon as you can. So, 5 5:00 a.m., wake up, shower, brush my teeth, get those electrolytes in, and by 5:20, I'm out the door for a 20-minute walk. By 6:00 6:00 a.m. or so, I am downing my coffee and I'm upstairs doing cardio on the bike or I am running for 1 hour. After that's done, I'm back at 7:00 a.m. I refresh, I have plenty of water to replenish what I've lost, and light breakfast before I head into my first working session. I run my own personal training business, so a typical session will last 45 minutes to an hour, and then I have a work block from 8:00 a.m.

[00:09:08]to around 12:00 p.m., right around noon.

[00:09:12]Uh 12:00 to 1:00 is when I do my own strength training. Then, after that, 1:00 to, let's say, 4:00 p.m. is when I have another work work block, after which I have my feast around 5:00 p.m.

[00:09:28]That's when I have my feast for the day.

[00:09:30]After that, I have a long walk and I think of ideas for content, like making this video. I help my body digest all the food that I've just consumed and it helps lower your uh blood sugar spike after a big meal. So, after I'm done walking and I've thought of ideas for content, I've helped digest this meal, I am done for the day. I completely shut off all work obligations. I have nothing on my mind left, and then around 6:00 p.m.

[00:10:06]is when I just do whatever the hell I want. Some evenings I watch YouTube. Some evenings I watch Dragon Ball Z on Netflix. Some evenings I'm just playing chess. But honestly, it's whatever I feel like in the moment.

[00:10:23]Now, a huge point that I want to make is don't try to copy me because this is my routine that works for my own needs. But you can take the key principles and apply them into your own life and your own goals. So, here's five simple rules for you to follow to apply dopamine loading successfully and effectively into your own life. Firstly, this is a non-negotiable, by far the most important rule of them all. No phone in bed. That goes for waking up and going to sleep. Secondly, you don't need a fancy routine. Stop with this nonsense of waking up at 4:00 a.m., icing your balls, and then levitating. What what is all this Just get up, get some hydration in, and go straight to work. It's as simple as that.

[00:11:20]Rule number three, put your hard tasks early on in the day because as we've already discussed, your brain is freshest in the morning, so you can afford to load it when the time is right. Fourth rule, delay cheap dopamine. Delay it for later when you have actually earned it because that's how it should be. You earn the reward, and then you reward yourself.

[00:11:45]You don't reward yourself for nothing, and then try to work. It doesn't even make any sense.

[00:11:51]Anyhow, rule number five is decide on your cut off. For me, that's 6:00 p.m.

[00:11:57]At 6:00 p.m., I just shut off all notifications. You can't reach me, and I am done for the day. I do whatever the hell I want.

[00:12:04]If we go back to my example of my own routine, you can see that most of my day is spent in these low natural dopamine states where I am just doing work, I'm working out, or I'm learning something.

[00:12:19]And then at the end of the day, I can afford to blast my brain with the nonsense like YouTube, Netflix, or whatever else.

[00:12:27]And just like that, we have covered what dopamine loading is, why it works so well, and how you can apply dopamine loading into your own life so you can stop being a loser that gets nothing done, and you can actually be productive and still have your fun, still sprinkling a bit of distractions and abominations at the end of the evening.

[00:12:51]And that concludes this class. I want to say that our parents were freaking right. It really is that damn phone.

[00:13:03]Now, make sure you subscribe, follow me on Instagram, and send me a video of you doing 20 push-ups, and I'll choose one of you guys to send you a personalized workout plan. If you want, of course. If not, I don't care. Have a good weekend anyways.

[00:13:19]I'll see you soon.