E01 - Why you should avoid using your phone early in the morning

Today you’ll learn about:

• How dopamine works

• Why successful people avoid their phone in the morning and what they do instead

• Hebb’s law: why you train your brain for distractions

Dopamine - The motivation molecule

Let me first explain to you how dopamine, the brain chemical responsible for motivation works, and why you should avoid your smartphone early in the morning at all costs!

1. The Water Pool Analogy

Dopamine equals motivation and it’s released when we Desire or Crave something. Then it drops because we don’t have that thing yet. Then it increases again in our pursuit to get that thing we want.

Now imagine these ups and downs like waves in a pool of water.

Smaller, less frequent waves maintain a relatively constant baseline.

But if waves are too intense or if they come at a high frequency, then water is spilled from the pool, and it takes time until the water A.K.A. dopamine is refilled to reach the pool baseline again.

Intense waves can come from sex or drugs.

Frequent waves are caused by social media where you get many small dopamine ups and downs in the wink of a swipe.

If you do this first thing in the morning, you will end up spilling water A.K.A. dopamine A.K.A. motivation before you leave your house or even your bed.

2. The Reward Prediction Error

The second problem that comes along with screen time early in the day is related to the “Reward Prediction Error”. This concept says that the dopamine released upon receiving the reward is compared to what we expected.

The expectations that we have in the morning are extremely high since we did not check for updates for the last 6-10 hours when we have been sleeping. Unsurprisingly, the disappointment is also very high when we realize that nothing special happened overnight.

So, we have a big desire A.K.A. dopamine peak followed by a big drop since our reward prediction was massively wrong.

Again: Water spilled, motivation killed!

3. Prime your brain for action - You are not a slave!

Your brain works like a training system: what you repeat, you reinforce. In neuroscience this is often explained through Hebb’s law (“neurons that fire together wire together”): the more frequently you run a pattern, the more efficient your brain becomes at executing it. So if your default move is to get distracted for a quick hit of novelty first thing in the morning, your brain gets really good at doing exactly that all day long.

That’s why “I can’t focus” is usually backwards logic. You wouldn’t expect to become good at basketball if you practiced soccer every day. Same principle: if you practice distraction all day, you’ll become skilled at distraction - not focus.

That’s why protecting your mornings have the highest impact on living your entire day with intention, and also to get your overall screen time down.

When you check email or social media, you prioritize everyone else’s demands over your own first thing in the morning.

And you train your brain to be reactive.

Instead, successful people do the opposite. They are proactive and in control of their actions. They train their brain for action and getting things done. The best way to that is by creating a phone free morning routine first 60-90 minutes of your day to set the direction for your brain.

Need some inspiration? Here is what the celebs do:

Robert Downey Jr. - The actor ensures all his most important work is done within the first few hours of waking up, so no checking social media or emails first thing!

Ashley Graham - The model starts her day by setting her intentions for the day, followed by reading a motivational or uplifting excerpt from one of her favorite books.

Orlando Bloom - Begins his day by tracking his sleep quality and then spends precious time with his young daughter. After this, Bloom chants for 20 minutes which is followed by reading Buddhist texts.

That’s it for today.
This knowledge comes at 0 cost.
If you learned something, be generous
and share it with friends or family.

See ya next week
Stephan

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