E24 - How to boost motivation with digital diet: [3x30-Detox-Rule]

Hi everyone,

My name is Lemmy and this is my story of how I became The Attention Master.

If you find yourself scrolling without any good reason, then episode 24 is for you. Let's dive in!

Here is what you are going to learn today:

• How overuse leads to addiction.

• Why too much pleasure is a problem.

• Why mindless scrolling kills your motivation for important things.

• Actionable tips for digital diets.

What if I told you that mindless scrolling not only kills your time, but also your drive and, most importantly, your joy!

Most of you are here because you think that more time will solve all your problems and make your dreams come true.

You want to get to a point where you can enjoy your life and live it to the fullest.

But you don't need more time to get there. Time is a choice. We all have the same 24 hours.

So what do you really want? You want to make the most of your time.

And the fuel to do that is drive.

Here’s why mindless scrolling kills both, your drive and the joyful state you seek:

1. How pleasure and pain are connected to drive

Dr. Lembke, an American psychiatrist who is Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford University was a guest on The Huberman Lab podcast.

She explained something really interesting about how our brains balance pleasure and pain.

When we do things that we enjoy - like eating our favorite food, playing video games, or achieving a goal - our brains release dopamine. Dopamine makes us feel excited and motivated, like a "fuel" that keeps us going. Essentially, dopamine is our drive.

But here's the catch: after we feel good, our brains try to balance things out. For every bit of pleasure we get, there's a small amount of pain or discomfort that follows. We may not feel that pain right away, but it is very unsatisfying and therefore usually makes us crave more of whatever made us feel good in the first place.

This is how repetitive behaviors are established, and scrolling through feeds is the ultimate repetitive behavior.

So far so good, but where does this become a problem?

If social media gives us pleasure, why does the world claim it is addictive?

The answer: over time, we begin to feel less pleasure, even as we get more dopamine.

When you need more of something to get the same effect, you develop a tolerance that eventually leads to addiction.

Here’s why you start to feel less pleasure:

2. Downregulation of dopamine

Excessive activities that flood the brain with dopamine — such as playing too many video games or spending too much time on social media — can make dopamine receptors less sensitive.

Think of dopamine receptors as bridges to your brain. When these receptors are overused, they become fragile, disrupting the natural flow of dopamine.

When you overstimulate your brain with social media, your dopamine from natural sources may become less effective. Natural sources of dopamine are activities like working, playing sports, or creating art — anything that requires real effort.

These activities are usually fulfilling, but the amount of dopamine they produce is limited. This isn't an issue as long as dopamine effectively reaches your brain. However, if your dopamine receptors are overstimulated, this can change.

As a result, you may experience decreased motivation, mood, and cognitive function.

3. Actionable tips

To reset your dopamine balance and revitalize your receptors, Dr. Lembke says we need to give our brains a break. We should spend some time doing things that aren't exciting — like just relaxing or even feeling a little bored. This helps our brains "reset" so that we can enjoy things again without feeling like we always need more.

We recommend The 3×30-Detox-Rule: Every day, go fully offline for at least

• 30 minutes of your lunch break.

• 30 minutes at the end of your work day.

• 30 minutes before you sleep.

On top of that, you should do a real Digital Detox for

• 1 day every month, and

• 2-3 days once a quarter or (if you are up for a challenge) a full week once a year.

Additionally, sunlight exposure can increase dopamine receptor levels, particularly the DRD4 receptor. This enhances the effects of circulating dopamine throughout the day, which in turn boosts motivation and mood.

This knowledge comes at 0 cost

If you learned something,
be generous and share it with friends or family.

See ya next week
Lemmy

Recap:

• You don’t lack time to reach your goals, you lack energy.

• Dopamine = Drive.

• Social media gives us pleasure.

• The pleasure is followed by pain.

• To get rid of the pain, we seek more of the pleasure.

• The more we seek pleasure from one source (such as social media), the more of it we need because the effectiveness goes down.

• The overstimulation through artificial sources of dopamine (e.g. social media) makes the brain less receptive for natural sources of dopamine (e.g. work or sports).

• Weakend dopamine receptors = less joy.

• Offline breaks = Reset for dopamine & receptors.

• Try to stop stimulation of your brain for 90 minutes every day, ideally seperated into 3 × 30min bouts.

Interested in more of our work?

If you’ve made it this far, perhaps you’d be interested in our other FREE resources:

1. Most read of all time: The Happiness Checklist

2. Our Procrastinator Quiz to identify your unique procrastination type. (We all have at least one)

3. Our Screen Time Program that will bring down your overall screen time by 25% and more.

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Sources:

1. Huberman about Pain & Pleasure

2. Anna Lembke about Dopamine and Addiction

ONE MORE WAY WE CAN HELP YOU

We know that mastering your attention is extremely difficult. It's not going to happen in a day. That's why we've created Lemio, an app designed to be your personal buddy on the journey.