Slow Dopamine Vs. Fast Dopamine

One of my biggest productivity boosters has been the focus on slow dopamine over fast dopamine.

Slow dopamine is gotten from doing the things we might not want to do in the moment, but feel awesome afterwards. Working out, meditating, doing deep focused work with zero distractions, etc.

We get fast dopamine from the things we know we shouldn't be doing: being on our phones, blasting stuff into our headphones constantly, eating junk food, and on and on.

Anytime I start my day with a focus on gaining as much slow dopamine as possible, the hard stuff gets a lot easier.

Breaks become enjoyable.

And work gets done ahead of schedule.

When we focus on gaining those slower rewards, we ironically get to where we want much faster.