Do this to quiet your overstimulated brain

🎮 Tip: Tally your daily dopamine urges.

On Mind Cafe, Sean Kernan explains that the reason many of us can’t seem to get anything done isn’t because we’re lazy, but because we’re overstimulated. We’re swirling in a drain of pings and notifications and open tabs that lead us to other tabs. Something that can help: Analyzing our behavior like scientists.

Kernan suggests taking a piece of paper and adding a tally mark every time you catch yourself itching for a dopamine hit—a peek at your Instagram “likes” or a look at Slack three minutes after you last checked it, for instance. “It’s not unusual to have 50 lines on your first try,” Kernan writes. Once you know your number for the day, try to lower it tomorrow. Notice how, over time, your urges becomes less frequent and your mind becomes yours again.

📱 More from Forge on separating you from your devices:

How to Kick a Mindless Scrolling Habit
Read more >>

A Radical (But Doable) Plan for Breaking Your Phone Addiction
Read more >>

I Cured My Social Media Addiction by Reading Books
Read more >>

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