Have you ever told yourself that you’re going to cut back on social media use or some other compulsive behavior?
And you actually succeed in cutting back, only to discover that your brain sneakily found some other thing to do compulsively instead. Something that otherwise you rarely do steps in to replace the original bad habit.
I call this the dopamine whack-a-mole.
It’s a game that I find myself playing quite a bit. One thing that helps me with it is being aware of when a new habitual distraction pops up. Then at least I can label it and bring it into conscious awareness. This gives me greater ability to pause the next time I reach for the new distraction.
The other thing that I’ve found to be helpful is to start each day with no phone, and instead give my attention to two things that I want to do or work on. I keep my phone in another room at night. Only after doing two things, whatever they may be, I can go on my phone if I need to. On the best days, I forget about my phone completely and get loads done. This is especially true whenever I’m trying to create something, as I’ve written about before. Keeping the phone away helps create space for new ideas.
Have you ever experienced this dopamine whack-a-mole? What are your favorite moles? How do you overcome them?