Doctor’s Insight: Your brain isn’t lazy — it’s wired to seek rewards.

Dear Andrea Csilla,

A few weeks ago, a client told me:

“I sat down to write the report... and 40 minutes later, I was reading about travel tips for Iceland. I don’t even have a trip planned!”

She wasn’t alone.
I hear this every week from high-performing professionals.

They know what they need to do.
They care about the outcome.
But somehow... they scroll, snack, check messages — and delay the important work.

As a doctor, I can tell you:
This isn’t about laziness. It’s about dopamine.

🧠 How Dopamine Drives Your Focus (and Distraction)

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in motivation, reward, and habit formation.
It’s often misunderstood as the “pleasure chemical” — but it’s really about anticipating rewards, not just enjoying them.

Your brain is constantly scanning:
🧭 What will give me the fastest hit of reward right now?

Important tasks (like strategy planning, writing, and problem-solving) often involve delayed gratification.
Meanwhile, checking your phone or refreshing your inbox gives you instant dopamine spikes — a quick “hit.”

The result?
You procrastinate not because you’re unfocused, but because your brain is efficiently chasing the faster reward.

🧪 The Science

A 2018 study published in Nature Communications found that dopamine neurons fire more rapidly when we anticipate uncertain rewards, like notifications or social media updates. This makes distraction not just tempting, but biologically compelling (Mohebi et al., 2018).

💡 Doctor’s Tip: Train Your Brain with Delayed Rewards

Try this over the next 5 days:

✅ Start your day with one task that has no screen or reward attached (e.g., planning, thinking, writing)
✅ Use a visible progress tracker (dopamine loves visual feedback!)
✅ Give yourself a conscious reward only after deep work:
       – coffee
       – walk
       – music
       – social scroll (yes, in that order)

You’re not trying to fight dopamine — you’re retraining it.

🎯 You Don’t Need More Willpower.

You Need to Work With Your Brain Chemistry.

Protect your focus. Protect your health.

👉 Book a 30-minute Team Productivity & Well-Being Strategy Session with me — and let’s build your dopamine-smart productivity system together.

📚 References

Mohebi, A., Pettibone, J. R., Hamid, A. A., Wong, J. T., Vinson, L. T., Patriarchi, T., ... & Berke, J. D. (2018). Dissociable dopamine dynamics for learning and motivation. Nature Communications, 9(1), 1-13.

Have a productive day!

Andrea

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