How I use habits to maximize productivity and life satisfaction
...or, hacking dopamine for productivity geeks
I’m a productivity geek. I don’t say that proudly; getting shit done is to me what a playing computer games is to someone with a moderate gaming addiction. It gives me a hit of dopamine to cross something off one of my lists. I can most closely liken the physical feeling to the first drag of a cigarette - relief and a feeling of pleasure. And the immediate need for more.
I recognize how unhealthy this can be: it has led me to focus on ticking boxes and often not enough on the bigger picture. It sounds great to others, being so productive, but it can lead to an inability to take a step back and think strategically.
I once referred to myself as a “box-ticker” in an interview and the hiring manager didn’t seem very pleased. I don’t blame him - after all, how much creativity can you bring to a job if you’re just focused on getting tasks done? But I know this about myself, and I’m tackling that too, as I’ll show later on. As they say, when you know better, you do better.
Anyway, I made some big changes to my habits in the last year that have enormously improved my productivity, happiness, AND my ability to think “big picture”. I’m going to share them here.
Habit optimization in 3 bullets
Like many people who want to improve their lives, I became pretty enamored with the zeitgeisty “habit optimization” field (I’ve read Atomic Habits at least 3 times). Distilled down in 3 points:
instead of setting goals, establish systems and habits that set you up to achieve those goals.
the key is in creating feedback loops of habits: use a cue to motivate you to perform the habit, use rewards to stimulate pleasure from the habit and create a craving to do it again. And repeat.
stack healthy habits together to create momentum and crowd out unhealthy habits.
I’ll go through how I use these to achieve a very happy balance of productivity, growth, and personal satisfaction for myself - I hope they strike a chord with one of you, too.
Dopamine for the layman and why it matters
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that gets released in response to the expectation of a reward. It’s critical in motivating humans to do things that move themselves towards survival: dopamine peaks upon the expectation of an imminent reward (e.g. you see the juicy hamburger you ordered being delivered to your table; you lift a cigarette to your mouth and prepare to light up).
In my case, I like getting things done because it makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something good. This leads to the following chain reaction: I’m worthy > I’m loved > I’m secure. This pattern is too detailed to go into here, but suffice to say that it’s so strong for me that even the anticipation of completing a task can bring on a hit of dopamine.
There’s lots written about dopamine and how to use it (and how it’s often abused). I recommend Andrew Huberman’s fantastic podcast episode on dopamine or Dopamine Nation By Dr. Anna Lembke.
At risk of oversimplification, the key to optimizing for dopamine to create good habits is to not overload your system with too many dopamine stimuli (cocaine bad), and to create natural peaks and troughs. In other words, in your off-time, don’t scroll through Instagram - this will overload your dopamine system. Allow yourself to reach a natural baseline again, so that the next “high” you feel at the anticipation of a reward will be truly rewarding.
Hold on, I’m not a nerd like you. I don’t care about ticking boxes.
You might not all be box-checkers like me. If you don’t get that luscious feeling I do when marking something “done” on my list, you’ll have to layer in some other (healthy) rewards. The key here is that they have to be easy and not deleterious to your habits. Don’t crash for an hour in front of Netflix as a reward for completing 30 minutes of writing when you have other things to do. Don’t eat an ice cream as a reward for a run if you’re trying to lose weight (obviously).
Now that I’ve said this, I’m going to get something out of the way. I assume that most of you will derive some satisfaction from getting things done, especially if those things move you towards your goal. Even if you’re not as extreme as me, I would encourage you to strengthen this response. Pair it with visualization, maybe, to strengthen the connection. See yourself achieving your goal for a couple of seconds. It sounds hokey, but it works.
The key is to rely on the completion of the habits themselves as the rewards instead of external stimuli. This drastically improves your efficiency and satisfaction. Research has shown that people who are internally motivated (those who have an “internal locus of control”) are more engaged and satisfied than those of us who look to external sources of satisfaction and affirmation. One can develop their intrinsic motivation by introspecting about and following internal motivations and goals - especially those that align with bigger-scale impacts.
My most recent/successful habit experimentation
In late 2021, I was in a “meh” job that had me working long hours. I was living with my mom because I had just graduated from a Masters program and was finding my footing. Shortly after that, I got a fantastic job, moved in with a partner and put on about 4kgs (a lot on my small frame and I blame him - he can exist solely on carbs and fat). I wasn’t exercising as much as I’d like. I was performing ok in my job but not feeling like a great leader and not feeling like I was growing enough personally - basically like I was smashing everything out without learning or improvement. Overall, feeling like the big things in my life were OK but I wasn’t operating at my best. I wanted to change things and knew, from all my reading and previous experience, that this needed to be supported by a change in habits.
So I jotted down my goals and supporting habits in a gmail to myself (don’t judge, it’s how I keep notes). They were things like:
Be more active. Do 10k steps per day and lift weights 2x per week
Be a better communicator at work. Read 10% of a book on communication each day and practice thoughtful communication in 2 meetings per week. Ask for feedback.
Accomplish my key tasks at work while not feeling overwhelmed. Spend 1 hour working on strategic projects before noon (I blocked off time for this in calendar, as well as another flexible 2 hour slot in the afternoon. This is a tactic I’ve used for years. Its hard to accomplish but I’ve made it work in a variety of environments. It’s worth another post.) Note: the key here was in using this time to work on the most strategic projects instead of just doing all the admin/operational tasks that my job sometimes requires. Those, I fit in later.
Lose weight. 16 hour fast per day, no snacking. (I’ve experimented with pretty much every eating modality there is, and intermittent fasting by far works the best for me, although I’d let the practice go over the years).
Develop more equanimity and clear sightedness. Meditate for 5 minutes every day and journal.
Reflect and make incremental improvements. Do a weekly review on a Friday. (Mine covered personal and work stuff. Apart from the time spent on strategy, this was the other key that helped me move from “ticking boxes” to doing meaningful work and thinking bigger-picture.)
I’ll point out one key thing about these habits. They were all extremely achievable FOR ME. My schedule allows me to easily block off time at the beginning of the day. Going for a 7km run is very enjoyable for me. 5 mins of meditation, on the other hand, can be excruciating for my busy mind, but this is an example of a simple and low-bar habit that anyone can do. Most days I pushed through and did 10 - 20 mins. The important thing is to choose a scope and scale that’s achievable.
“When in doubt, reduce scope”
This is a great piece of advice from James Clear. When in doubt that you’ll be able to achieve your habit, adjust its scope. Not sure you’ll be able to do your regular 30 minute workout at gym? Just do 5 minutes. At the end of the day, you’ll feel better for having tried (and often just the starting will spur you on to do more). I would add to this by reiterating that the scope of your habits should be small and achievable enough to begin with - so don’t set the goal of doing 10,000 steps per day if you know a more achievable stretch goal for you if 5,000.
Tracking
I found a free app simple called “Habit” in the App Store. It’s not beautiful, but it works. I put all of these into the app and started checking them off every day. This was awesome. A five second set of swipes, and I got an immediate dopamine boost knowing I had achieved something that was making me better
Results
Health: I’ve done a workout and hit 10k steps every day for the last 150 days (I got covid shortly after starting tracking on the habit app, so missed a few days). I’ve lost all the weight I gained and then some. I’m closing in on my pb 5km run time again, last placed 5 years ago. I drink much more water than I used to, a knock-on effect of the other healthy habits.
Work: Blocking off time to work on key projects daily helped me take on more projects and push things forward quicker. Overall the time-blocking approach really delivered tactical results. I’m very happy with the things my team and I have accomplished at work in the last year.
My communication skills have improved, but not as much as I’d have liked - this is going to be a long term game. But, because I’ve been focusing on strategic work and talking to people (rather than just getting my to-dos done), I sense that I’ve improved my ability to think strategically and lead effectively. More improvements to be made here going forward.
Psychology: this sounds lame, but my friends can’t believe how much I’ve changed in how I handle things. I’m much more secure, level-headed, and happy. This change didn’t come all from this experiment, but I attribute a lot of it to two things that I doubled down on: 1) regular meditation practice, 2) feeling of competence that comes from knowing you’re capable of doing difficult things repeatedly.
Conclusion
The feeling that I get at the end of the day is satisfaction and contentment. These are two states a younger me would NEVER have thought I’d attain. I used to be constantly anxious, often emotional, felt like things were about to fall apart, and stressed about the future. These days, as long as I’m making incremental progress, I feel confident that I’m moving in the right direction and able to handle setbacks.
I’m sure a lot of this equanimity comes with growing up, but I also think it takes practice and experience that you can achieve things. The dopamine from those incremental achievements sure helps, too.
All in all, my most recent experiment on habits has been a happy success. I’m performing better at work while making improvements to my leadership abilities. I feel healthy and more centered. The best part is that most of the changes I’ve made have become second-nature, so I now have free mind-space to continue improving in other areas.
Liked this post? Personal experience to share on your own productivity and habit journey? Connect with me on LinkedIn and tell me more!