So far this is the most productive experiment of my life. I've never felt this level of focus, concentration, and motivation before.
I’ve been living without a social media feed or stories for 7 days now.
So far this is the most productive experiment of my life.
I’ve never felt this level of focus, concentration, and motivation before.
I genuinely had no idea how tightly my brain was wired into social media, or how much it was suffering from that connection.
When you stop checking your phone and disconnect from the digital world, it’s like waking up from hibernation. Laziness, procrastination, fatigue, doubt — it all just evaporates.
For anyone who didn’t read my previous post on this, quick context: a week ago I watched a video where a psychologist explained how dopamine gets produced and spent in our bodies.
When we watch any short-form content, like reels or stories, we burn through a small piece of our dopamine “reserves” every 3-10 seconds.
And dopamine just doesn’t get the chance to build up in large amounts. But we critically need it for big, meaty tasks — dopamine is exactly what drives our overall level of motivation.
Once I stopped watching short-form content, a huge amount of energy freed up. I started tackling tasks I’d been putting off for months. My mind cleared, and I began quickly finding solutions to hard problems that had been hanging in the air for ages.
It’s hard to put this experience into words. Right now I just walk down the street and enjoy nature. I drive and enjoy the road. I eat at a café and genuinely enjoy the food. It’s this state of incredible lightness and awareness at the same time.
I used to have some music or a podcast playing in my ears constantly, or I’d be scrolling reels or watching stories while walking somewhere or eating.
I don’t do that anymore, and my brain feels like it woke up.
If you’ve seen the film “Limitless,” it’s a lot like the effect of NZT. Like a completely different mode of operation kicks in for your whole system.
If I’d read a post like this in my own feed 8 days ago, I probably wouldn’t have believed that simply quitting social media could have this kind of effect.
But it happens, and you can either try it and see for yourself, or leave things as they are. At the end of the day, we all live the life that suits us. And when it stops suiting us, we change something.
An important note: I still check my DMs and reply to everyone as much as I can. I’ve only cut out short-form content and stories. I still watch long-form YouTube videos sometimes, but they’re always genuinely useful.
And if quitting social media means you stop watching me too, I’ll only be glad about it. However much I want to, I can’t bring you as much value as the decision to stop torturing your brain with short-form content will.
Have you ever tried going a few days without social media? Did you manage to get off the fast-dopamine ride?