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how to make doing hard things easier than scrolling youtube

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hard things. Whether it's deep work,

working in general, working out,

studying, or focusing on reading,

resisting a bad habit, or otherwise just

stepping outside of your comfort zone,

we can all agree doing them brings a net

benefit to your life. But they're hard.

Hence, we don't want to do them. So,

here are 11 time tested principles that

will help you make doing hard things

easier than picking your nose, which

how hard is picking your nose?

One more strike and you're out.

But if you've only got 30 seconds,

To make doing hard things easy, you

simply need to rebalance your dopamine

stores. So, the cheapest form of

dopamine you get is doing the hard thing

itself. And then you need to cast enough

votes with your actions in favor of you

forming the identity of being the type

of person who does hard things. But if

you'd like a bit more of an explanation,

follow me. Point number one or principle

number one.

Okay. The first principle is a depleted

brain will always default to ease. Quick

note here. If you watch the other video

we did about dopamine or you know

anything else about dopamine, some of

this stuff will sound familiar. But I

still recommend you listen to this

section instead of skipping on because

this is the most important principle of

this whole video. And if you just

understand this stuff, you will be fine

when it comes to making doing hard

things easier. So just treat it as a

refresh of your memory. Anyway, let's

begin. The molecule dopamine is

something your brain produces, otherwise

known as a neurotransmitter, that is

responsible for your feelings of

craving, motivation, and reward.

Basically, dopamine is responsible for

you feeling motivated to do the hard

thing and then find it enjoyable and

rewarding while you're doing it and

after you've done it. But here's the

tricky thing when it comes to molecules

in the brain and dopamine. Your brain

can only produce a certain amount of

dopamine throughout the day. So in order

to protect its dopamine levels, your

brain is always trying to maintain a

homeostatic balance of its dopamine

levels. You can imagine your dopamine

levels existing like a scale. You have

five being the ideal state your brain

would like to stay at, zero being

depletion, and 10 being an influx of dopamine.

dopamine.

So each activity that you do throughout

the day has its dopamine cost.

Meaning if you're engaging in activities

that are first of all very

dopamineergically rewarding, pleasurable

activities such as scrolling, drugs,

sex, porn, eating junk food, all of the

bad habits that is going to result in

your dopamine levels

crashing below baseline. As soon as you

stop that activity and when your

dopamine levels crash, you're in a state

known as a dopamine deficit state

whereby as above so below. First a peak

then a crash because your brain needs to

go below baseline in order to come back up.

up.

This process is otherwise known as the

pleasure pain balance which was

popularized by the psychiatrist Dr. and

And the pleasure pain balance works like

this. As soon as you stop doing

something that initially gave you

instant pleasure, the dopamine gremlins

jump on the other side of the balance to

tilt it towards pain, causing you to

feel the complete opposite of everything

you felt while you was doing this

pleasurable activity. For example, when

you scroll on social media or YouTube,

you feel connected, engaged, and

entertained. But as soon as you stop,

you feel tired, groggy, lonely,

depleted, and bored.

So, how does this relate to making doing

Well, because you now understand your

brain needs dopamine in order to find

something desirable and rewarding while

you're doing it. You can also understand

that if you're constantly in a dopamine

deficit state as a consequence of

engaging in activities that first result

in pleasure but later result in pain,

you're robbing your brain of the one

resource it needs in order to find hard

things desirable and rewarding.

So, no matter how much you try to

motivate yourself to do the hard thing,

if you're constantly in a dopamine

deficit state, you're not going to want

to do that hard thing, nor are you going

to find it rewarding while you're doing

it because you don't have the dopamine

available for that to happen.

In fact,

think about whether this cycle I'm about

to put on the board sounds familiar to you.

First of all, you get yourself into a

dopamine deficit state due to engaging

in fast dopamine activities. Fast

dopamine also meaning high pleasure

activities. Then you set the expectation

that you should be able to do this hard

thing. Whatever it is, maybe you're

scrolling and you start comparing

yourself to other people and you start

thinking, I should be working more. I

should be doing more deep work, learning

more, working out more, study more,

whatever it is. Then you try to do the

hard thing. But what happens? Well,

you're in a dopamine deficit state. So

obviously you fail. Then you criticize

yourself for not being able to do the

hard thing. Obviously, that's

uncomfortable. So then you seek escape

from that self-hatred and discomfort

with more fast dopamine, which puts you

in again a dopamine deficit state.

So in order to make doing hard things

easier and to escape this whole annoying

cycle, there's only two things you need

The first thing you need to do is

reclaim your dopamine from 90% of fast

dopamine. That's a bit weird. Well, it

sounds a bit weird. So, let's unpack

what that means. Purge your life of all

of the activities that are causing this

spike in dopamine and then crash into

pain. And you can find what these

activities are by simply asking, "What

makes me feel good immediately?" but

leaves me feeling drained after. As

we've mentioned, it could be common

culprits, junk food, scrolling, checking

social media, shopping, porn, whatever

it is. I re I did this the other day

before I even knew I was going to record

this video. If you journal or whatever,

just write down a list. I titled it as

all the things distracting me from

fullness. All of the things that are

sources of fast, cheap dopamine that

leave you depleted after. And then you

might like to do the opposite, which is

write down all of the things that bring

you closer to fullness, which we're

going to get into in a second. That's

what you do. Now, three things I want to

mention here before I leave you with one

final tip for this segment.

Always remember that if you are

currently in a low or in a dopamine

deficit state, it will take at least 1

to 3 days for your brain to get back up

to baseline.

depending on how compulsive the bad

habit was of your fast dopamine. And I

know this is a common fallacy of people

saying it gets worse before it gets

better. Most times that isn't true. But

when it comes to dopamine and unplugging

from fast dopamine, you will feel worse

before you feel better when you're here.

Because remember, soon as you stop all

of these things, boom, plum it down.

You'll feel the opposite. But your brain

knows what to do. Just give it space and

don't engage in these things anymore or

at least for one to three days and it

will take you back up to baseline.

Second thing I want to mention is you

have to be compassionate with yourself

here. I am imploring you to engage some

emergency self-compassion.

All of these things scrolling checking

social media junk food they are the

equivalent of your caveman ancestor.

Caveman, did I say or caveman ancestor

coming across three KFC bargain buckets,

10 bottles of Fanta and

15 ripe mates for him to reproduce with.

Your brain is being hijacked and it is

not designed to cope with these highly

dopamineergic things. So when you falter

from grace,

it's incredibly understandable. You are

outgunned in a world that wants to

hijack your brain. Final thing I want to

leave you with is it's not useful for us

human beings to just be told, "Oh, stop

doing these fast dopamine activities."

So, what is a better way than just

saying stop doing them? Well, in my

experience, the best way is to schedule

them. And this highlights why I've used

the percentage of 90% instead of 100%.

Why not just go extreme and say get rid

of 100% of these things, although that

would be brilliant. Well, you're

unlikely to. So, if you still want to

engage in 10% of these things, just make

sure you schedule it. For example,

you're only allowed to scroll between

the hours of 6:00 and 7 p.m. or you only

shop on Fridays when you finished work.

Create a rule for yourself and you'll

find yourself acting in line with your

values a lot easier.

And finally, finally, finally, the

reason why we used the word of reclaim

is because you're not just stopping

these fast dopamine activities. No, when

you stop them, you're reclaiming

or sorry, you are stopping these fast

dopamine activities, but what you're

getting is you are reclaiming all of the

dopamine that was going in the direction

of these activities so that you can now

channel that dopamine you have towards

other more fruitful activities. Speaking

the last thing you need to do is when

you feel your dopamine levels return to

normal, perhaps after 1 to 3 days of not

engaging in fast dopamine, now tap on

the pain side of the balance first.

Because the cool thing is with the

pleasure pain balance is that when you

first engage in an activity that results

in pain first and not an increase in

pleasure straight away, otherwise known

as a slow dopamine activity, soon as you

stop doing that thing, the dopamine

kremlins jump on the other side of the

balance in order to tilt you towards

pleasure. In other words, the rewards

for doing hard things are much more

fruitful and longerlasting. And you know

this already. Doing a workout feels hard

at the beginning, but as soon as you

stop, you feel brilliant. Doing deep

work, studying, reading, or focusing on

something is a pain in the ass for the

first 5 to 20 minutes. But as soon as

you hit a flow state, you feel dialed

in. And then when you finish, you feel accomplished.

accomplished.

So how could we summarize this in one image?

Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices,

hard life. Guys, before we move on, I

want to make one thing crystal clear.

The intention behind the last 5 minutes

we've spent together has not been me

trying to communicate a value judgment

as to how you should be spending your

time. No, you can do whatever you want.

You can scroll. You can still do your

bad habits. All I want you to remember

is that you cannot escape the

consequences of your actions. And the

same goes for me. I understand that I

probably will scroll. I definitely am

going to scroll more or again in the

future or I'm going to check social

media. But we have to remember that the

more we engage in fast dopamine, the

less enjoyment and motivation we will

have to do the hard things that are

important to us. That's all I wanted to communicate.

communicate.

So now moving on to principle number

two. How can you motivate yourself when

you're in the arena of discomfort to

You reappraise the discomfort. The

biggest barrier you face to doing hard

things is the discomfort you feel while

doing them. For example, the pain of

trying to focus on studying or learning

something or reading a book instead of

checking social media. The discomfort of

lactic acid in your muscles as you're

squeezing that last rep. Or the

discomfort of thinking through a concept

and what you want to write next instead

of checking Twitter. But here's a thought.

thought.

It is completely up to you how you

interpret any discomfort you feel.

In other words, it's completely up to

you whether you interpret that

discomfort as bad or beneficial. And

especially with your understanding of

the pleasure pain balance, now you can

interpret any discomfort you feel as the

necessary pain you need to go through in

order to experience experience the

longlasting rewards when you stop doing

this activity. But to make this

practical, here are three mantras for

you to keep close the next time you're

experiencing discomfort so you can persist.

Write these down. Print them out. Keep

them close. This is hard and

challenging, but that's just what I need

to find it rewarding.

Second one from Alex or Mosie. This is

what hard feels like and this is where

most people quit. Quick note on this

one. I realized this while doing a deep

work in the morning. And I usually wake

up and study or research for about 1 to

3 hours. And most of the time I find

myself wrestling with the annoyance that

this is hard. And then I realized, oh

yeah, it is hard. It's meant to be hard.

Stop trying to think it's meant to be

easy. Little note there. Final one. The

faster I do the hard things I avoid, the

quicker I get the good things I want.

But none of these will hit if you're not

Your tomorrow is created from today and

the order that you give your evenings is

the strength you feel in the mornings.

So forget about creating a perfect

morning routine just as long as you're

not engaging in fast dopamine straight

away. You can do whatever you want and

focus on creating a solid windown

evening routine. Why is this important?

Well, because you now understand you

need all the dopamine stores you can get

in order to do hard things. But if

you're spending your evenings chasing

fast dopamine, watching TV, scrolling,

doing drugs, whatever, you're then

casting the votes in favor of you waking

up the next morning in a dopamine

deficit state. So, you're playing

catchup and you're not going to feel

motivated to do hard things. So, here's

what a solid evening routine looks like

for me.

Absorb what is useful. discard what is

not. Add what is uniquely your own. All

tech off by 9:00 p.m., otherwise known

as all screens off by 9:00 p.m. No

decisions after 9:00 p.m. Yeah, no big

major life-changing decisions. Save that

for the morning. No calls after 9:00

p.m. cuz if someone's calling me,

they're probably going to mention

something that I'm then going to think

about and could potentially worry about

before bed. No, no. Turn the red light

on in my room. Red light helps with

releasing melatonin and making you feel

sleepy. Then I go for a walk in nature

and talk to myself out loud for 20 to 30

minutes. I need this. This is my

therapy. If I don't do that, I'm

screwed. Then I do my recovery. My

recovery is rolling this ball on my on

my the bottom of my foot. Then I do some

foam rolling. This is really good before

bed. Deep tissue massages help you sleep

better. And then I've been doing this

recently. This is called a shaky mat. So

you lay on it. It's got those pins on

it. It's quite painful at first. I do my

back. I do some on my arms, my face as

well, and then my feet. That is the most

painful one. That's my recovery. Takes

me about 5 to 10 minutes. Then I feel

ready to sleep. But obviously, I've

realized some things on my walk. So then

as I'm back, I write down anything I've

realized on the walk in the form of a

letter to myself.

Got all my letters here. It's just nice,

you know. And then I lay in bed and read

until I fall asleep. Sometimes I read.

Well, this is what I've got on my

bedside table at the moment. Why

Buddhism is true. The Bible. just

messed that up.

The way of the superior man in Spanish.

Cuz in order to maintain my Spanish, I

read this out loud, some of the

chapters. But I've been reading fiction

again, which is great, helping me wind

down before bed. Currently reading

Humiliated and Insulted by Fod Doski.

What would your evening routine look

like? your ideal evening routine.

Comment down below.

Speaking of structuring your day,

principle number four is

principle number four is structure your

day right. Neurochemically, you are not

the same person across the different

hours of the day. So, in order to make

doing the hard thing more likely, you

need to work with your biology and

schedule it in at the right time. This

might be helpful to conceptualize all

this. Think about the different times of

your day as running in three phases. You

have phase 1, which is 0 to 8 hours

after you wake up. Doesn't matter when

you wake up. I don't wake up with an

alarm. I wake up naturally around 7 to 8

each day. Let's imagine you wake up at

7:00. This phase will run from 7 until

3. And during this phase, this is when

your dopamine, cortisol, and

norepinephrine levels are highest.

Norepinephrine is your brain's version

of adrenaline. You can also increase

your level of these molecules by viewing

sunlight first thing in the morning, by

drinking caffeine, and remaining fasted.

During this period, you're going to be

biologically better off to do hard or

analytical work or any hard thing for

that matter. Hence, it's important to

wake up and do deep work or study or

read first thing in the morning. After

this phase, you then go into phase two,

which is 9 to 16 hours after you wake

up. This would run in our schedule from

3 until 11 at night. And this is where

your serotonin levels begin to increase,

putting you into a more relaxed state.

Now, you're going to be better off in

this phase to do things like

brainstorming, creative work, think more

outside of the box about whatever

problems you're tackling. Maybe you tap

into a creative task, or you go out in

nature and you socialize. Remember,

you're in more of a relaxed state here,

so utilize that. And then phase three

ends 17 to 24 hours after you wake up.

This would run from 11:00 again till

7:00 a.m. And this is when you should be

asleep or at least preparing to sleep.

Keep a low temperature in the

environment in which you're at. And make

sure the lights are dimmed. As the

neuroscientist Andrew Huberman says, it

isn't just about getting the most

important stuff out of the way. is about

leveraging your natural biology toward

the best type of work for the biological

state you're in. Before we move on,

there is some nuance especially to phase

one and phase two. For example, I do

wake up and do deep work first thing in

the morning for about 2 to 3 hours.

But I have found recently I'm also doing

that deep work around 4 and 6 in the

afternoon after I've been to the gym.

And I find that I can get into a flow

state quite easily. So use this as a

guide. Stick to it first and then you

might like to organize it in a way that

works with your life. But more often

than not, stick to this structure.

Okay, now let's finalize this video with

some quick fire tips to really help you

do hard things

Principle number five is identity

without evidence is just fragile

consistency. Now, you probably don't

have the identity right now of being the

type of person who can do hard things.

So, in order to create this new identity

of becoming the type of person who does

hard things, you'll need at least a week

in which every single day you do that

hard thing in order to cast the votes in

favor of you forming this new identity.

Because your identity is based on

evidence. You can try and gaslight

yourself as much as you want into

believing that you are the type of

person who does this thing even when you

don't do it. But your brain is going to

call BS on it because it just doesn't

have the evidence to back up the

identity. But why is this important?

Well, it's because all behavior change

is identity based. If you change your

identity, i.e. the beliefs that you hold

about yourself, then you can change your

behavior. So, the bottom line of this

whole point is don't focus on just doing

the hard thing as if it's something to

tick off on your to-do list. No, focus

on becoming the type of person who can

do that hard thing.

The hard thing that you want to do might

be different than everyone else. So take

that hard thing and try and extrapolate

out a desirable identity you would like

to form that will help you do that hard

thing. For example, if the hard thing

for you is going to the gym, then the

identity might be becoming an athlete,

deep work, being a top performer,

studying, being a top student. So then

you can ask yourself in moments of lack

of clarity or lack of motivation, what

would an athlete do right now?

What would a top performer do right now?

What would a top student do right now if

it's 9:00 and you're finding yourself

doing or engaging in fast dopamine?

Well, a top student would obviously

prioritize the dopamine they have in

their brain. So, they would stop this

fast dopamine now. Stop scrolling, go

for a walk in order to cast the votes in

favor of them waking up into strength

and clarity the next morning. What would

the type of person I want to be do right now?

now?

Principle number six is never miss

twice. You likely want to form doing

this hard thing into a daily habit. In

which case, if you miss a day, make sure

you get straight back to it the next

day. You're going to miss days. Life's

going to happen. You're going to need a

rest. And for whatever reason, you just

can't do this hard thing today. Just

make sure one day doesn't become two,

doesn't become three, doesn't become a

whole week, and then you're back to

square one with a depleted brain. If you

miss a day, straight back to it the next

day. Miss a day, straight back to it the

Principle number seven is when

intimidated, break it down to 5%. If for

whatever reason you do fall off the

wagon for a day or several weeks, resist

the urge to throw a load of criticism

onto yourself and demand that you get

back to your previous consistency like

that. No, take the task in its totality

that is currently intimidating you and

break it down to 5%, by asking where

does my willingness to do this task

begin. Always work with yourself. Two

examples. Let's say the task in its

totality 100%. Is you going to the gym?

Okay. Ask yourself, where does my

willingness to do this task begin after

you haven't been to the gym for a few

days or a few weeks? Okay. Boom. Make it

smaller. So, you find a task that you

can do now.

Change into

gym clothes.

And you say, I'm just going to do this

and see how I feel. Another example,

one more could be doing deep work

for two hours like you used to, but

you've fallen off the wagon. That's too

intimidating. Break it down to 5%. Where

does my willingness to begin? Well, can

I open my notes on my laptop and just

stare at them,

then see how I feel.

Easy slip backins when you fall off the

wagon are the key to consistency.

Number eight is mesmerize yourself into

ritual. The easiest way to gear yourself

up to do any habit or in particular the

hard thing is create a keystone habit.

This is a simple action you do before

the hard thing that signals to your

brain, oh, it's time to do X now. You're

priming your brain to be prepared to do

the hard thing. What this might look

like, some examples from my life, is

when I was studying at university,

before I sat down to study, I would make

a cup of tea and cut an apple into

slices. As I would drink the tea and cut

the apple, my brain would naturally get

into a flow state because it just knew

what to expect next. We was going to

study. Now I, for example, when I go to

the gym, I pour a drink of electrolytes,

drink that, and then I head to the gym.

My brain knows, oh, we're gonna work out

now. And it just feels easier to do. To

finalize with a quote from Ryan Holiday,

routine done for long enough and done

sincerely enough becomes more than

routine. It becomes ritual. It becomes

sanctified and holy. I like this because

it's a new reframe of ritual and

routine. Sometimes we think routine can

be boring, but done long enough, you

messize yourself into ritual. Few more points.

points.

On that point, ask yourself for this

hard thing you want to do, what is your

keystone habit going to be?

I completely forgot to mention that

while we was going through that, but

anyway, number nine is never set a pace

you can't keep. Why? Well, because the

consistent plan you follow is better

than the perfect plan you abandon. Would

it be better to do this thing in one

three-hour session once a week and then

spend the rest of the week recovering

because that was such a heavy lift or to

do this thing every single day but for

30inut segments? In my opinion, this is

better slow burns over heavy lifts. But

Number 10, remember the effort is the

reward. The discipline paradox.

It's very easy to differentiate between

the effort you put into something and

the reward you get out of it. For

example, when you finally achieve the

physique you want, it's easy to discount

all of those workouts you did in the gym

that felt extremely painful. or when you

finally get your results back on your

test and you graduate, it's easy to

discount all of those times you spend

studying and focusing. And finally, when

you finally release the product and you

earn decent money, it's easy to discount

all of those deep work sessions you did

late at night.

So reverse this and always remember that

in order to get any reward out of

something that is completely dependent

on the effort that you put in. So the

effort and the reward are not separate.

If you remember this,

you unlock the key to or you unlock the

door of everlasting discipline. Because

whenever you put effort into doing the

hard thing and casting votes in favor of

becoming the type of person who can do

the hard thing, that is no different

from the day when you'll receive the

reward of your actions. The effort is

the reward. Without one, you cannot have

the other.

So they are the same thing.

the final principle is self-negotiation

prevents self-termination. Now when

you're doing the hard thing, you're

going to have many moments when a voice

inside of you seemingly from the inner

depths of your soul just screams and

shouts and just wants you to do anything

but that hard thing. So, how can you

deal with this voice? Well, many people

on the internet are going to tell you to

just ignore it and push through and

conquer the inner I'm here to

tell you, no, do not ignore it because

sooner or later, it will sabotage

everything that you're doing in the form

of binging or skipping loads of days.

This part of you needs to be listened

to. So, when it's being loud, first of

all, you label what's happening out

loud. If we take the example of you're

sat down trying to focus, study or do

deep work and there's part of you that

just wants to do anything else other

than that. Label what's happening out

loud. Oh, I want to focus, but part of

me wants to scroll on social media. And

then you curiously investigate what that

rebellious part of you wants. You don't

discard it. Like a child that wants

something, you try and meet its need.

Well, what need is that? What would it

say? This is hard. I don't like doing

this. I want something that is easier to

do. Then you ask, how could I satisfy

both parts of me? The part of you that

wants to focus, but the part of you that

also wants distraction. Well, you might

then ask, how could I make doing this

hard thing easier? And then the answer

could be, well, simply play some music

while you're working. So that part of

you gets a bit of feel-good distraction,

but you're still knuckling down and

doing the deep work. Incorporate the

rebellious parts of you. Don't discard them.

them.

If you would like a further explanation

on that, check out this video we covered

on the whole process of self-negotiation.

self-negotiation.

In summary, the 11 principles were a

depleted brain will always default to

ease. Reappraise the discomfort. Win the

evening. Structure your day right.

Identity without evidence is just

fragile consistency. Never miss twice.

When intimidated, break it down to 5%.

Mesmerize yourself into ritual by

implementing keystone habits. Never set

a pace you can't keep. Remember that

effort is the reward, the discipline

paradox. And self-negotiation prevents self-termination.

self-termination.

Thank you very much for your time and

attention. I only have one thing to ask

of you just out of sheer curiosity.

Comment down below what the hard thing

that you want to do is. I would like to

see what it is. For me, it's

being more consistent with the deep work

that I'm doing. You know, I'm doing

about an hour to three. I would like to

stay more focused while I'm doing that

deep work. So, anyway, let me know what

your hard thing is. Thank you very much

for your the hard task that you want to

do is. Thank you very much for your time

and attention. Stay disciplined,

playful, and dangerous. Adios muchachos. Emojachas.

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how to make doing hard things easier than scrolling youtube