Let me share a simple life hack for overcoming procrastination or slowing down: simply shifting your focus of attention and using dopamine in the process. The dopamine system carefully evaluates several factors to make sure that investing energy in something is worthwhile.
The whole process is actually quite similar to a bank deciding whether to grant a businessman a loan for a new business venture.
1) Dopamine and goal achievement. This is a genuinely clear dopamine-driven goal that is directly relevant to survival and reproduction. The goal is extremely clear, unambiguous, and easy to understand — and it is not just an option, but something that matters to you.
2) Probability of achieving the goal. This is based on previous experience and confidence in your ability to succeed. The higher the probability of success, the more likely the brain is to allocate energy to it.
3) Effort required. If the costs are too high, dopamine may be better spent on something easier. Planning is often focused exclusively on the effort required, which makes the task look like a "loss-making investment" to the dopamine system.
4) Distance to the goal. The more time it takes to achieve a goal, the lower the perceived probability of success. The longer the "journey" to the goal, the less likely the brain is to allocate energy to it.
If the effort required is high, the goal is unclear, the probability of achieving it is low, or the goal simply isn't worth it — that's it. The dopamine energy loan is denied, and you lose interest in the goal. In other words, intellectually, you still understand that it is worth doing, but you take no action (the intention–action gap).
This is a very complex calculation mechanism that takes into account the desirability and uniqueness of the goal, the probability of success, previous experience, and the "distance" to the goal.
Now let's go through each of these points and see how to address them:
1. Survival and reproduction.
Turn your goal from an abstract desire into a matter of survival, continuing your existence, and preserving your personal identity. Connect it to basic instincts: staying alive, reproduction, legacy, protecting loved ones, and passing your values on to future generations.
Make achieving the goal a confirmation of who you are: "This is not just something I want; it is part of my identity." Failing to achieve it is not simply the absence of a result, but a betrayal of your own values, a rejection of yourself, and the destruction of the best version of yourself.
Imagine that by abandoning this goal, your unrealized potential also dies: your abilities, discoveries, opportunities, your impact on the world, and the future that could have existed because of you.
Contrast two vivid scenarios: a life in which you fulfilled your potential and left a legacy, and a life in which you allowed your best version never to emerge.
Make the goal not merely desirable, but so meaningful that achieving it feels like protecting your own identity, your future, and the meaning of your life.
2. Probability of Achieving the Goal
Here, it is important to gather evidence that you are actually capable of achieving it. Everything helps: deep confidence in your abilities, having the necessary skills, and recalling previous experiences of success ("I've done something similar before"). Write down all the evidence.
Another practice that increases the likelihood of success is negative fantasizing — visualizing possible obstacles and rehearsing ways to overcome them.
This is the WOOP method (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan):
Wish — define a specific achievement you want to accomplish.
Outcome — vividly imagine the best possible outcome and the positive changes it will bring.
Obstacle — identify the internal and external obstacles (fears, habits, setbacks, work-related problems) that might get in the way.
Plan — prepare an "if–then" plan for each obstacle in advance: if a specific obstacle arises, then I will take a specific action to overcome it.
3. Effort Required
Here, you need to break down the paralyzing volume of work into manageable pieces that you can handle, and show yourself that it won't be quite so boring after all.
One effective approach is to break down the journey: divide a big goal into short stages with frequent intermediate results.
We can also reduce friction — simplify and automate things. You can think about how to make the process fun and enjoyable, finding pleasure in the process itself.
You can also define a safe range of effort and a minimum viable action. For example, if things aren't going well, I'll write at least one page of my book a day.
4. Distance to the Goal
When you look at a distant object, it appears blurry, and you cannot hear its sounds or smell its scents. This is how we perceive that something is far away. The brain doesn't measure distance in kilometers; it uses "cognitive distance" to the goal — but the principle is the same.
Sensory perception encodes distance to a goal: distant goals are more abstract. The further away a goal seems, the less likely it appears to be, and the brain uses temporal discounting for distant goals.
This psychological "distance" to the goal also includes the amount of effort required to achieve it. And dopamine "distance" works in much the same way as visual distance.
This is why goal visualization is so effective: it can reduce the "psychological distance." If you can see your goal very clearly, in detail — see its movements, clearly distinguish what's around it, hear its sounds, and smell its scents — this sends the brain a signal: "The goal is close." And if the goal is close, it means less effort will be required to achieve it. This means the probability of achieving it is higher, and the brain is more likely to issue a dopamine credit for pursuing it.
And this works. People who can vividly describe their goals visually are 52% more likely to love their jobs than those who describe them in words and numbers. For example, people who can vividly and visually describe their goals are 52% more likely to love their jobs than those who describe their goals in words and numbers. Those who have a visual image of their goals across different areas of life are 1.2–1.4 times more likely to achieve them successfully than those who do not.
People perceive goals that are easy to visualize as closer than those that are difficult to imagine, which, in turn, increases effort and commitment. Ease of visualization influences performance in swimming competitions and the physical effort exerted in laboratory settings.
How do you visualize? Of course, use images when recording your goals, create your own tag, and add your goals to your favorites so that you can regularly remind yourself of them in visual form.
As an example, consider PETTLEP imagery. PETTLEP (Physical, Environment, Task, Timing, Learning, Emotion, and Perspective) is a specific visualization technique considered one of the most effective and currently the most popular. The acronym means that the physical, environmental, task-related, temporal, learning, emotional, and perspective-related aspects of visualization should be aligned with the corresponding aspects of the actual activity.
Importantly, this is not about indulging in the pleasure of having already achieved your goal, but about increasing its sensory "sharpness" — don't confuse the two.
How do you put this into practice?
Shift your focus away from a vague, abstract goal with an enormous amount of work attached to it, and look at it through a different lens: make it personal and close, break it down into clear, manageable steps, and increase your confidence in your ability to achieve it.
Imagining Success: Multiple Achievement Goals and the Effectiveness of Imagery Basic Appl Soc Psych. 2017 Jan 2; 39(1): 60–67.
The Effect of Goal Visualization on Goal Pursuit: Implications for Consumers and Managers 2011 Journal of Marketing 75(2):109-123