Rewiring Your Brain for Focus

Author

Scott Lynch
August 18, 2025

In partnership with

Hey there,

Some days, focus feels about as likely as winning the lottery without buying a ticket.

I’ll sit down to do something important—something life-changing, even—and five minutes later I’m ping-ponging between tabs, scrolling Instagram, and refreshing my inbox like it’s going to save me from the pain of deep work.

(And yes, sometimes it actually feels painful.)

You’ve probably heard the standard focus “hacks”: turn off notifications, block apps, drink more water, light a candle.

Those help, sure, but they don’t answer the bigger questions…

Why does focus feel so hard in the first place? Why does doing the thing that could improve our lives feel worse than reorganizing a sock drawer?

It’s not because we’re lazy or broken, it’s because our brains are still stuck in the Stone Age. Literally.

Neurologically, we have the same hardware as our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

Back then, dopamine, AKA the brain’s motivation chemical, got us excited about chasing antelope or finding ripe berries.

Dopamine doesn’t just make you feel good when something happens; it pushes you to seek the thing in the first place.

Fast forward a few thousand years, and we’re no longer sprinting after antelope. We’re refreshing TikTok. We’re demolishing Oreos. We’re binging “just one more” episode.

Our dopamine system hasn’t changed, but the world has, and now we’re surrounded by “supernormal stimuli”: hyper-engineered hits of pleasure designed to hijack our brain’s reward system.

The modern antelope is a push notification, and it’s a lot easier to catch.

The problem is, these instant-reward loops make everything else—like writing that book, starting that business, or finally cleaning the garage—feel unbearably dull.

Our brains have been trained to prefer the quick hit over the slow burn. That’s why a project that matters to us can feel physically uncomfortable to start.

The solution isn’t a weekend dopamine detox followed by a triumphant Instagram post.

It’s about rewiring our baseline and training our brains to enjoy the slower, subtler rewards again.

Step away from the hyper-stimulating stuff long enough, and something magical happens: ordinary life gets interesting.

A conversation feels rich. A simple meal feels satisfying. Reading a book feels… fun?

I’ve noticed this when camping or taking tech-free breaks. When the biggest decision of the day is “hike or nap?”, even making coffee feels rewarding.

The brain recalibrates, and suddenly you want to do the things that once felt impossible.

It works the other way too. Spend enough time bouncing between tabs, doomscrolling, and hitting “Next Episode,” and you’ll start craving that constant novelty.

Real life will feel flat by comparison, and that’s the cost of overstimulation.

So here’s the challenge: for the next couple of weeks, get curious about what’s actually adding value to your life and what’s just noise.

Cut back on some of those supernormal stimuli, such as social media, junk food, mindless scrolling, and replace them with low-stimulus activities you enjoy: a walk, a coffee with a friend, a book, a workout.

Keep a short list handy so you have somewhere to direct your brain when it starts hunting for its next hit.

You might be surprised at how quickly those slower, quieter things start to feel good again, and at how much easier it is to focus when your brain isn’t constantly chasing antelopes made of pixels.

Have a wonderful week, all.
Until next time, go do something - Scott (@motivatedscott).

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