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It’s been 18 months since the first lockdown was announced. A lot of things had to change due to the mandatory imposition to safeguard the lives of the people. School teachers had to adapt and change to the new format of teaching via zoom calls. Senior doctors were required to consult with patients suffering from minor fevers or minor ailments via phones, dedicated apps, or video calls.
I work as an application developer for a banking firm, and since we work with PII data, never in my life would I have thought that we would be allowed to take our systems and work from the comforts of our homes. I planned to return to my parent’s home so that I wouldn’t have to stay and work in solitude. I also missed my parents and was worried about their health. I have been living with them ever since and I cannot be more grateful for making the decision to come back home.
Since then, I have been experimenting with a lot of things that would improve my life for the better. I started reading books again that I stopped some years ago due to not having enough time. However, I believe that’s just an excuse. I also created a GoodReads account so that I can track my love for books. I started cooking and became decently good at it. I started researching and learning new technical skills such as cloud computing and blockchain technology. In fact, it was in the lockdown period that I started writing on my blog and it actually changed my life.
As you can already tell, I started the self-improvement journey at the beginning of my lockdown period, I started buying new books and reading them. I found the book Atomic Habits by James Clear on building habits where he empathised on bringing small changes in our behaviour that would result in positive intended results.
Reading this book also made me realise that I had not been honest with myself and had not been making the best use of my time. Because I was constantly checking my phone for messages, checking my Twitter feeds, or mindlessly browsing through my Instagram explore page.
If I am not doing office work, I will surely click on different notifications sent by Netflix, Disney+, or Prime Video while checking my emails. Instead of spending 2 to 4 hours each day, this time might have been spent learning new skills or reading books.
The ability to retain your focus and have periods of deep work is extremely valuable and sought after in today’s fast-paced busy world. People who can cut out distractions and deeply focus on their work and develop valuable skills will get ahead, which is why we need to control our dopamine levels.
Dopamine is what pulls us towards activities that aren’t really productive or helpful in any way, and we need to control our dopamine levels. I tried the dopamine detox for a week and trust me, it helped a lot, especially for my mental health. It helped me to focus on things more efficiently without any distractions.
Dopamine detox is like intermittent fasting. Just like intermittent fasting has several health benefits, dopamine detox has many mental benefits. Cutting away from all the noise while working on my tasks, reading books, or learning new skills helped me to work more productively and absorb new things faster.
There are several benefits to doing a dopamine detox, such as wanting to try new things and developing new interests, as well as having more energy to concentrate on productive activities and improving your craft as a result of doing a dopamine detox.
Disclosure: Bear in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.
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