Dopamine Detox Checklist
Understand The Rules
This is a long term dopamine detox, not a challenge. Therefore your rules must be far more flexible than a 24 hour
dopamine detox.
1. You will focus on adding in delayed gratification habits to replace instant gratification.
2. Delayed gratification habits include (but are not limited to): exercise, meditation, journaling, reading (fiction +
non-fiction is allowed), studying, starting a project/business, learning a skill, adventure.
3. Start your dopamine detox with less than 2 hours of instant gratification per night. As the weeks go by you can
start to reduce this time. Do not go hardcore and begin with less than 2 hours of instant gratification or you’ll quit.
The people who won’t follow this advice will make no progress and wonder why.
4. Instant gratification activities include (but are not limited to): Any drug use, entertaining internet use (video
games, social media, YouTube, news, Netflix/TV), eating junk food particularly high in sugar
5. You’ll have to decide which instant gratification activities to enjoy for 2 hours when you’re first starting off – I
recommend video games and YouTube/Netflix/TV as these have the lowest downsides of the list above. Reduce the
time spent on them over the coming weeks.
6. Music is acceptable if it is coupled with a delayed gratification activity like exercise
Goal Setting & Timetable
Before you begin your dopamine detox you must have a very clear reason as to why you’re committing to such a big
lifestyle change. If your ‘why’ isn’t strong, you’ll quit and go back to your normal life.
Journal these questions:
1. What is it about normal life that I am not ok with?
2. What is the purpose of this dopamine detox
3. How long will I stay on this dopamine detox for?
4. What would my life be like for me to consider this dopamine detox a success?
5. What are the main things I aim to improve during this dopamine detox?
Now it’s time to set up your daily timetable.
Write up your your ideal day just like this photo:
You won’t follow the timetable
every day but at least now you’ll
have an activity scheduled for
every hour so you know you have
something productive you could
do.
Write up your timetable whilst
reading what you wrote for the 5
journal prompts. Will your
timetable get you to your goals?
The timetable is the key to the
dopamine detox – Your ENTIRE
DAY becomes a habit. That is the
most powerful self improvement
strategy there is.
DOPAMINE DETOX CHECKLIST
Start-up Checklist
Weekly Checklist
Every Sunday go through this checklist to keep yourself on track
1. Write up a short weeks review answering these questions – “How much instant gratification
did I overindulge in this week? How could I reduce that for next week?” “How much progress
did I make in my goals? How could I increase that for next week?” “What delayed
gratification activities didn’t I do this week? Did I go on an adventure and see somewhere
new?”
2. Teach your future self the most important things you learnt this week by writing a letter
that you know you’ll read through in the future. Try to write some points down without
checking your notes first, then go back through the books you were reading, notes you’ve
wrote down, pages you’ve journaled and compile the most important learning lessons in
one place for your future selves benefit
3. Ask yourself “How could I optimise my timetable to save 10 minutes?” – Successful
people save as much time as possible. Get into the habit of looking at your tasks
critically and thinking of ways that you could shave some minutes off
4. Plan your next week by noting down urgent and important tasks
5. Visualize yourself at the point of success – Imagine enjoying the end result of your goals