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Choose Slow Dopamine
A while back someone shared the image above in a Zoom session. I quickly drug it into my "ideas" folder and then moved on ... because there is always stuff to do.
As I was looking at my list of article ideas in preparation for being out on vacation - and wanting to make sure I had newsletters and other publications scheduled even while I was gone - I decided to take a closer look at this one. Over the last three weeks, we've been talking about the role of challenge in motivation. Today, I want to switch gears and talk about why choosing slow tasks like these, especially in our fast-paced world, is genuinely good for our brains.
I did a Google search to see whether there was any actual research behind the idea of "slow dopamine." What came up was a study published in Nature. The study was about drug treatment for ADHD, specifically medications like Ritalin. I followed maybe 5% of it on my own, so I handed it to Claude and asked for it in plain English.
Claude translated the key finding like this: Fast dopamine increases engaged regions of the brain involved in attention, body awareness, and arousal. Slow dopamine increases engaged regions involved in evaluating rewards and longer-term decision-making.
Read that again. When we choose slow — when we cook from scratch instead of ordering in, when we call a friend instead of scrolling Instagram, when we read a whole book instead of flipping between 47 browser tabs — we're literally building our capacity for longer-term decision-making.
We live in a world engineered for fast dopamine. Every notification is a fast dopamine hit. They aren't bad, but they are junk food for the brain. If that's all we're feeding ourselves, we may be eroding the cognitive circuits we need to make good decisions about our lives.
The list from the image isn't nostalgia. It's not about being anti-technology or pretending the world isn't moving fast. It's about being intentional. We have to make space to choose some things that are slow, hard, and rewarding in a way that compounds over time.
As you're reading this, I'm practicing slow dopamine by cruising. Being on a ship — with limited internet, nowhere to rush to, time to read and watch sunsets and have long dinners — is one of my favorite slow dopamine environments. It's a good reminder that the pace we live at the rest of the year is a choice, not a requirement.
What's one slow dopamine choice you could make this week?
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Some Other Things You Might Find Interesting
What I Published This Week
- The 8th article and video in the Obsidian Tasks series went live! You can find those in Circle, Medium and on YouTube.
What's Coming Up?
June 05, 2026 09:00
(Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Join us for the bi-weekly Obsidian Office Hours Session.
Office Hours are a time to ask questions about Obsidian. If you have a question, reply to the event with your questions - or attend live and you can get your question answered in the session.
When appropriate, office hours sessions will be recorded and the recording posted here.
24 in 24
I have a thing for Chef Michael Symon. So, when he launched season 1 of 24 in 24 on the Food Network I knew I was in. Now, three seasons later, there is no looking back. Here is episode 1 of Season 3.
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