Hard Dopamine vs Cheap Dopamine: How to Reprogram Your Brain to Get Shit Done
- Bonny Morlak
- Dec 31, 2025
- 3 min read
From time to time, we need to get shit done.
Not emails. Not Slack replies. Not scrolling disguised as “research.”
Real work. Hard thinking. The kind of effort that actually moves the needle.
Most founders tell me they can’t focus the way they used to. They blame age, stress, or discipline. But that’s not the real problem.
The real problem is dopamine.
The Two Types of Dopamine Nobody Explains
Dopamine isn’t good or bad. It’s fuel. But there are two very different kinds of fuel.
Cheap dopamine comes from fast rewards. Social media. Notifications. Likes. Endless novelty. It spikes quickly, feels good immediately, and crashes hard.
Hard dopamine comes from effort. From doing something uncomfortable first. From staying with a task when your brain wants to escape. It builds slowly and lasts much longer.
Here’s the trap. Most of us spend our best dopamine hours on cheap hits. Then we wonder why we can’t do hard work later.
Why Cheap Dopamine Destroys Focus
Every time you scroll, your dopamine spikes. When you stop, it doesn’t return to baseline. It drops below it.
That means after scrolling, your motivation is lower than before you picked up your phone.
So when it’s time to do something hard, your brain says no. Not because you’re lazy, but because there’s no dopamine left to spend.
This is why you open your laptop, feel resistance immediately, and reach for your phone again. Your brain is chasing the fastest reward available.
That loop trains distraction.
Why This Gets Worse When You Scale
Early-stage founders live in chaos. Everything is urgent. Everything is broken. Every problem solved gives a small dopamine hit.
Firefighting becomes addictive.
Then the company grows. You hire. You delegate. Systems replace chaos. Suddenly, the constant dopamine hits disappear.
Nothing feels urgent anymore. Nothing feels exciting. Motivation drops.
Many founders misread this as boredom or burnout. What’s actually happening is dopamine withdrawal.
Without realizing it, founders recreate problems, overcheck messages, or stay busy instead of effective. Not because they like problems, but because their brain misses the reward.
What Hard Dopamine Actually Looks Like
Hard dopamine starts unpleasant.
Going to the gym feels bad at first. Starting a financial model feels heavy. Writing a difficult strategy document feels uncomfortable.
But if you stay with it, something changes. Dopamine rises slowly. Confidence follows. Energy builds.
Even after you stop, the feeling lasts. You feel capable. Clear. Motivated.
That’s why after doing something hard, everything else feels easier.
How to Reprogram Your Brain to Get Shit Done
You don’t need to quit social media entirely. For most people, that’s unrealistic.
You need sequencing.
Protect your dopamine early in the day. Do hard things first, before cheap dopamine drains your motivation.
Time box distractions instead of letting them leak everywhere.
This means:
No social media first thing in the morning
No starting the day with cheap wins
One clear, hard task before anything else
The beginning is always the hardest part. Expect resistance. Expect the urge to escape.
When you catch yourself reaching for your phone, don’t panic. Notice it. Forgive it. Return to the task.
It takes a few days to break the cheap dopamine loop. After that, focus comes back faster than you expect.
Why This Matters for Founders
As you scale, your job becomes harder mentally, not easier. Fewer emergencies. More thinking. More long-term decisions.
That requires hard dopamine.
If you don’t reprogram your brain, you’ll feel foggy, distracted, and strangely unmotivated, even though everything looks fine on paper.
Hard dopamine is what lets you lead clearly, make better decisions, and get real work done without burning out.
You don’t need more discipline. You need better dopamine management.
What’s Next?
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