Dopamine Detox : a short Guide to Remove Distractions and Get Your Brain to Do Hard Things

4. Prepare a contingency plan
An effective way to avoid relapsing is to create a contingency plan.
To do so, think of all the ways you are likely to lose your focus and
revert to your previous behaviors, and guard against them by
creating a contingency plan.
So, what things could make you relapse?
For instance, if I check my phone first thing in the morning, I’ll
probably end up jumping from one stimulation to the next. I’ll check
Facebook, then perhaps reply to a message. This message may
remind me of something else I need to do or it might give me ideas.
Suddenly, my mind will become agitated and provide me with a
plethora of good reasons not to write this morning.

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To create your contingency plan:
Consider all the activities with the highest potential for
distraction. To identify them, revisit the list of “Can’ts” you
created earlier.
Envision the worst-case scenarios. What could lead you to
lose focus and stop doing your morning routine? Using your
action guide, write down all the worst-case scenarios you
can think of.
Prepare yourself mentally. Visualize yourself going through
these scenarios. How will you react? Now, how would you
like
to react? See yourself dealing with these scenarios the
best way possible.

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5. Put a sustainable system in place
The key to lowering your levels of stimulation is to implement a
simple and 
sustainable
system. This system doesn’t necessarily
entail a complete shutdown from distractions, but it does require
putting in place habits that will help you stay focused.
Consequently, as we’ve seen before, make sure you have a simple
daily routine you can stick to consistently.