Nitu Mohanka explains how notifications trigger dopamine hits that reinforce addictive behavior and impulsive spending. Her method: when an urge hits, pause for two to three minutes, breathe, and reassess before acting. Repeat it enough and you break the cycle.
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The phenomenon of instant gratification— what is it? It's like getting a notification and instantly acting over it. This gives our brain a kick of dopamine hit. It makes us feel good for a small, you know, window of time. But in the longer run, if we are practicing instant gratification again and again, the brain gets addicted with this loop, and you will keep doing more of it. And I've seen a lot of people shopping away most of their money because they have this habit of instant gratification. There is a way of getting out of it by practicing delayed gratification. How does that work? That every time you feel the urge to do something, just hold yourself back for, you know, a couple of minutes and just take deep breaths. And after 2 minutes, 3 minutes, take that call again. If you still feel like doing it, go ahead, do it. But if you keep practicing of holding back yourself for delayed gratification, you will be able to break that loop of instantly taking that action. Try this and see if you are able to break your pattern.