The Dopamine Climb: Why High Achievers Get Hooked

You know the feeling. You’ve had a blisteringly productive day — focused, driven, firing on all cylinders. Then you walk through the front door and you’re still on. Your mind is racing. You’re checking your phone. You’re irritable when someone asks you a simple question about dinner.

That’s the dopamine climb. And if you don’t manage it deliberately, it will manage you.

The pattern hiding in your productivity

I’ve followed a work rhythm for years: 90 minutes of hard, focused work followed by 15 minutes off.

Then repeat.

It keeps me productive without burning out. During those breaks, I do something light — a crossword, a quick game — just enough to shift gears before diving back in.

Recently, I started playing Mahjong in those breaks. Competitive, fast, satisfying. And I noticed something uncomfortable: the game was starting to drive me, not the other way around. As I climbed the rankings, the dopamine kept rising. I wasn’t just enjoying a break — I was chasing a hit.

This is worth paying attention to, because it’s not just about a tile game. It’s about a pattern that runs through the lives of high-performing people.

The cost of staying elevated

When dopamine keeps climbing through the day and you don’t actively bring it down, a few things happen.

First, sleep suffers. You haven’t wound down by the time your head hits the pillow, so your brain is still running the programme from 3 PM. Second, your behaviour shifts. You start looking for the next, bigger hit — a tendency I’ve long observed in driven people who chase adrenaline the way younger people chase the biggest rollercoaster. Bigger, better, harder, faster, more. It’s who we are.

But left unchecked, it can start to erode the things that matter most — particularly your relationships. If you’re never satisfied, if the only thing that registers is the next achievement, your family has to come on that ride with you. And they’re not always willing, in case you hadn’t noticed.

The 6-to-10 decompression window

Here’s what I’d suggest. Think of your day in two phases.

Between midday and 6 PM, you’re climbing the dopamine ladder — more focus, more drive, more output. That’s fine. That’s the job.

But between 6 and 10 PM, you need to be coming back down. Not crashing. Decompressing — by roughly 30%, hour by hour.

What does that look like in practice? Walk the dog (without your phone). Get changed into something comfortable so your home feels different from work. Read. Listen to music. Watch something undemanding. Spend time with the people around you so they actually get some of you. Don’t make big decisions. Don’t pick fights. Don’t scroll.

You won’t get back to baseline — that’s not the goal. But if you can come off the 80% and bring it down meaningfully, you’ll sleep better, you’ll be more present, and crucially, you’ll be able to do it all again tomorrow.

A word about weekends

If you’ve had five intense days, the weekend is not the time to say yes to everything. More social engagements, more stimulation, more dopamine — it defeats the purpose.

What you’re actually looking for is serotonin: the quieter, deeper reward that comes from connection. Dinner with friends, time with family, unhurried conversation. Anything that feels genuinely fun rather than stimulating is an antidote to the dopamine cycle.

Sustainable high performance isn’t about going harder. It’s about knowing when — and how — to come down.

If this resonates, you're probably not managing it alone. I work with senior leaders and executive teams on the psychology behind sustainable performance — from dopamine management to decision-making under pressure. If you'd like to explore what this looks like for you or your team: