How to Trick Your Brain into Doing Difficult Things
A Neuroscientist’s 7 Proven Ways to Get Yourself to Do What Matters
Picture this: it’s 6 AM, your alarm goes off, and you know you should get up and go to the gym. But your bed feels like the most comfortable place on Earth.
Your brain starts negotiating:
“Five more minutes.”
“Actually… I’ll work out tomorrow.”
“I’m tired today anyway.”
Sound familiar?
You’re not broken. You’re not lazy. You’re not lacking willpower.
Your brain is simply doing what it evolved to do: avoid discomfort and conserve energy.
Why Your Brain Fights You
Before we get into solutions, it helps to understand what you’re actually fighting. Your brain creates resistance in two predictable ways, and recognising these patterns is the first step to beating them.
Resistance Type 1: Emotional Pushback
Your brain isn’t judging tasks logically - it’s judging them emotionally.
Here’s the key insight:
The bigger a task looks, the stronger the emotional resistance your brain creates.
Examples:
“I need to clean the entire house” → major resistance
“I’ll just wash one dish” → manageable
“I have to study for eight hours” → dread
“I’ll review one page” → doable
“I need to lose 30 pounds” → impossible
“I’ll do five pushups” → achievable
Your brain is constantly doing quick, subconscious math.
Big task = big emotions.
Small task = small emotions.
Resistance Type 2: Ego Protection
The second kind of resistance comes from your self-image, the story you tell yourself about who you are.
Your brain’s main priority? Protect that story at all costs.
How it shows up:
If you believe “I’m smart” → you avoid anything where you might look clueless.
If you believe “I’m not a math person” → you feel resistance before you even open the book.
If you believe “I’m not athletic” → the gym feels threatening, so your brain pushes you away.
If you believe “I’m a perfectionist” → starting becomes terrifying because the first attempt won’t be perfect.
In other words:
The resistance isn’t about the task - it’s about protecting your ego.
If you liked this post you might like this too!
The Practical Solutions That Actually Work
These are simple, low-effort techniques that work with your brain instead of against it.
Strategy 1: The Two-Minute Trick
Your brain resists big commitments. So don’t make one.
Commit to two minutes. Nothing more.
Instead of “work out,” do one exercise.
Instead of “study,” read one paragraph.
Instead of “write the chapter,” write one sentence.
Instead of “clean the room,” pick up three items.
Once you start, you’ll probably keep going.
But even if you don’t, you’ve beaten the resistance.
Strategy 2: Preparation
If two minutes feels like too much, don’t start the task - start the setup.
Put on gym clothes
Fill your water bottle
Open the laptop
Lay out your books
Clear your desk
Open the document
Read the last sentence you wrote
Physical movement bypasses emotional resistance.
By the time you’re prepped, momentum is already working for you.
Strategy 3: Reward Yourself
Your brain loves rewards, hates effort. So sandwich the effort between incentives:
Small reward → Hard task → Bigger reward
Examples:
Morning:
Coffee → Work task → Your favourite lunch
Evening:
One YouTube video → Study → Netflix episode
Weekend:
Sleep in → Clean the apartment → Meet friends
Make the second reward conditional. Your brain will chase it.
Strategy 4: Make it fun
Pair something enjoyable with the task itself.
Listen to your favourite podcast during cardio
Drink your nicest coffee while doing deep work
Use your comfiest chair only for studying
Light your favourite candle when writing
Play specific music while cleaning
Your brain starts associating the difficult task with a pleasant experience, lowering resistance automatically.
Strategy 5: Tell yourself you’re experimenting
When failure feels dangerous, shift from performance to experimentation.
Experiments don’t need to be perfect - they just need data.
Instead of: “I have to give a perfect presentation.”
Try: “I’m going to experiment with getting more people to engage.”
Instead of: “I need to impress everyone at the gym.”
Try: “I’ll run a quick experiment: can I add 1 pound to last week’s lift?”
Instead of: “I must write a perfect draft.”
Try: “I’m experimenting with writing fast, messy ideas for 10 minutes.”
Experiments don’t threaten your ego - they create curiosity instead of pressure.
Strategy 6: Pretend to be someone you’re not (yet)
Don’t try to achieve something. Become someone.
Creates resistance:
“I need to get in shape.”
“I should eat healthy.”
“I have to study more.”
“I need to be organized.”
Removes resistance:
“I’m someone who works out.”
“I nourish my body.”
“I’m a student.”
“I’m an organized person.”
Your brain resists tasks that contradict your identity.
It cooperates with tasks that match it.
Strategy 7: Be a Beginner
Protect your ego by embracing beginnerhood.
Say:
“I’m learning Spanish” (not “I’m bad at it”).
“I’m new to weightlifting” (not “I’m weak”).
“I’m practicing cooking” (not “I can’t cook”).
“I’m developing my writing” (not “I’m not a writer”).
You can’t fail at being a beginner.
You can only improve.
The Bottom Line
Your brain is always going to send you dramatic messages:
“Too hard.”
“Too much.”
“Not today.”
But half of that is just your brain being… dramatic. Tomorrow morning, don’t try to win the day - just win the first two minutes.
If you found this helpful, make sure to like or restack! These articles take considerable research, and your support keeps me going. (Coffee tips always welcome below ☕)
The two minute rule and doing the setup is really helpful. I have noticed when I feel lazy to go to badminton I just put on my sports wear and then I just go. The two minutes rule is really helpful it helps to overcome the initial resistance to start the task. The difficult part is always starting.
As a new Substack user, this is my First interesting read and I resonated with it very deeply. It also came at a point of me trying to figure out why I always started but never followed through, or why starting itself was always hard, or the constant itch to want better but being stuck in the all-or-nothing cycle. This is golden. I love the part about allowing yourself to be a beginner, as someone who switched careers, I’m excessively hard on myself about not knowing certain things, and intentionally avoiding any task that makes me uncomfortable (the ego protection thing you mentioned), this read is kind, it is very easy to receive, and comprehend. I’m all for establishing systems and habits that even if I do for 5mins, it sticks and the 2min rule just altered my brain chemistry! Very good read Dominic!
Excited to be here!