Dopamine Expert: ADHD Hyperfocus Can Be Switched On (w/ Dr Chris Lee) | Ep 157

Send us Fan Mail The good day arrives out of nowhere. Six hours vanish, the work gets done, and then it will not come back for three weeks. Dr Chris Lee has spent ten years working out what actually fires that state, and he says it is never random. The trigger is usually the most boring thing in your house. Dr Chris Lee is the founder of Elemental Shift, a neuroscience led consultancy, and he reaches a weekly audience of more than two million people. He coaches executives running billion dollar companies, though he only takes four one to one clients at a time. He studied biology, chemistry and environmental science at Siena Heights, took his doctorate in chiropractic at Life University, then trained in functional neurology at the Carrick Institute and in neuroscience at Duke, Peking University and Stanford, all of it after his own life came apart at 23. He is currently finishing a book on dopamine and how to stay in the driving seat of your own attention. He explains: \* Why an ADHD brain runs on a lower background reserve of dopamine, and what that does to an ordinary Tuesday \* The one minute plank he gives his ADHD CEOs before they sit down to work, and why it fires hyperfocus on demand \* Why the thing that triggers your best day is almost always the boring task you did ten minutes earlier \* Why masking around the wrong people flattens your motivation for days afterwards \* How to run the week on three stretch days and two admin days, and who to hire on each side of it \* What rest actually looks like, and why doom scrolling leaves you more depleted than the work did \* He opens up about losing his dad to suicide at 23, finding out four months later that he was going to be a father, and why he calls it the worst and the best thing that has ever happened to him Timestamps: (00:00:00) The Dopamine Trigger Nobody Told You About (00:02:40) Ten Years Ago He Was Training To Be A Chiropractor (00:04:19) White Ceiling Syndrome And The Question At Night (00:04:46) Hit By A Car On The Way Home From School (00:05:45) The Phone Call About His Dad (00:06:01) The Worst Thing And The Best Thing (00:07:15) Four Months Later He Found Out He Was A Dad (00:08:03) You Would Die For Them, Would You Live For Them? (00:15:44) Why A Regulated Nervous System Is About Trust (00:19:03) What Billion Dollar Executives Actually Ask For (00:21:46) "You Know What To Do. You Just Cannot Do It" (00:23:25) Why Being Yourself Costs An ADHD Brain So Much (00:27:43) What The Nervous System Actually Is (00:30:16) Sleep, Food And Movement, The Whole Platform (00:35:14) Tonic And Phasic Dopamine Explained (00:39:02) The Rat Experiment Behind Your Phone Habit (00:43:50) How To Trigger Hyperfocus On Purpose (00:44:53) Why Deadlines Feel Like A Reward (00:46:20) Look At What You Did Before The Hyperfocus (00:47:11) Sprinter Or Jogger, And Which One You Are (00:53:20) The Tax You Pay For A Hyperfocus Day (00:54:23) How To Build The Week Under 100k (00:55:28) What Rest Actually Looks Like (01:00:25) Who To Hire As A Sprinter, Who As A Jogger (01:08:34) The One Thing To Do This Week (01:13:36) What He Would Say To His 23 Year Old Self Dr Chris Lee: \* Website — https://www.drchrislee.com \* Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/drchrislee \* YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/@Dr.ChrisLee \* LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/drchrislee/ \* His podcast, Wired for Wonder — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wired-for-wonder/id1469100234 Mentioned in this episode: \* The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer \* The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer \* Mindset by Carol Dweck \* Ultrahuman, the biometric ring This episode discusses suicide. If you are struggling, Samaritans are free on 116 123, any time. **The ADHD Entrepreneur:** - Get **The Debrief**, Jack's daily email for ADHD founders: thehunterbrain.com/debrief - Follow Jack on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.jacktaylor/ - Watch more on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@the.jacktaylor - Connect with Jack on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunterbrain/