What’s Dopamine Got to Do with CAT?

Dopamine is your brain’s way of rewarding you for things that feel good. Quick, easy, satisfying things. Like social media. Like one more reel. But CAT? CAT is the opposite. It’s a delayed reward. It’s solving a tough DILR set after 18 minutes and feeling like a genius. But your dopamine-trained brain doesn’t want 18 minutes. It wants now. And that’s where it starts to sabotage your focus.

How Scrolling Kills Your Focus Without You Realising

I didn’t notice it at first. I was doing mocks, solving RCs, and “taking breaks” in between. Nothing felt wrong, technically.  But gradually, I couldn’t sit through an entire section. I’d start fidgeting halfway through VARC. I’d give up on a question five seconds too soon. It wasn’t burnout. It was overexposure. My brain was wired for refreshes, not for resilience. And because the distractions felt small, I kept underestimating their damage, until I saw it reflected in my mock scores. That subtle mental fog? It wasn’t a bad day. It was the cost of constant stimulation.

The Shift: From Constant Stimulation to Actual Learning

So I tried a soft detox. Not a big, dramatic uninstall. Just small things, like keeping my phone in another room during mocks, setting screen-free hours during my peak focus time, reading offline, and taking actual breaks that didn’t involve screens. 

And wow. The silence that used to scare me? It became my superpower. I started solving questions without mental fatigue. My concentration came back. My RC accuracy improved. Not because I changed my method, but because I changed my mindset. I gave my brain the space to breathe, and it paid me back by focusing better.

CAT Rewards Focus; Not Flicker Attention

We don’t talk about this enough, but CAT is not about knowing everything. It’s about staying calm, staying focused, staying with the question, even when it gets hard. Scrolling trains you to escape the moment. CAT asks you to stay.

And that’s why this detox isn’t just about cutting screen time. It’s about reclaiming your ability to sit with discomfort, to push through boredom, and to solve when every part of your brain is saying, “this is hard, let’s run.”

The Real Flex? Mental Clarity

CAT toppers aren’t superhuman. They’ve just trained their brains to delay dopamine. To resist the scroll in favour of a solution. And that’s the flex you want, not 10K followers, but 99 percentile.

So try it. Put the phone away. Sit with that RC. Stare at that DILR set. And remind your brain that rewards don’t have to come in 15-second reels; they can come in the form of a call from your dream B-school.