When you were a kid, chances are, the adults in your found ways to convince you to do things you didn’t really want to do. And it probably involved some kind of bartering. Go to the doctor? You get a trip to the park. Eat your vegetables? You get an ice cream. Do your home work? You get an extra half hour of television time. This likely all sounds pretty familiar… if a little distant. Sadly, when we grow up, we don’t often get treats for simply doing the things we need to do. But then again, why can’t we reward ourselves for being good, responsible adults? And thats exactly what a growing number of people are doing.

Allow me to introduce you to ‘dopamine anchoring,’ a TikTok-approved hack for essentially tricking yourself into doing all of those annoying, unpleasant tasks on your to-do list. Just like adults may have once bribed you as a child, dopamine anchoring is, effectively, all about bribing yourself. Of course, the little indulgences we want as adults tend to be a little different. “You know that feeling when you light a candle, play your favourite song, and suddenly that life admin doesn’t feel so heavy?” says Claire Thompson, a psychotherapist, life coach and hypnotherapist. “That’s dopamine anchoring — and it’s one of the simplest, most soulful ways to shift your state and get things done.”

Dopamine anchoring is essentially all about pairing “bad” tasks with “good” things. “At its heart, dopamine anchoring is about pairing something you love with something you usually resist,” she explains. It could be that you promise yourself you’ll have a long luxurious bubble bath after a gym session. Or maybe, while you book all of those dentist and doctor appointments you’ve been putting off, you put on your favourite playlist and order a takeaway. The key is to do the same ‘good’ thing every time you do a specific ‘bad’ task.

The tactic is based around the psychological principle of the “mental anchoring effect,” which is when you build a mental habit or anchor through repeated actions. For instance, if you light the same candle every time you go through your nighttime routine, you’ll begin to associate that smell with your routine.

It’s all about “activating the brain’s dopamine system to make habits feel more enjoyable, rather than forced,” explains Thompson. Instead of anchoring tasks to a specific smell or taste, you’ll anchor those tasks to the feeling that comes from a dopamine spike. In other words, these annoying tasks will actually start to feel good. “It’s a nervous system-friendly way to build motivation, focus and emotional resilience.”

It works “because dopamine is a feel-good chemical that reinforces behaviours,” says Tam Kaur a self-help author. “When you consistently reward a difficult habit with something enjoyable, over time your brain starts to link the two. It’s like giving yourself a psychological high-five for doing something hard.”