How to *immediately* get out of a rut (using science)

Andrew Vargas

Jan 21 • 🚀 Productivity

We all know the pain of being in a rut.

Endless bad habits.

Procrastinating, even when it doesn’t feel good.

Health and progress takes a huge toll.

Days turn into weeks.

Weeks turn into months.

And you find yourself wondering where all the time has gone.

That excitement, passion, and sense of purpose you had before?

It’s been replaced with stagnation and self-sabotage.

And after coaching dozens of entrepreneurs to reach peak states of productivity, I’ve curated some tactical steps you can take to get immediately out of a rut (with a 100% success rate)

I’ll be sharing them with you in this post. I’ve personally used them hundreds of times and it has saved me thousands of hours of lost productivity. And these tactics will continue to serve me for the rest of my life.

By the end of this post, it will do the same for you.

If you didn’t already know, this is the third and final post in a series of posts exclusively covering the concept of ruts.

The first one was titled “How To NEVER Fall Into A Rut Again”

In that post, I teach you what a rut is, what causes it, and how to avoid them.

The second post is titled “How I Stay Productive 365 Days A Year (I’m Not Even Joking)”

In that post, I covered how to manipulate ruts so that your “ruts” are so productive that they’re better than other people’s greatest days.

So if you haven’t already, go read my other two posts before you read this one.

I spent many hours writing each one, and they’re both proven to work through the scientific studies I researched and the results I’ve gotten for the guys I work with.

So please, go and read those posts before you read this one. They’ll be worth your time.

Anyways, enough time wasted. Let’s get into the good stuff.

The first thing you have to understand is that a “rut” is nothing more than your old frequency trying to stay alive.

Your frequency is simply the collection of all your beliefs, thoughts, where you place your attention, identity, and emotions.

And your frequency determines the quality of your reality.

If you are not currently living in your desired reality, you have to enter the frequency that matches the energetic equilibrium of that reality.

And “ruts” are your old frequency’s #1 weapon for keeping you trapped.

Just think about it. The only thing that will keep your old frequency alive is the energy you give it.

In a rut, you give your old frequency all the energy it needs to not only survive, but flourish.

You’re in low vibrational states of mind - Anger, frustration, fear, annoyance, sadness, etc.

And you can’t bring yourself to get any work done.

Those two things combined give your old frequency all the energy it needs to keep you in your current, undesired reality.

So you need to see a “rut” as nothing more than a test for self-mastery.

The longer you take to get out of the rut, the farther you get from your desired reality.

That mindset shift alone will make you demonize ruts to the point that you have even more motivation to get out of your rut as quickly as possible.

Now that you understand that, we can get into the actual tactics of this post.

The first thing - Progressive overload is king.

Because even if you normally do 10 hours of deep work per day, if you’ve been in a rut for a week and try to do 10 hours of work out of nowhere, you’ll fail every single time.

And then you’ll just view yourself as a failure and prolong the rut even more.

So you need to start small.

I’m talking, literally just doing 30–60 minutes of work in the whole day.

Then you add an extra 30 minutes of work the day after.

And then another 30 minutes.

And you keep adding 30 minutes until you reach your old maximum levels of productivity, or maybe even more.

By using progressive overload, you ease yourself out of the rut.

And that process is going to take about one to two weeks.

But it’s 100% worth it.

It’s far better than the alternative of being deep down in a rut, and all of a sudden trying to be extremely productive.

That’s like someone who benches 100KG but gets injured, goes back after 4 weeks of not working out at all, and tries to bench 100KG again.

He’s just not gonna be able to do it.

He has to go to 70 or 80 KG and then progressively overload for a few weeks until he can lift 100 KG again.

And the worst mistake people make is that when they’re in a rut, they feel so much self-anger at all the time they wasted that they promise the next day will be different.

So they plan a bunch of activities they’re going to do the next day to finally start making progress again.

When that day comes, they do absolutely nothing because there’s so many tasks that it’s too overwhelming for them to even start.

They go to bed that night even more angry at themselves. So they plan even MORE activities for the next day and think “I’m just going to make up for all of it tomorrow”

That’s like failing 100 KG, going home mad, and thinking “I’ll just go harder tomorrow and put 120 KG on the bar to make up for it”

Obviously, that doesn’t make any sense.

Yet, that’s exactly what most people do when they’re in a rut. And that’s why they fail and continue to stay in their rut for weeks, months, even years.

So start small. Then progressively overload. You’ll be back to your old self sooner than you think.

Because all you really need is a bit of momentum. Then everything becomes significantly easier.

Which leads me to my next point.

You can get momentum by faking your achievements.

And you do that by making a small step a big win.

You tell yourself something like “It would be such an amazing achievement if I could get 2 minutes of work done. That would be completely insane, I would be so happy”

You then those 2 minutes and inject genuine emotions of excitement and accomplishment as if you’d just reached your biggest goals.

And just by tricking yourself by injecting positive emotions, you’re going to build the momentum you need to get out of your rut and you’re going to WANT to get more work done.

Because that’s just how momentum works.

The more work you do, the more work you want to do.

The more you procrastinate, the more you want to procrastinate.

So take the first step (this could literally just be doing 2 minutes of work) and genuinely think of it as a huge win.

And if you need some extra motivation to take that first step - Remind yourself of your purpose.

“He who has a strong why can bear almost any how” - Friedrick Nietzsche

You have to find out why you and your business exist (besides the money)

Who are your people? Who cares about your business? How would the future of the world be different if you stopped working & who would that affect? Why do you get out of bed in the morning?

You have to find your purpose ASAP, because when you work to have an impact that’s bigger than you, it just lights a fire under you that gives you endless motivation.

Now, in theory, that should be enough advice to get you out of your rut.

However, for many of you, it’s still not enough.

And that’s because the issue is not you or your discipline, it’s your DOPAMINE.

If you’ve been in a rut, chances are your dopamine levels are absolutely cooked.

If you’ve been scrolling, watching porn, playing video games, eating junk foods, doing drugs, then you’re going to be accustomed to being in a state of high stimulation all the time.

Meaning, doing things like deep work, reading books, and meditating are going to be extremely boring and you’re going to feel major resistance towards doing them.

So you have to repair your dopamine quickly so that you can derive the same level of pleasure from something like going for a walk as you do right now from playing video games.

Luckily, I have the perfect reset for you that will make hard work effortless.

I created it about a year ago, it’s an advanced dopamine detox that I do regularly.

(At the time of writing this, I literally just did one for 24 hours yesterday)

Yes, it’s 24 hours. But since you’ve been in a rut, your mind will immediately come up with 100 reasons for why you shouldn’t attempt it, and you’ll just end up not even trying it.

So instead of 24 hours, I’m only setting you to do this for 3 hours.

This way, you’ll be 10X more likely to try it, and you’ll still receive a lot of the benefits.

It’s simply 3 hours of

No electronics. No phone. No notifications. No work.
No reading or writing.
No eating.
No social interaction. If you have to go outside, avoid people.
No buying anything.
No substances like caffeine or supplements.
Basically do nothing but sit with your thoughts, meditate, and drink water

Now, you can probably picture how excruciatingly boring this would be.

But that’s the point. That’s the reset you need to to fix your overstimulated mind.

After you’ve completed it, you’ll notice the effects immediately.

Suddenly, doing a chore is fun. Working is enjoyable. Doing good habits feels like a video game.

Essentially, it’ll make hard work significantly more enjoyable.

I’d recommend doing it as soon as you wake up, before you have the chance to get on social media or eat crappy foods.

So, if it’s already afternoon or nighttime at the time you’re reading this, go to sleep EARLY tonight so that you can wake up EARLY tomorrow and complete this challenge.

And I don’t even want you to see this as a challenge.

This is MANDATORY. If you can’t even control your dopamine, how do you expect to run a successful business?

Also, right after you complete the detox, don’t just immediately go back into your old routine of mindless stimulation.

If you do that, this entire thing is useless and you just wasted your time.

So once you’ve completed the detox, keep the momentum for as long as you can by continuing to do regular, “boring” things.

(If you do this right, you’ll be able to keep the momentum for at least 1-2 weeks)

In summary