should I reward myself after work or study?

Rewarding yourself after work or study can significantly enhance your performance and motivation. Andrew Huberman discusses the importance of rewarding effort rather than intelligence or talent. Studies show that those praised for their effort tend to perform better and choose more challenging tasks in the future. Thus, rewarding yourself for the hard work and effort you put in after studying or work can improve your performance and encourage further improvement 1.

To maintain ongoing motivation, it's beneficial to use random intermittent reinforcement. This means sometimes rewarding yourself and sometimes not, following a random pattern. This approach helps keep the dopamine system engaged, making the reward more impactful and sustaining motivation over time 2.

Therefore, rewarding yourself after completing significant work or study sessions can be very effective, especially if done in an intermittent and somewhat unpredictable manner to maximize motivation and cognitive engagement.