What does it mean that reward immediately?

The brain learns from immediate rewards not delayed ones — add instant gratification.

Example: You want to build a daily writing habit, but the reward — a published body of work, professional recognition, intellectual clarity — lives months or years in the future. Every evening you sit down to write, the effort is immediate and the payoff is invisible. So you add an instant reward: after completing your 500 words, you pour a specific tea you only drink post-writing and watch ten minutes of a show you are saving for this moment. Within three weeks, you notice you look forward to the writing block — not because the writing got easier, but because the ritual afterward rewired the emotional signature of the entire sequence from 'delayed gratification I should endure' to 'satisfying routine I get to do.'

Try this: Choose a habit you are currently trying to build or maintain. Write down the natural reward — the real reason you want this habit. Now assess honestly: does that reward arrive within seconds of completing the behavior, within hours, or within weeks-to-months? If the answer is anything other than seconds, design an immediate reward to attach to the habit. The reward should be (a) genuinely pleasurable, (b) available only after the habit is performed, and (c) small enough that it does not undermine the habit itself. Try the pairing for five consecutive days and note whether your motivation to initiate the behavior changes.