When your energy is flat, choosing what to do already costs too much. A dopamine menu decides for you: a list of things that make you feel better, laid out like a restaurant menu. Tick, add your own, print.
On the fridge, by your desk, as your lock screen: wherever you’ll see it at the moment you get stuck.
Energy flat? A 5-minute starter is often enough to get going again, with no commitment to more.
Boring task ahead? Pair it with a side: cleaning with a podcast, paperwork with your favourite drink.
Desserts aren’t forbidden. Choosing them on purpose, instead of falling into them, changes everything.
A dopamine menu is a personal list of things that make you feel better, laid out like a restaurant menu. The idea was popularised in the ADHD community by coach Eric Tivers and by Jessica McCabe (How to ADHD).
Why it helps: when you’re drained or bored, you rarely have the energy to work out what would help, so you end up on your phone. The menu makes that choice in advance, when you’re calm.
“Dopamine” is a figure of speech: it isn’t a treatment and it doesn’t “fix” anything. It’s an organising tool that complements what already helps you.
A personal list of activities that make you feel better, laid out like a restaurant menu: quick starters, mains that recharge you, sides for boring tasks, desserts to enjoy in moderation, and rarer specials.
The name is a figure of speech, not a biological promise. The menu mostly helps because it removes a decision at the moment you no longer have the energy to make it. It isn’t an ADHD treatment.
Because screens, snacking or online shopping feel good in the moment but recharge little. Calling them desserts lets you choose them knowingly, without guilt.
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