It's 3 p.m. You're bored, foggy and stuck, and your hand is already reaching for your phone. Forty minutes later you feel worse. A dopamine menu is a small fix for that moment: a list you wrote earlier, on a better day, of things that actually help. Here's where the idea comes from, what the science supports, and how to build one that works for you.

What is a dopamine menu?

A dopamine menu (sometimes "dopamenu") is a personal list of activities that give you a lift, organized like a menu. According to a 2023 explainer by neuroscientist Colin Davidson and psychologist Claire Hutchinson, the concept comes from a 2020 YouTube video by Jessica McCabe of How to ADHD (Davidson & Hutchinson, 2023). Since then, the idea has spread widely on social media.

The usual courses:

  • Starters: quick boosts of a few minutes.
  • Mains: bigger activities that leave you better off.
  • Sides: things you add to a dull task to make it bearable.
  • Desserts: fun things that are easy to overdo.
  • Specials (a common addition): occasional treats worth planning.

Why call it "dopamine"? What does the science say?

Dopamine is a brain chemical involved in reward, motivation and learning, and it's been studied in ADHD for decades. Two findings stand out:

  • In a brain-imaging study of 53 unmedicated adults with ADHD and 44 controls, markers of dopamine signaling were lower in the brain's reward pathway in the ADHD group, and lower levels went with more attention problems (Volkow et al., 2009).
  • Across fMRI studies, a reward area called the ventral striatum responded less while people with ADHD were waiting for a reward, a medium-sized effect (Plichta & Scheres, 2014).

Davidson and Hutchinson describe "lower background dopamine" as one popular hypothesis for ADHD, not a settled fact. And here's the important part: nobody has tested dopamine menus in a study, and there's no evidence that a starter or a main "refills" dopamine in a way you could plan around. The name is a memorable nickname, not a mechanism.

So why bother? Because the menu works on something better understood: choice in the moment. When you're flat, the easiest option nearby usually wins, and that's often a feed. A menu written in advance puts better options within reach. It's the same logic as an if-then plan: decide ahead, so you don't have to decide when you're running on empty.

There's related evidence from depression research, too. Planning more pleasant activities into your days (a therapy technique called activity scheduling) had a large effect on depression across 16 trials (Cuijpers et al., 2007). That's a different condition and a more structured approach, but it supports the core idea: plan good things on purpose instead of leaving them to chance.

What goes on each course?

Starters (2 to 10 minutes). Quick lifts for right now: stretch, step outside, drink a glass of water, play one favorite song, make tea, text a friend something kind. A good starter leaves you a bit better off and ends on its own.

Mains (20 minutes or more). Bigger and more filling: a walk, a workout, cooking, calling someone you love, an hour on a hobby. Movement deserves a special mention. In children with ADHD, short-term aerobic exercise programs had moderate-to-large effects on attention (Cerrillo-Urbina et al., 2015).

Sides (with a dull task). Things that make boring work easier to stay with: music without lyrics (why lyrics matter), brown noise, a fidget, a favorite drink, working next to someone (body doubling). Sides are a version of temptation bundling: in one field experiment, people who could only hear gripping audiobooks at the gym went 51% more often at first (Milkman et al., 2014).

Desserts (with a limit). Scrolling, videos and games are fun, and that's fine. They're also built to keep going. In a lab study, scrolling TikTok-style videos between tasks made people worse at remembering what they'd planned to do (Chiossi et al., 2023). Decide the limit before you start: "one episode," "10 minutes on a timer," "autoplay off."

Specials (now and then). A concert, a day trip, a class you've wanted to take. Having something to look forward to is a reward in itself.

How do you build your dopamine menu?

  1. Pick a good day. You can't think of nice things when you're depleted. Give it 15 minutes when you feel okay.
  2. Write two or three items per course. Be specific: "walk to the bakery" beats "exercise."
  3. Check the after-feeling. For each item, ask: "How do I feel 20 minutes after this?" Keep the ones that leave you better off.
  4. Keep it visible. Print it for the fridge, put it next to your desk, or paste it into your notes. A menu you can't see doesn't get used.
  5. Revise it. ADHD brains get bored of the same options. Swap items out every few weeks.

You can build one in our free dopamine menu builder: tap ideas or write your own, then print it or copy it as text.

How do you use it when you're stuck?

  • Feeling flat? Order a starter first. It's short and ends on its own.
  • Facing a boring task? Add a side and start.
  • Craving a dessert? That's okay. Set the limit first, ideally with a visible timer.
  • Finished the boost? Go back to the task with one tiny step. The return is the point. More in getting back on track.

Sources

  • Davidson, C., & Hutchinson, C. (2023, December 11). Dopamine menus: The science behind the trend, and how it might help people with ADHD. The Conversation.
  • Volkow, N. D., Wang, G.-J., Kollins, S. H., et al. (2009). Evaluating dopamine reward pathway in ADHD: Clinical implications. JAMA, 302(10), 1084–1091. doi.org/10.1001/jama.2009.1308
  • Plichta, M. M., & Scheres, A. (2014). Ventral-striatal responsiveness during reward anticipation in ADHD and its relation to trait impulsivity in the healthy population: A meta-analytic review of the fMRI literature. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 38, 125–134. doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2013.07.012
  • Cuijpers, P., van Straten, A., & Warmerdam, L. (2007). Behavioral activation treatments of depression: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 27(3), 318–326. doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2006.11.001
  • Cerrillo-Urbina, A. J., García-Hermoso, A., Sánchez-López, M., et al. (2015). The effects of physical exercise in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized control trials. Child: Care, Health and Development, 41(6), 779–788. doi.org/10.1111/cch.12255
  • Milkman, K. L., Minson, J. A., & Volpp, K. G. M. (2014). Holding the Hunger Games hostage at the gym: An evaluation of temptation bundling. Management Science, 60(2), 283–299. doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2013.1784
  • Chiossi, F., Haliburton, L., Ou, C., Butz, A., & Schmidt, A. (2023). Short-form videos degrade our capacity to retain intentions: Effect of context switching on prospective memory. Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–15. doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580778

This article is for general information, not medical advice. If you think you might have ADHD, or you're thinking about changing your treatment, talk to a qualified health professional. How we research and write.

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Plan your boosts on a good day: starters, mains, sides and desserts. Print it or copy it.

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