When your brain runs low on dopamine, decision-making dies. You reach for the fastest hit — usually TikTok, Reddit, or the fridge — and 90 minutes later you feel worse. A dopamine menu is the pre-made cheat sheet that stops you defaulting to the worst option. You set it up once. It works for months.
What a dopamine menu is
A written list of activities that reliably give you a dopamine bump, sorted by size and effort. Not general advice. Yours. The point is that when the crash hits, you don't have to choose — decision-making is exactly what's broken. You just look at the menu.
The 4 sections
Appetizers (2–5 minutes, no cost)
Cheap, fast, in-reach: cold water on your face, 10 push-ups, a song you love loud, the dog, a 60-second dance, chewing gum, stepping outside barefoot. Things you can do without leaving your current room.
Mains (15–45 minutes)
A walk with a specific destination, a shower, cooking one thing you like, calling one specific person, a game you actually enjoy for one round, 20 minutes of a hobby. Anything you'd feel proud of an hour later.
Desserts (fun but expensive)
YouTube, TikTok, doomscrolling, online shopping, a snack you're not hungry for. Nothing wrong with these — they're on the menu. But you order them on purpose, once, not by default.
Specials (rare, big)
A concert, a trip, a project weekend, a new tool arriving in the mail. The stuff you're actually looking forward to. Written down so you remember it exists on grey Tuesdays.
How to build yours in 20 minutes
- Open a note titled "Dopamine Menu".
- Under each section, write 6–10 things that actually work for you (not what you think should work).
- Delete anything you added out of guilt. This is a menu, not a self-improvement list.
- Pin the note to your home screen.
- Next time you feel a crash, open the menu instead of your feed.
Why it works
You outsource the decision to a past version of yourself who had fuel. Present-you doesn't have to invent an option — the list already exists. That single removed choice is often enough to break the doomscroll loop.
Pair it with tiny task starts
Spark turns a stuck task into a 2-minute first step — the same principle as a dopamine menu, applied to your to-do list.
Try Spark freeRelated: ADHD burnout recovery · Body doubling for ADHD