Dopamine Menu: Deciding Your Breaks in Advance
Dopamine menu: A prepared list of activities to reach for when you need stimulation or a break, written in advance so the choice is not made in the moment.
Where the idea comes from
Jessica McCabe of How to ADHD created it around 2020, out of a conversation with therapist Eric Tivers about doomscrolling, and framed it as a restaurant menu with starters, mains, sides and specials by time cost. It is a practical technique from practitioners, not a research finding, and the dopamine framing is a metaphor rather than a mechanism.
How it shows up
- Every break becoming the same scroll
- Reaching for the nearest thing rather than the thing you would have chosen
- Breaks that do not restore anything
Practical steps to try
- Write the list when you are not on a break — the point is that the deciding already happened
- Sort by time cost: two minutes, ten minutes, an hour
- Include physical options, since most default choices are screens
- Keep it visible near where you work, or it does not exist
Where the popular version overreaches
The neuroscience in the name is decoration. Nothing here is measuring or managing dopamine, and framing it that way invites overclaiming. What it actually is: a pre-commitment device for breaks, which is useful precisely because break decisions are made in the worst possible state.
Common questions
- Does a dopamine menu actually work?
- A prepared activity list can reduce the choices needed during a break. This page does not establish that a dopamine menu changes dopamine levels or treats ADHD. Try it as a planning aid and review whether it helps.
Sources
Related
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