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ADHD Dopamine Menu

focus · easy · 15 minutes to create, used as needed

What is ADHD Dopamine Menu?

Create a personal menu of dopamine-boosting activities organized by effort level. When you feel stuck, paralyzed, or understimulated, pick something from the appropriate category to jumpstart your brain's reward system.

Is there evidence for it?

EVIDENCEemerging

How do you do ADHD Dopamine Menu?

  1. 1.Create 4 categories: Appetizers (5 min, no effort: splash cold water on face, listen to one song, eat something crunchy)
  2. 2.Entrees (15-30 min, some effort: go for a walk, take a shower, call a friend, play an instrument)
  3. 3.Sides (pair with a boring task: music while cleaning, podcast while cooking, fidget toy while reading)
  4. 4.Desserts (special treats, use sparingly: video games, social media, shopping — these spike dopamine but crash it after)
  5. 5.When paralyzed: start with an appetizer. The small dopamine hit often creates enough momentum to tackle the real task

How long does it take?

15 minutes to create, used as needed.

Is it hard to start?

easy.

> how Shift handles procrastination

Source: ADHD TikTok/coaching community, dopamine regulation research
focus · motivation · energy · habits · mental_health
> find what fits you

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> everything in focus

This is one entry from the library Shift matches against. It is general information, not advice about you, and nothing on this page came from anyone's conversation.