Sources checked 1 November 2026. The menus, minutes and energy levels below are worked examples, not a treatment plan. The dopamine menu itself has not been tested in a study; the evidence cited is for the methods it borrows from.
It is 9:40 on a Tuesday evening. Dinner is done, the next thing on your list can wait, and there is a small gap in the evening with nothing in it. You don't decide to pick up your phone. Your hand is already holding it, your thumb already moving. When you look up, it is 10:20. You didn't plan those forty minutes, and you can't remember much of what you saw.
Nothing went wrong in that moment, exactly. You were bored, and the phone was the closest thing that promised something. That is the gap a "dopamine menu" is meant to fill: a short, written list of things you enjoy, sorted by how much time and energy they take, kept where you will see it at the moment boredom hits.
This article covers where the idea comes from, what it is and isn't, what the research behind it actually tested, and how to write one that you will use.
What is a dopamine menu?
A dopamine menu (sometimes "dopamenu") is a personal list of pleasant, easy-to-reach activities, laid out like a restaurant menu. The idea came out of ADHD coaching. CNN credits Eric Tivers, a licensed clinical social worker, ADHD coach and host of the podcast ADHD reWired, with co-coining the term; it spread widely after a 2020 episode of Jessica McCabe's YouTube channel How to ADHD in which he described it [1].
Tivers suggests courses [1]:
Starters (appetizers): quick bites that take a few minutes and "won't suck you in or make it hard to stop": a short walk, one song, a stretch, a quick sketch.
Mains (entrées): things that take longer or need a little planning: calling a friend, cooking, working on a project you care about, exercise.
Specials: things you can't do every day: a concert, a trip, a day out.
Desserts: the easy, sticky pleasures, such as scrolling or a TV binge, which stay on the menu in small amounts.
The point of the layout is that when you feel bored or flat, you don't have to come up with an idea from scratch. You read the menu and pick something that fits the time and energy you have.
An illustrative builder using the courses described by Eric Tivers [1]; times are rough examples. Nothing you pick is stored or sent.
Why does the phone win by default?
Boredom asks for something. The phone is always within reach, costs nothing to start, and never runs out. Next to it, almost any other option has a small cost up front: shoes on, a decision about whom to call, finding the sketchbook. When the choice happens in a split second, the option with the lowest starting cost tends to win.
Habit research describes the same pattern from another angle. Behaviours repeated in the same context become linked to that context, so the setting (the sofa, the gap after dinner, the feeling of boredom) starts to trigger the behaviour with little conscious choice [7]. That is why "I'll just use more willpower" so often fails: by the time you notice, the habit has already started.
A dopamine menu doesn't try to fight the cue. It puts a different, ready-made answer next to it.
Is it backed by science?
Honestly: not by name. We found no study that has tested a "dopamine menu" as such. It is a practical tool from coaching, and its name is a loose shorthand; the activities on it don't "top up" a dopamine level in any measured way. Westfield Health's Wellbeing Trends 2026 report lists "the dopamine debate" as one of the year's top trends and warns that hacking this complex brain system "isn't as simple as it sounds" [2].
The method behind it, though, has a long research history under another name. Behavioral activation is a structured therapy for depression that does exactly what a dopamine menu suggests: you list activities that give you pleasure or a sense of achievement, schedule them into your week, and notice how your mood responds. Its roots go back to Peter Lewinsohn's work in the 1970s, which produced a long list of everyday pleasant activities used to track and plan them [3].
The trials are encouraging:
A 2023 meta-analysis of 22 randomised trials of one-to-one behavioral activation for depression found a large average effect (Hedges' g = 0.85); limited to the nine trials at low risk of bias, the effect was smaller but still clear (g = 0.56) [4].
A 2014 update pooled 26 trials and found behavioral activation did better than control conditions after treatment (standardised mean difference 0.74) [5].
Most relevant for people who aren't depressed: a 2010 meta-analysis of 20 randomised studies (1,353 participants) found behavioral activation improved well-being (g = 0.52), including in non-clinical groups [6].
Published pooled effect sizes only, from [4], [5] and [6]. These trials tested structured programmes, not a dopamine menu.
Two cautions. These trials tested therapist-guided programmes, not a list on a fridge. And many of the studies were small, with short follow-up. So the fair claim is narrow: planning pleasant activities on purpose can lift mood. A dopamine menu is one way to make that planning easy.
Why swap instead of quit?
The menu keeps pleasure. It doesn't ask you to give up scrolling, chocolate or TV, only to stop letting the easiest option choose for you. That matters for two reasons.
First, cutting out pleasures tends to leave a gap, and gaps get filled by the default. Second, research on habit change suggests that replacing a habitual response works better than simply trying to stop it. In a series of experiments, Marieke Adriaanse and colleagues had people form "if-then" plans that named a specific alternative ("If I want a snack at home, then I will eat fruit") and found that these plans took away the habit's head start in the mind; people then acted against the habit to the extent that they really wanted the alternative [8].
That is the design logic of the menu in one sentence: decide the alternative in advance, and make sure it is something you actually want.
An illustrative example menu; minutes and energy levels are worked examples, not measurements.
How do you write one that you'll actually use?
1. Write it when you're not bored. You won't think of good options in the moment. Spend ten minutes once.
2. Cover different amounts of time and energy. A list of only big, effortful things won't help on a tired Tuesday night. Aim for at least two starters you can do in five minutes with almost no energy, two mains, and a dessert you're happy to keep in small portions.
3. Make every item specific. "Exercise" is a wish. "Walk to the corner shop and back" is an option. "Call Sara" beats "be social".
4. Lower the starting cost. Keep the sketchbook on the table, the headphones by the door, the project file open. The phone wins on convenience; give a few other options the same advantage.
5. Keep it where the phone usually sits. A note on the desk, a card on the nightstand, a lock-screen photo. The menu works only if you see it at the moment boredom hits.
6. Leave dessert on. If scrolling is on the menu as a planned, limited dessert (say, after a main), it stops being a failure and becomes a choice.
7. Update it. After a week, cross out what you never picked and add what you wished was there.
Three questions; each explanation cites the sources below.
So, should you make a dopamine menu?
If you often reach for your phone out of boredom and come away feeling flat, a written menu costs ten minutes and nothing else. It isn't a cure, and its name oversells the brain science. But the habit it builds, choosing pleasant activities on purpose and making them easy to start, is close to a method with decades of trials behind it.
You don't have to give up pleasure. Write down five options tonight, sorted by time and energy, and put the list where your phone usually sits.
Sources
Kane, A. (2025, February 12). Build your own "dopamenu" to hack your brain's reward system. CNN Health (syndicated). Describes Eric Tivers' menu and its courses; journalism, not research. The 2020 How to ADHD origin date comes from secondary reports.
Westfield Health (2025, December 19). The top wellbeing trends for 2026: key themes from our latest report. Trend 5, "The dopamine debate". The public summary discusses dopamine trends in general and does not mention dopamine menus by name.
MacPhillamy, D. J., & Lewinsohn, P. M. (1982). The Pleasant Events Schedule: Studies on reliability, validity, and scale intercorrelation. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 50(3), 363–380. A measurement tool, not a trial of an intervention.
Cuijpers, P., Karyotaki, E., Harrer, M., & Stikkelbroek, Y. (2023). Individual behavioral activation in the treatment of depression: A meta analysis. Psychotherapy Research. doi:10.1080/10503307.2023.2197630. 22 trials, 819 patients; high heterogeneity; therapist-delivered, people with depression.
Ekers, D., Webster, L., Van Straten, A., Cuijpers, P., Richards, D., & Gilbody, S. (2014). Behavioural activation for depression; an update of meta-analysis of effectiveness and sub group analysis. PLoS ONE, 9(6), e100100. 26 trials, 1,524 participants; the authors note often low study quality and short follow-up.
Mazzucchelli, T. G., Kane, R. T., & Rees, C. S. (2010). Behavioral activation interventions for well-being: A meta-analysis. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 5(2), 105–121. 20 randomised studies, 1,353 participants; well-being measured by self-report.
Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2007). A new look at habits and the habit–goal interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. A theoretical review of habit research.
Adriaanse, M. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., De Ridder, D. T. D., de Wit, J. B. F., & Kroese, F. M. (2011). Breaking habits with implementation intentions: A test of underlying processes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(4), 502–513. Lab studies of mental accessibility, mostly with student samples; not a test of a dopamine menu.
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