I don’t spend loads of time on TikTok. I’m afraid of it, truly—afraid of being sucked into that oddly compelling vortex, additional diminishing my old-school analysis mind. Advancing years are already doing no favors to my consideration span. Fortunately, I’ve Gen Z nieces who back-channel hyperlinks to fascinating issues for us to do collectively. Like make a dopamine menu.
The unique concept comes from Jessica McCabe, creator of the YouTube channel, How to ADHD. The idea is straightforward: You make a listing of dopamine-stimulating actions designed to advertise maintainable well-being as an alternative of fast hits. You group them like restaurant choices: appetizers (simply achieved in a brief burst of time), entrées (requiring extra planning and time), sides (accomplished in tandem with a bigger activity, like listening to a favourite writer on audiotape whereas cleansing), desserts (indulgences higher undertaken moderately), and specials (longer occasions, accomplished from time to time).
What began out as a little bit of a lark—and alternative to overview menus with my nieces, swapping dopamine-enhancing exercise concepts—has turn into my only productiveness system. And I’ve tried all of them: The Pomodoro Technique and time blocking; atomic habits and the miracle morning. I even tried eating the frog, which lasted at some point.
The dopamine menu strategy
However this menu strategy is working. Perhaps it’s as a result of I’m a former meals author, however an organizational construction primarily based on menu-ordering ideas makes my objectives, concepts, and actions simpler to include into my life.
Certainly one of my persistent private objectives (and failures) was 20 minutes of each day stretching. Every time I transferred it from one to-do record to a different as uncompleted, I felt disillusioned in myself. However as an “appetizer” choice, a collection of five-minute stretches accomplished as common work breaks, I lastly hit the goal. And since that bodily and psychological accomplishment felt so good, I joined a Tai Chi apply in a close-by park, now a dopamine-boosting exercise in my entrée class.
I’ve additionally tailored this menu construction so I can apply it to my work life. As a researcher for C-suite executives, I do a ton of studying from a variety of assets. At any given second, I’ve at the least 50 bookmarked hyperlinks to overview and type and ship to the correct shopper. Managing all this data used to really feel overwhelming, however now I take an appetizer strategy: I reread only a few articles at a time and ship them off to probably the most related recipients. (Once I know a shopper is boarding an extended flight, I’d even ship a small studying pod, one thing they’d by no means have time for of their workplace.) This one strategic shift led to higher communication with my regulars, which added to my worth and has already resulted in a single retainer renewal.
5-star outcomes
Is my “menu” producing neuro-chemically confirmed dopamine? Don’t know; don’t care. What I do know is that once I really feel higher, I work higher, and once I work higher, I really feel higher.
The dopamine menu method opened channels of organizational vitality I’ve not skilled with different standardized productiveness techniques, regardless of their recognition and guarantees. It’s an invite to enhance, to order up a blended day of non-public and work potentialities that fits my urge for food. What might seem as small variations has produced outsize outcomes, lighting up my mind, even on darker days.