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The Dopamine Menu

A restaurant-style menu of pre-planned pleasures, written by past you for the moment of craving. Four courses: starters are two-minute lifts for the space between things, mains are real pleasures that take thirty minutes or more, sides pair with a chore to make it worth doing, and desserts are the treats that turn on you in excess — enjoyed, then rationed. A tonight's-special band holds the one pleasure you want to actually schedule this week. In the moment of craving you won't invent a better option — you'll grab whatever's nearest, and the phone is always nearest. Write the menu while you're calm, stick it on the fridge, and order off it when you're not.

Best for: Outcompeting the phone with a fridge-door menu of better options you already chose.
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A still life that evokes the The Dopamine Menu

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Give the craving a better option than the phone.

A restaurant-style menu of pre-planned pleasures: starters (two-minute lifts), mains (real half-hour-plus pleasures), sides (pair with a chore), and desserts (the treats you ration, not ban). In the moment of craving you won't invent a better option — so past you writes the menu, and present you orders off it.

How it works

List up to four items per course, one per line. Add tonight's special if there's one pleasure you want to actually schedule.

Print it and stick it on the fridge — the point is that it's readable in the exact moment your thumb goes looking for the app.

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