The ADHD Dopamine Task Calculator

The role of dopamine plays a huge part in how we live with ADHD.

ADHD is linked to low dopamine and a low dopamine state is one of demotivation, procrastination and low moods.

How you position the tasks throughout your day is absolutely vital to staying your usual motivated, engaged, focused and positive self.

This Dopamine Tracker will identify the level of dopamine released in your day to day tasks and then decide if it's a helpful task for you or not.

Any questions? [email protected]

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How to Use:

Make a copy of this sheet to use it yourself

Enter all the common tasks from your day to day in column B, then rate:

Effort (0–5): How hard it was

Pleasure (0–5): How rewarding it felt

The Helpful? column auto-labels tasks:

🟢 Green: Optimal tasks for your dopamine. High effort with High Pleasure. We want to start our day with these tasks.

🟠 Amber: These are fine with moderation. Very neutral tasks and will be the most common throughout our day.

🔴 Red: Minimise these tasks. Overuse or abuse can zap our dopamine, motivation and mood. Save these tasks for after Green tasks.

Leave rows blank if you have no data — no labels will show.

Tip - Be honest with your ratings to get the best insight! A Green task for me could be an Amber for you and that's ok!