The ADHD Skills Lab

Skye Waterson
  • 4.8 (13)
  • How To
  • Updated Weekly

Things are starting to fall through the cracks. Not because you're not trying, but because the systems everyone recommends weren't built for a brain like yours. The ADHD Skills Lab is for business owners with ADHD whose responsibilities have grown past simple solutions. Each week, Skye Waterson and guests share research-backed strategies and real-world systems to help you reduce the chaos, make consistent progress, and stop reinventing the wheel every time life gets complex. No "just use a planner." No productivity hacks that last a week. Just honest, practical support from someone who has spent years researching, testing, and refining what actually works for adult ADHD. Skye is the founder of Unconventional Organisation, a former academic diagnosed with ADHD during her PhD, and the author of over 50 articles read by more than 250,000 people worldwide. She has worked with senior leaders, business owners, academics, and professionals navigating ADHD in high-responsibility roles, and was invited to share her research with both the Australian and New Zealand Government.  🤝 In partnership with Understood.org: https://u.org/4boG8QW 🌐 https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/ 📲 https://www.instagram.com/theadhdskillslabpodcast/

  1. ADHD Was Brain Damage Until 1987? We Read the Diagnosis Checklist So You Don't Have To

    1d ago

    ADHD Was Brain Damage Until 1987? We Read the Diagnosis Checklist So You Don't Have To

    You've reread the same paragraph three times and still couldn't tell anyone what it said. Skye and Robbie return to the DSM-5 for Part 2 of their criteria breakdown, this time on criterion B: difficulty sustaining attention. They work through real examples, rereading pages, checking out of meetings, losing focus on audiobooks even at double speed, and land on why none of it happens during a good movie or video game. The conversation distinguishes between attention that drifts because a task is boring and attention that locks in because something is stimulating, and why that distinction matters more than effort or discipline. If you've ever wondered why you can sit through eight hours of a game but not eight minutes of a report, this explains the mechanism. What We Cover: Why criterion B shows up in reading, meetings, and lectures specificallyWhy audiobooks don't solve the problem, even at 2x speedWhy games and gripping movies don't trigger the same driftThe difference between voluntary distraction and involuntary attention lossWhy removing stimulation (a quiet room) often backfires P.S. Losing work because the admin layer around your business can't keep up with you? Invisible Systems is a 90-day done-for-you sprint where I (Skye) extract the processes from your head, build the operating layer, and find the right person to run it. Six spots left at the founding price, book a call at https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/

    31 min
  2. The Best Way To Build Your Company Around Your ADHD Brain (With Chris Wang)

    3d ago

    The Best Way To Build Your Company Around Your ADHD Brain (With Chris Wang)

    You spend years building workarounds for your own brain, then realize you could build your company the same way. Chris Wang did exactly that. As co-founder and CEO of Shimmer, an ADHD coaching platform that has delivered more than 90,000 coaching sessions, Chris was diagnosed with ADHD at 28 while building the company. Instead of treating her personal systems and her business systems as separate problems, she applied the same coaching frameworks, structure, automation, and strength-based development directly to how Shimmer operates. In this conversation, Chris shares what that looked like in practice: what she automated, what stayed human, how she structured fundraising as an ADHD founder, and why she stopped trying to build the company differently than she was learning to manage herself. Connect With Chris Wang Chris is on instagram: @adhd.christal and you can learn more about Shimmer at www.shimmer.care What We Cover Why Chris applied her ADHD coaching framework to company operationsThe automation that removed admin work for coachesHow she decides what should stay human and what should be automatedHer fundraising system for managing outreach, follow-ups, and rejectionWhy strength-based delegation changed how her team worksHow personal ADHD systems became Shimmer's operating model P.S. Losing work because the admin layer around your business can't keep up with you? Invisible Systems is a 90-day done-for-you sprint where I (Skye) extract the processes from your head, build the operating layer, and find the right person to run it. Six spots left at the founding price, book a call at https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/

    39 min
  3. ADHD Diagnosis Criteria Explained By People Who Actually Have It

    Jun 17

    ADHD Diagnosis Criteria Explained By People Who Actually Have It

    You've read the ADHD criteria a dozen times and still aren't sure if you actually qualify. Skye and Robbie Waterson and sit down with the DSM-5 itself and read through the inattentive criteria line by line, the same list a clinician would use for an actual diagnosis. They score themselves against each one in real time, and they don't agree on most of them. The conversation covers why the criteria were written for children and then loosely translated for adults, why "close attention to detail" means something different for someone who triple checks every payment versus someone who doesn't notice errors at all, and why your own family's version of "normal" can hide a pattern you've had your whole life. Skye also explains the difference between primarily inattentive, primarily hyperactive, and combined type, and why subclinical scores still matter even if you never meet the full six-symptom threshold. If you've ever wondered whether you "really" have ADHD or just relate to some of it, this episode shows you exactly what's being measured and why that question is harder to answer than it sounds. What We Cover: The actual nine inattentive criteria from the DSM-5, read directly from the manualWhy the same criterion can apply to one person and not the other, even with shared ADHDHow the criteria shift between children and adultsWhy family normal can mask a lifelong patternThe difference between subclinical and clinical, and why it still matters P.S. Losing work because the admin layer around your business can't keep up with you? Invisible Systems is a 90-day done-for-you sprint where I (Skye) extract the processes from your head, build the operating layer, and find the right person to run it. Six spots left at the founding price, book a call at https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/

    29 min
  4. Psychologist With 40,000 Hours of ADHD Clients Speaks On What Productivity Advice Gets Wrong (Ari Tuckman)

    Jun 15

    Psychologist With 40,000 Hours of ADHD Clients Speaks On What Productivity Advice Gets Wrong (Ari Tuckman)

    Most productivity advice for ADHD is written for people who just need a nudge. If you have ADHD, you need something more honest than that. Ari Tuckman holds a PsyD and an MBA, has authored five books on ADHD, and has spent over 40,000 hours in clinical work with adults. He co-chairs the largest ADHD conference in the US and has been quoted in the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post. In this conversation, Ari breaks down what productivity actually means for ADHD brains, why "don't get in trouble" is not a good enough goal, and how business owners can use external structure and the right people to focus on where they add the most value. Connect With Ari Tuckman:  www.DrAriTuckman.com. What We Cover Why simplistic productivity advice fails ADHD adults and what to look for insteadThe difference between managing ADHD to survive versus building a life worth havingHow to hire an assistant who will act as external executive function, not just a schedulerThe role of reputation-building when ADHD makes consistency hardAri's "things lead to things" principle and how it applies to business growth P.S. Losing work because the admin layer around your business can't keep up with you? Invisible Systems is a 90-day done-for-you sprint where I (Skye) extract the processes from your head, build the operating layer, and find the right person to run it. Six spots left at the founding price, book a call at https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/

    34 min
  5. Why Using Anxiety To Manage Your ADHD Isn't A Good Idea

    Jun 12

    Why Using Anxiety To Manage Your ADHD Isn't A Good Idea

    Running your business on anxiety feels like productivity. It isn't. It's a system built on urgency, and it burns out fast. Research suggests that goal-focused interventions can reduce anxiety in adults with ADHD. What they don't appear to do is meaningfully improve executive functioning. Skye and Will break down a Norwegian randomized controlled trial on goal management training, what it found, and why that gap between feeling less anxious and actually getting more done matters for how you run your work. What We Cover Why using anxiety as a task manager is a direct path to burnoutWhat the research found about goal management training and anxiety reductionWhy the study's results showed little change in executive functioning despite structured interventionThe difference between reducing mental load and building systems that improve outputWhat's missing from most ADHD support frameworks when it comes to actual mechanicsWant more of Will's work? Visit HackingYourADHD.com or subscribe on YouTube.  P.S. Losing work because the admin layer around your business can't keep up with you? Invisible Systems is a 90-day done-for-you sprint where I (Skye) extract the processes from your head, build the operating layer, and find the right person to run it. Six spots left at the founding price, book a call at https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/

    11 min
  6. Why ADHD Makes You Chase Bad Ideas (& how to stop it)

    Jun 10

    Why ADHD Makes You Chase Bad Ideas (& how to stop it)

    You've launched things that seemed solid, only to watch them unravel for reasons that felt obvious afterward. That's not a judgment problem. For ADHD founders, retrospective clarity comes naturally. The pre-mortem is a tool that pulls that clarity forward, to the start of a project, when fixing problems is still cheap. Skye and Robbie break down the pre-mortem method, developed by cognitive psychologist Gary Klein and later popularized by Daniel Kahneman, and explain why it fits ADHD-wired brains in particular. ADHD founders tend to communicate broad vision without the full set of dependencies, leaving teams misaligned and triggering micromanagement loops. They're also prone to hyperfocused tunneling in the wrong direction. The pre-mortem interrupts both patterns before they cost you. They also cover how to use it as a minimum viable test. Before a prototype, before a hire, before a pivot, spend an afternoon stress-testing the idea. Sometimes the right output is: don't do this. What We Cover Why ADHD founders naturally access retrospective clarity, and how to use it at project start instead of after the factHow incomplete vision communication creates micromanagement loops, and what the pre-mortem does to close that gapThe novelty bias and hyperfocus tunneling problem, and why planning for failure acts as a directional checkHow to run a pre-mortem solo, with a team, or with AI, including a specific reverse prompting approachWhy a half-day pre-mortem with AI or a mentor counts as your minimum viable test before any build P.S. Losing work because the admin layer around your business can't keep up with you? Invisible Systems is a 90-day done-for-you sprint where I (Skye) extract the processes from your head, build the operating layer, and find the right person to run it. Six spots left at the founding price, book a call at https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/

    24 min
  7. How ADHD Pulled This Entrepreneur Out Of $600k Debt (with Galel Fajardo)

    Jun 8

    How ADHD Pulled This Entrepreneur Out Of $600k Debt (with Galel Fajardo)

    Sitting in a parking lot after leaving the bankruptcy attorney's office, $600,000 in debt written off, home gone, Galel Fajardo told himself no one would ever hire him again. Galel Fajardo is a business coach, digital marketing consultant, and fractional CMO with 23 years of entrepreneurial experience and a Master's in Performance Psychology. He specializes in helping high-performing entrepreneurs, especially those with ADHD, whose businesses look successful from the outside and feel like a prison from the inside. His clients have doubled their revenue, with one scaling from $2.5M to $10.1M in three years, not by working harder, but by building the right structure first. He coaches from the only credential that actually matters: he has lived every problem he teaches. What he learned through that experience, his ADHD diagnosis, and years of coaching shapes how he thinks about execution, delegation, and the internal stories that stall growth. This episode covers the specific frameworks Galel uses in his own business and with his clients. What We Cover: Why the systems that work in your 20s tend to fail once a business reaches real complexity and what to replace them withHow Galel uses AI as a ruthless critic rather than a yes-machine to pressure-test ideas before committing resourcesThe structural reason ADHD brains are strong activators but need an external check to finish and executeWhy transparency about ADHD with your team tends to improve delegation rather than undermine authorityHow Galel identifies the belief underneath an activation problem and works with clients to shift itConnect With Galel Fajardo Website: https://www.galel.com  P.S. Losing work because the admin layer around your business can't keep up with you? Invisible Systems is a 90-day done-for-you sprint where I (Skye) extract the processes from your head, build the operating layer, and find the right person to run it. Six spots left at the founding price, book a call at https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/

    37 min
  8. The Real Reason Structure Doesn't Stick When You Have ADHD

    Jun 5

    The Real Reason Structure Doesn't Stick When You Have ADHD

    You've built systems before. You probably built them well. The problem wasn't creating them. The problem was maintaining them once the novelty wore off. Wednesday's episode explored why ADHD founders often struggle with operational consistency. This episode covers the structural solution. The systems integrator role sits between the ADHD founder and the rest of the business. It captures ideas, filters priorities, protects the team from constant pivots, and builds the documentation that turns founder insight into repeatable execution. Skye and Robbie break down the four functions of the role, how it differs from an EA or COO, how it scales as a business grows, and the hiring mistakes that cause founders to recreate the same bottlenecks they're trying to solve. What We Cover The four functions of a systems integrator and how they differ from a standard EA or COO roleHow raw creative output gets processed through pre-agreed prioritization filters before it reaches the teamWhy the role acts as a gravitational buffer against novelty-seeking attention wells pulling the team off courseHow the role scales from solopreneur to COO-led teamThe three hiring mistakes ADHD founders make when trying to solve the structural problem P.S. Losing work because the admin layer around your business can't keep up with you? Invisible Systems is a 90-day done-for-you sprint where I (Skye) extract the processes from your head, build the operating layer, and find the right person to run it. Six spots left at the founding price, book a call at https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/

    41 min
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4.8
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About

Things are starting to fall through the cracks. Not because you're not trying, but because the systems everyone recommends weren't built for a brain like yours. The ADHD Skills Lab is for business owners with ADHD whose responsibilities have grown past simple solutions. Each week, Skye Waterson and guests share research-backed strategies and real-world systems to help you reduce the chaos, make consistent progress, and stop reinventing the wheel every time life gets complex. No "just use a planner." No productivity hacks that last a week. Just honest, practical support from someone who has spent years researching, testing, and refining what actually works for adult ADHD. Skye is the founder of Unconventional Organisation, a former academic diagnosed with ADHD during her PhD, and the author of over 50 articles read by more than 250,000 people worldwide. She has worked with senior leaders, business owners, academics, and professionals navigating ADHD in high-responsibility roles, and was invited to share her research with both the Australian and New Zealand Government.  🤝 In partnership with Understood.org: https://u.org/4boG8QW 🌐 https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/ 📲 https://www.instagram.com/theadhdskillslabpodcast/

Information

  • Creator
    Skye Waterson
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    183
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The ADHD Skills Lab
  • Show Website
    The ADHD Skills Lab

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