The ADHD Skills Lab

Skye Waterson
  • 4.8 (114)
  • 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. The ADHD Founder's Missing Role (And Why Everything Still Depends on You)

    17h ago

    The ADHD Founder's Missing Role (And Why Everything Still Depends on You)

    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
  2. The Hidden Burnout Nobody in Your Business Is Talking About

    2d ago

    The Hidden Burnout Nobody in Your Business Is Talking About

    Your business is doing well. Momentum is real, clients are happy, and structure feels like the enemy right now. But if you turn that camera around and look past the founder, you find a stressed team running on broken systems, one sick day away from everything slowing to a stop. Research on ADHD traits and project management suggests operational effectiveness, specifically goal setting, milestone tracking, and resource allocation, drops measurably when ADHD traits are present. The mediating factor is not inability. It is role stress: the compounding weight of having more tasks than your brain can hold and no clear sense of what matters most. This episode breaks down what the research found and what it means for ADHD founders building a team. Friday covers the practical response. What We Cover Why teammates rated people with higher ADHD traits lower on operational effectiveness, including goal clarity, milestone mapping, and resource allocationWhat role stress is and why the research found it significantly mediates the relationship between ADHD and project management performanceWhy the disorganization doesn't stay at the founder level. It cascades onto the team below.How the creative strengths in ADHD are real, and why the research suggests they need a specific kind of support to workWhy entrepreneurship gives ADHD founders a structural option that teachers, nurses, and academics never get 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/

    33 min
  3. Why Simple Tasks Turn Into Emotional Overload (with Jenna Free)

    4d ago

    Why Simple Tasks Turn Into Emotional Overload (with Jenna Free)

    You've tried the calendars, the timers, the hacks. They work for two weeks and then stop. Jenna Free says that's not a discipline problem. It's a regulation problem. Jenna is a counselor for ADHD with ADHD, author of The Simple Guide to ADHD Regulation, and has worked in-depth with over 1,000 people through her ADHD Regulation Method. Her position is direct: dysregulation is not a fixed trait of the ADHD brain. It is a learned response to a lifetime of friction. And it is the reason every other system eventually fails. We cover her three-level regulation framework, why she skips meditation and breathing exercises entirely, how dysregulated beliefs quietly block delegation and visibility in your business, and what physical signs most ADHD business owners have normalized as just a Tuesday. What We Cover Why regulation has to come before any other system or toolThe three levels Jenna works on: nervous system, thoughts and beliefs, behaviorWhy negative self-talk and urgency feel like they work, and what they actually cost youHow dysregulation shows up as delegation avoidance and RSD in businessThe first practical step to start noticing and interrupting dysregulation todayConnect With Jenna Free  Book Title: THE SIMPLE GUIDE TO ADHD REGULATION: The Secret to Finding Balance, Getting Things Done, and Enjoying Social Media Links & Show Notes: TikTok: @adhdwithjennafree ; www.tiktok.com/@adhdwithjennafreeInstagram: @adhdwithjennafree ; www.instagram.com/adhdwithjennafreePodcast: ADHD with Jenna Free; https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/adhd-with-jenna-free/id1801356817Website: https://www.adhdwithjennafree.com/ Here is the link for the free PDF I mentioned www.adhdwithjennafree.com/adhdguide  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/

    30 min
  4. The Truth About Why People Quit ADHD Medication

    5d ago

    The Truth About Why People Quit ADHD Medication

    Why do so many people start ADHD medication... and then quietly stop within a year or two? In this Research Recap, Skye and Will unpack a systematic literature review examining why over half of all patients discontinue or significantly reduce ADHD medication within 2 to 3 years of starting. This episode isn't about whether you should take medication. It's about something more practical: what the data actually found about why people stop, where expert assumptions conflict with what patients reported, and how access barriers, drug holidays, and whether someone chose treatment for themselves all appear to shape long-term adherence. If you've ever let a refill lapse and told yourself you'd sort it later, this episode will feel uncomfortably familiar. What we cover: Why over half of patients discontinue ADHD medication within 2 to 3 years, and what the data found as the top reasonsThe gap between what experts assumed drove discontinuation and what patients actually reportedHow drug holidays, sometimes recommended by doctors, complicated how researchers tracked real adherenceWhy access barriers like pharmacy friction, moving states, and losing a prescriber show up as a real factorWhat the research suggests about people who sought treatment themselves versus those pushed into itWant more of Will's work? Go check out HackingYourADHD.com or subscribe to his YouTube channel.  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/

    15 min
  5. Why Progress Never Feels Permanent With ADHD (Even When You Do Everything Right)

    May 29

    Why Progress Never Feels Permanent With ADHD (Even When You Do Everything Right)

    You're generating real revenue. But every time you open your banking app, your brain shuts down and you close it again. Nicole Stanley is the founder of Arise Financial Coaching and creator of the Money Momentum Method. Late-diagnosed with ADHD at 30, scoring in the 99th percentile for severity, she built a financial method that turned out to be designed for ADHD brains before she knew she had one. She crossed $250,000 in revenue last year and has helped clients save an average of $40,000 annually. Nicole explains why standard budgeting fails ADHD brains, why most business owners are solving the wrong financial problem, and how her method works without willpower or expense tracking. She also walks through her five-problem financial diagnostic. Less than 10% of people actually have a spending problem. Most are misdiagnosing themselves entirely. If avoidance has been your default financial strategy, this conversation gives you a different place to start. What We Cover Why budgeting fails ADHD brains - it looks backwards and produces shame, not behaviour changeThe five financial problems and why most business owners are fixing the wrong oneHow the Money Momentum Method was ADHD-designed before Nicole knew she had ADHDThe curiosity framework: look at your numbers as if they belong to a friendWhy financial problems are solvable problems, not evidence of who you are 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
  6. How Casey Neistat Nails Productivity Advice For ADHDers

    May 27

    How Casey Neistat Nails Productivity Advice For ADHDers

    You know what your most important work is. You still spend the first four hours of the day doing everything else. Casey Neistat recently posted a video called *Navigating the Matrix* showing how he organizes his workday as a creator with ADHD. He tracks his tasks in real time, explains the system he uses to manage everything, and ends by accepting the chaos as part of the deal. Skye and Robert disagree with that conclusion. In this standalone episode, they break down the hidden problem underneath Casey’s system — why ADHD business owners keep ending up trapped in urgent work, why prioritization systems collapse under pressure, and why the issue is usually structural, not motivational. What We Cover: - Why ADHD urgency bias overrides even well-designed prioritization systems - How Casey’s four-color framework mirrors the Eisenhower Matrix — and where both break down - Why task capture and task prioritization are two completely different cognitive jobs - The real reason everything keeps ending up in the “urgent” category - Why delegation is usually delayed far too long by ADHD business owners - What changes when low-value operational tasks are consistently removed from your plate - Why “being good under pressure” quietly creates long-term business chaos This episode is less about productivity tactics and more about the hidden operating system underneath ADHD work patterns.  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
  7. How ADHD Perfectionism Disguises Itself as Productivity (Dani Donovan)

    May 25

    How ADHD Perfectionism Disguises Itself as Productivity (Dani Donovan)

    You built something people love. Running the business of it is a different problem entirely. Dani Donovan is the creator of The Anti-Planner, a self-published ADHD productivity workbook that generated over $1 million in its first year and has now sold more than 115,000 copies with a 4.9-star rating. She built it without a business plan, without onboarding documents, and without a team that had done any of this before. In this conversation, Dani explains how a single ADHD comic from 2018 nearly never got posted, how a business coach’s field guide exercise became the product she actually needed, and what happened when she had to tell 28,000 pre-order customers their books were running late. We also get into the part nobody warns you about: what hiring looks like when there are no SOPs, no infrastructure, and no clear handoff between the creative work and the operational side of the business. This is a conversation about the hidden cost of scaling creative ADHD-led businesses — and why building the thing is often easier than building the systems around it. What We Cover: How Dani designed The Anti-Planner around what she actually used instead of what productivity systems were “supposed” to look likeWhy she turned down traditional publishing and protected creative control over the productThe pre-order strategy that generated 42,000 orders across two launchesWhat happened when she had to email 28,000 customers about delayed orders — and why almost nobody asked for refundsWhy scaling an ADHD-led business gets operationally difficult long before it looks successful from the outsideConnect with Dani Donovan: Website: https://anti-planner.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/danidonovanTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@danidonovan 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/

    38 min
  8. Why ADHD Brains Hire People And Then Do It Themselves Anyway

    May 22

    Why ADHD Brains Hire People And Then Do It Themselves Anyway

    Nobody agreed on what done looked like. The handover happened anyway. That is where it fell apart. This episode is the practical follow-up to Wednesday. Skye and Robbie walk through the specific hiring and handover process they use with ADHD founders, including what they have lost money figuring out so you do not have to. The hiring side covers why video applications and paid test projects replace interviews, how to write a role description that filters for initiative rather than compliance, and what it looks like when you have found the right person versus when you are about to make an expensive mistake. The handover side covers the 10-80-10 rule, writing a one-sentence definition of done before anything starts, naming your re-entry triggers upfront, building a decision boundary so the team knows what comes back to you and what does not, and scheduling check-ins so the anxiety has somewhere to go other than a late-night message. They also cover the two failure modes when none of this is set up: the founder absorbs everything back, or the team stops trying. What We Cover: How to write a role description specific enough to attract the right person and filter out everyone elseWhy paid test projects show you more in two hours than an interview shows you in two roundsThe 10-80-10 rule and how to use it to stay connected without pulling work back through the middleWhat a definition of done actually looks like in writing, and why naming your re-entry triggers before the project starts changes everythingHow scheduled check-ins replace anxiety-driven re-entry and give the founder's worry somewhere structured to land 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/

    40 min
See All (176)

Trailer

4.8
out of 5
114 Ratings

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
    176
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The ADHD Skills Lab
  • Show Website
    The ADHD Skills Lab

You Might Also Like