ADHD & Entrepreneurship with Skye Waterson

PodcastMindset

Nov 27

Episode 904: Show Notes

Could your neurodivergence be the key to unlocking your entrepreneurial superpower? Today I’m joined by Skye Waterson; a former academic-turned-coach, podcast host, and founder of Unconventional Organisation. Unconventional Organisation is an international ADHD support service that provides research-backed coaching programs for late-diagnosed professionals looking to go to the next level in their career without burnout. Skye’s journey began when she received an unexpected ADHD diagnosis during her PhD. Since then, she has dedicated her career to helping adults with ADHD manage their day-to-day lives with focus and balance through research-based strategies. In this episode, Skye shares insights into working from home as a business owner with ADHD and gives listeners practical strategies for approaching focus and productivity. Let’s dive in!

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Addressing the Challenges ADHD Poses to Business Owners

There is always new research coming out about ADHD that allows Skye to figure out how to solve her own problems and then translate that into helping others. She spent time trying to understand how an ADHD brain works to learn about dopamine seeking and eventually concluded the importance of looking for dopamine in something outside of your career in order to get it in a more sustainable way. But what if you aren’t the one with ADHD? What if you are around someone with ADHD and want to find ways to support them? The best thing you can do to support that person is to understand how their brain works. That will help them work with the skills Skye teaches to make their day-to-day tasks easier to execute!

The 5-Step Focus Routine

The first step in Skye’s focus routine starts when you don’t want to do the task you need to do. If you’re battling to get started, you can offer yourself a reward, otherwise known as a dopamine starter. Once you’ve done that, you need to get rid of any distractions that could get in the way of executing the task, grab a piece of paper, and write down exactly what you want to get done during this period of time in great detail. Step four is making sure you are not doing this in silence because, if you have ADHD, that can be terrifying! Get comfortable with the fact that you’re in this working space by opening the application that you need to use to do the work. Now, you should be on track! And even if something distracts you, you can trace your way back. This is an executive functioning strategy that will work for anyone who battles with that skill!

Hacks for Business Owners Juggling Lots of Tasks

Skye has loads of hacks to help you prioritize tasks and balance the many things business owners have to do. If you want to get hold of her ADHD Prioritization Filter, you can DM ‘prioritization’ to her on Instagram to get it for free! As a business owner, you're constantly bombarded with tasks, most of which aren't urgent or important; they’re simply part of the job. Filter out what has to be done urgently versus what can wait. This strategy will help you place tasks at different levels of importance so that you can make decisions about your priorities. When you have priorities, you can complete tasks without feeling overwhelmed and flustered. This tool also happens to be the one that helps Skye the most!

Tips for Setting Up an Ideal Work-from-Home Environment

Focus can be difficult for anyone working from home, but especially for adult business owners with ADHD. Creating an environment conducive to focus is important. Skye recommends prioritizing sensory stacking and considering the things you have around you to support your five senses and elevate your sensory experience at work. Everyone’s sensory needs are different, so it’s important to concentrate on what you enjoy and then create sensory stimulation for the task at hand. You might discover that different tasks require different environments, so it's helpful to create a workspace that can adapt to your needs. You will learn to accommodate yourself over time as you learn more about your ADHD.

Creating Balance for an ADHD Brain

Some people with ADHD struggle with hyper-focus or hyper-fixation and Skye emphasizes the importance of pinpointing why you may struggle with those things. One of the reasons is simply because you have ADHD. Another reason might be the fear that, if you stop doing that thing, you’re going to forget everything. When you finally manage to focus on a task, you may feel an intense fear of never being able to focus again and because of that fear, you start to hyper-focus to get it done. In order to combat hyper-focus so that you don’t burn out, Skye recommends setting a timer and working on a project for no more than three hours before taking a break and returning to the task later on. These kinds of habits can create a balanced lifestyle.

How (and What) ‘Wins’ Can Keep You Motivated

This comes back to sensory stacking again! Pick five things you enjoy for each of your five senses, and then stack them together in different forms. This will give you a huge variety of enjoyable things that you can use as rewards for getting things done. It’s also important to vary your dopamine stimulation from time to time, especially when you feel the impulse to make massive life changes. Following through with things as someone with ADHD is the hardest piece of all of this, according to Skye. When working one-on-one with clients, Skye helps them figure out what their goals are in order to break them down and find daily standards to achieve them. This “streak” creation can help you feel less anxious about the goal but also helps with the ADHD tendency to give up.

Skye wants ADHD business owners to know that you’re probably working very hard; you’re just not always focusing on the right things in the right order. It can be frustrating to feel like you aren’t trying, but Skye sees and acknowledges your effort! You are trying and you want to succeed. It’s all about finding alternative ways to work around ADHD obstacles through experimentation.

Quote This

Yes, we have a lot of dopamine! That’s just how it is with ADHD.

Highlights

Addressing the Challenges ADHD Poses to Business Owners [0:03:57]
The 5-Step Focus Routine [0:08:59]
Hacks for Business Owners Juggling Lots of Tasks [0:14:47]
Tips for Setting Up an Ideal Work-from-Home Environment [0:17:39]
Creating Balance for an ADHD Brain [0:21:46]
How (and What) ‘Wins’ Can Keep You Motivated [0:25:35]

TODAY’s GUEST:

Skye Waterson

Website | Linkedin | Instagram

Skye is an academic with over seven years of experience working in adult education. She has studied in various fields, including Psychology, Sociology, and Public Health, and is now a Doctoral Candidate in Population Health.

Skye was diagnosed with ADHD at the start of her doctorate. Since then, she has dedicated time to researching and disseminating ADHD studies, focusing on supporting others with strengths-based, neurodiverse-friendly tools and systems.