PodcastsBusinessThe ADHD Skills Lab

The ADHD Skills Lab

Skye Waterson
The ADHD Skills Lab
Latest episode

187 episodes

  • The ADHD Skills Lab

    Cas Aarssen on ADHD, Burnout & Building Systems That Last

    2026-07-06 | 41 mins.
    You don't need another productivity hack. You need systems that still work when your brain doesn't.
    Cas Aarssen built the Clutterbug Method, hosted HGTV's Hot Mess House, and grew a global brand by stopping the fight against her ADHD and designing her home and business around how she naturally works.
    In this conversation, she shares the hard lessons that came from burnout, why traditional organizing advice kept failing her, and how building systems around real habits instead of ideal ones changed everything. From running a team without endless SOPs to creating spaces that stay functional even on hard days, Cas explains what it actually takes to build systems that last.
    If you've ever felt like you're constantly rebuilding your life from scratch, this episode offers a more sustainable way forward.
    What We Cover
    Why burnout pushed her to rethink the way she worked
    Building systems around your actual habits instead of your ideal self
    The Clutterbug Method and why one organizing style doesn't fit everyone
    Delegating through ownership instead of endless SOPs
    Creating a home and business that work with an ADHD brain, not against it
    Connect With Cas Aarssen
    https://clutterbug.me/what-clutterbug-are-you-test
    If you’re an entrepreneur with ADHD who’s tired of being asked β€œWhy don’t you just hire/make a system/delegate?” Β We’ve gotchu!Β 
    Click here for a free copy of my 5-year-tested Focus Filter. Instant relief for work-related overwhelm.
    Find out what’s holding you back. I’ll personally build you a simple plan to fix it. Click here to grab one.
    Join my Focused Balanced Growth Program. If you’re tired of getting blank looks in masterminds full of neurotypical advice, this is for you. Weekly Monday Motivation sessions, plus content you can binge or dip into for strategies specific to you. Apply here.
    Your Business Operations Built for Your ADHD Brain. Feel like you can never really delegate because you can’t explain how to do it? Struggling to hire someone who feels like a natural fit for your business? Let us handle it for you. We specialize in using our years of ADHD research and practical support to act as your fractional COO, handling the back-end operations in a way that feels light and keeps you focused. Learn more here.
  • The ADHD Skills Lab

    Why Your Environment Effects Your ADHD More Than You Think

    2026-07-01 | 29 mins.
    You've been told you pivot too fast. This research suggests your timing might be right.
    A 2024 Royal Society paper tested how long people stay in a depleting resource before moving to a new one, using a model from ecology called the marginal value theorem. The prediction was that ADHD traits would cause people to leave too soon.
    The data found the opposite. ADHD participants left patches closer to the mathematically optimal point and ended up with more total reward. Skye and Robbie break down the bias built into the original prediction and what it means for telling the difference between a smart pivot and flailing.
    What We Cover:
    The 2024 study and the foraging game researchers built
    The marginal value theorem and what "optimal" leaving looks like
    Why the prediction assumed ADHD would underperform
    What the actual results showed about exit timing
    How to tell a strategic pivot from impulsive flailing
    If you’re an entrepreneur with ADHD who’s tired of being asked β€œWhy don’t you just hire/make a system/delegate?” Β We’ve gotchu!Β 
    Click here for a free copy of my 5-year-tested Focus Filter. Instant relief for work-related overwhelm.
    Find out what’s holding you back. I’ll personally build you a simple plan to fix it. Click here to grab one.
    Join my Focused Balanced Growth Program. If you’re tired of getting blank looks in masterminds full of neurotypical advice, this is for you. Weekly Monday Motivation sessions, plus content you can binge or dip into for strategies specific to you. Apply here.
    Your Business Operations Built for Your ADHD Brain. Feel like you can never really delegate because you can’t explain how to do it? Struggling to hire someone who feels like a natural fit for your business? Let us handle it for you. We specialize in using our years of ADHD research and practical support to act as your fractional COO, handling the back-end operations in a way that feels light and keeps you focused. Learn more here.
  • The ADHD Skills Lab

    The High Performance Habits Of An 8 Figure ADHD Business with James Wedmore

    2026-06-29 | 42 mins.
    You get bored with the offer that's working, so you go build a new one. James Wedmore has run the same program and the same live event for ten years and says that's the entire reason it grew. He explains the difference between a real "this isn't working" and a feeling that just shows up the moment things get hard. He also breaks down why he became a bottleneck in his own business, what changed when he got specific about role clarity, and why he keeps his identity and worth separate from his revenue numbers.
    What We Cover:
    Why James calls novelty-chasing "first gear" and how it traps founders for years
    The test for telling a real pivot signal from a hard-moment feeling
    What changed when his business went from $2M to $10M in one year
    Why role clarity exposed the real reason he couldn't delegate
    How separating his identity from his revenue numbers changed everything
    Connect With James Wedmore
    https://www.jameswedmoretraining.com/
    https://www.instagram.com/jameswedmore/?hl=en
    If you’re an entrepreneur with ADHD who’s tired of being asked β€œWhy don’t you just hire/make a system/delegate?” Β We’ve gotchu!Β 
    Click here for a free copy of my 5-year-tested Focus Filter. Instant relief for work-related overwhelm.
    Find out what’s holding you back. I’ll personally build you a simple plan to fix it. Click here to grab one.
    Join my Focused Balanced Growth Program. If you’re tired of getting blank looks in masterminds full of neurotypical advice, this is for you. Weekly Monday Motivation sessions, plus content you can binge or dip into for strategies specific to you. Apply here.
    Your Business Operations Built for Your ADHD Brain. Feel like you can never really delegate because you can’t explain how to do it? Struggling to hire someone who feels like a natural fit for your business? Let us handle it for you. We specialize in using our years of ADHD research and practical support to act as your fractional COO, handling the back-end operations in a way that feels light and keeps you focused. Learn more here.
  • The ADHD Skills Lab

    The REAL Reason ADHD Could Be Ruining Your Sleep

    2026-06-26 | 9 mins.
    You're exhausted all day, then suddenly wired at 10pm. That's not random. Research suggests it's tied to a delayed circadian rhythm that's common in ADHD.
    In this Research Recap, Skye and Will unpack a paper examining ADHD as a circadian rhythm disorder. This isn't a list of sleep hygiene tips. It's a look at what's actually different in the ADHD body's clock, and why typical advice misses it.
    Understanding the delay changes how you plan your day, not just your bedtime.
    What We Cover:
    Why energy peaks late even when sleep is the goal
    Daytime melatonin levels found in kids with ADHD
    How light therapy and timing affect circadian reset
    Melatonin dosing research (less works better than more)
    What ultradian rhythms are and how they differ from circadian ones
    Want more of Will's work?
    Visit HackingYourADHD.com or subscribe on YouTube.
    If you’re an entrepreneur with ADHD who’s tired of being asked β€œWhy don’t you just hire/make a system/delegate?” Β We’ve gotchu!Β 
    Click here for a free copy of my 5-year-tested Focus Filter. Instant relief for work-related overwhelm.
    Find out what’s holding you back. I’ll personally build you a simple plan to fix it. Click here to grab one.
    Join my Focused Balanced Growth Program. If you’re tired of getting blank looks in masterminds full of neurotypical advice, this is for you. Weekly Monday Motivation sessions, plus content you can binge or dip into for strategies specific to you. Apply here.
    Your Business Operations Built for Your ADHD Brain. Feel like you can never really delegate because you can’t explain how to do it? Struggling to hire someone who feels like a natural fit for your business? Let us handle it for you. We specialize in using our years of ADHD research and practical support to act as your fractional COO, handling the back-end operations in a way that feels light and keeps you focused. Learn more here.
  • The ADHD Skills Lab

    ADHD Diagnosis Criteria Explained By People Who Actually Have It Part 2

    2026-06-24 | 31 mins.
    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 specifically
    Why audiobooks don't solve the problem, even at 2x speed
    Why games and gripping movies don't trigger the same drift
    The difference between voluntary distraction and involuntary attention loss
    Why removing stimulation (a quiet room) often backfires
    If you’re an entrepreneur with ADHD who’s tired of being asked β€œWhy don’t you just hire/make a system/delegate?” Β We’ve gotchu!Β 
    Click here for a free copy of my 5-year-tested Focus Filter. Instant relief for work-related overwhelm.
    Find out what’s holding you back. I’ll personally build you a simple plan to fix it. Click here to grab one.
    Join my Focused Balanced Growth Program. If you’re tired of getting blank looks in masterminds full of neurotypical advice, this is for you. Weekly Monday Motivation sessions, plus content you can binge or dip into for strategies specific to you. Apply here.
    Your Business Operations Built for Your ADHD Brain. Feel like you can never really delegate because you can’t explain how to do it? Struggling to hire someone who feels like a natural fit for your business? Let us handle it for you. We specialize in using our years of ADHD research and practical support to act as your fractional COO, handling the back-end operations in a way that feels light and keeps you focused. Learn more here.
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About The ADHD Skills Lab
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/ πŸ“² https://www.instagram.com/theadhdskillslabpodcast/
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