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The ADHD Skills Lab

Skye Waterson
The ADHD Skills Lab
Latest episode

216 episodes

  • The ADHD Skills Lab

    You Won’t Outgrow ADHD Working Memory, So Build Systems Instead

    29/09/2026 | 31 mins.
    You start an email, remember a purchase, open another tab, and suddenly five tasks are each 20 percent done. For adults with ADHD, working memory problems don't necessarily disappear with age.
    Skye Waterson and Robert Waterson unpack a 2013 meta-analysis of 38 studies on working memory in adults with ADHD. The researchers expected older adults to perform better. Instead, the review found adults with ADHD performed moderately worse on both verbal and visual working memory tasks, with age not changing the overall picture.
    Then Skye and Robert get practical: how to stop relying on your head to hold everything. They cover one central place for tasks, low-friction capture, redundant reminders, recording tools, and physical cues you can't ignore.
    The goal isn't to remember harder. It's to build a system that means you don't have to.
    Want Skye's prioritization filter? DM me “prioritize” and she'll send it to you for free.
    What We Cover:
    What 38 studies reveal about working memory in adults with ADHD, and why age didn't change the picture
    Why every task needs one central, ranked location instead of scattered notes
    How redundant reminders and physical cues help when working memory fails
    Why a five-minute post-meeting dictation can catch what AI summaries miss
    P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

    Want to grow your business? 
    My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
    Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 
    I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
  • The ADHD Skills Lab

    Does RSD Cause Physical Stress?

    23/09/2026 | 11 mins.
    Rejection sensitive dysphoria gets talked about constantly in ADHD spaces, but there isn't much research behind it yet.
    In this Research Recap, Skye and Will unpack a small study that tried to measure what happens when people with ADHD symptoms experience social exclusion. Using a deliberately unfair ball-tossing game, researchers compared how rejected participants said they felt with changes in their heart rate and blood pressure.
    The results didn't line up the way researchers expected. This isn't proof that RSD is or isn't real. It's a look at what one study found, where the results got messy, and why measuring rejection sensitivity is more complicated than it sounds.
    Want more of Will's work? Visit HackingYourADHD.com or subscribe on YouTube.
    What We Cover:
    How the Cyberball task was used to create social exclusion in a lab setting
    Why participants reported feeling excluded while the physiological data didn't show the expected response
    The unexpected drop in blood pressure and what researchers thought might explain it
    Why self-reported rejection sensitivity didn't line up neatly with ADHD measures
    How the study's small, self-selected sample limits what we can conclude
    Why this paper raises useful questions without settling whether RSD is real
    P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

    Want to grow your business? 
    My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
    Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 
    I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
  • The ADHD Skills Lab

    Psychotherapist Shares How Smart Delegation Saves Neurodivergent Entrepreneurs

    21/09/2026 | 32 mins.
    You hired help. You still find yourself taking things back on.
    Kara Kushnir built A Work of Heart Counseling and Wellness from a part-time practice into a fifteen-provider team. But growing the team meant learning that she couldn't keep doing everything herself.
    In this episode, Kara talks about the temptation to say yes to everything, the burnout that follows, and how she learned to delegate, ask for help, and build a team she trusts enough to tell her no.
    What We Cover
    Why trying to do everything yourself is a direct route to burnout
    Why Kara still catches herself taking on work she should delegate
    How saying yes to too much led to overwhelm and depletion
    Why asking for help and knowing who to ask are skills you can build
    How transparency about her weaknesses changed the relationship with her team
    Why knowing what you're not good at is part of building a healthier business
    Connect with Kara:
    A Work of Heart Counseling
    Instagram: A Work of Art Counseling
    Instagram: Taking Cara
    P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

    Want to grow your business? 
    My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
    Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 
    I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
  • The ADHD Skills Lab

    The Truth About Masking Your ADHD & How To Fix It

    18/09/2026 | 24 mins.
    ADHD treatment works. But does it keep working the same way eight years later?
    In this Research Recap, Skye and Will dig into the MTA study, one of the largest and most influential ADHD treatment studies ever conducted, and what researchers found when they followed the same kids over eight years.
    They unpack why the strong early treatment gains had disappeared by year eight, why medication use dropped dramatically over time, and the surprising finding that even the group still taking medication didn't maintain the same early advantage.
    They also look at what happens as kids move into middle school, when organizational demands increase and strategies that worked before may no longer be enough.
    Importantly, they separate what the research actually tells us from what it still can't explain.
    Want more of Will's work? Visit HackingYourADHD.com or subscribe on YouTube.
    What We Cover:
    Why the MTA study's early treatment gains had disappeared by year eight
    Why only about a third of participants were still using medication
    What the research does and doesn't tell us about stopping medication
    Why changing life demands can require changing ADHD strategies
    What the middle school research suggests about symptoms at home versus school
    Why "pills don't teach skills" matters when thinking about long-term ADHD management
    P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

    Want to grow your business? 
    My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
    Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 
    I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
  • The ADHD Skills Lab

    ADHD and the Daily Habit That Makes Goals Inevitable

    16/09/2026 | 22 mins.
    You know what you want in the future. You still can't make yourself do the boring task today.
    Skye and Robbie break down the goal setting system Skye actually uses, adapted from Dan Martell's framework. It works backward from a 25-year vision to one specific goal this year, then down to one daily non-negotiable that makes that goal inevitable.
    They also get into what happens when you miss a day, why trying to focus on five goals at once backfires, and how immediate rewards can make the thing you keep avoiding easier to actually do.
    What We Cover:
    The full process from a 25-year vision to a daily non-negotiable
    Why your yearly goal needs to be specific and measurable
    How to choose the one priority that matters most right now
    Why five new non-negotiables at once can become zero
    How immediate rewards and recovering from missed days keep goals alive
    P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

    Want to grow your business? 
    My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
    Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 
    I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
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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/ 📲 https://www.instagram.com/theadhdskillslabpodcast/
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