The ADHD Skills Lab
Navigate each day in an ADHD-friendly way – with research-backed strategies, real-life experiences and expert advice. Each week, UO founder Skye Waterson chats with expert guests, reviews the latest ADHD research, takes your questions and offers practical support to help you move past whatever may be holding you back.
Skye Waterson is a former academic turned coach, podcast host, and founder of an international ADHD support service, Unconventional Organisation. After getting a surprise ADHD diagnosis in the first year of her PhD, Skye turned her struggles into research-based strategies. She researched and wrote over 50 articles with a combined readership of 250,000+ and then began her next phase of disseminating these strategies around the world.
After being invited to share her strategies with the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) in 2022, Skye has supported late-diagnosed healthcare professionals, professors, lawyers, reporters, fortune 500 directors, and entrepreneurs. She crafted her vision for Unconventional Organisation after realizing how few personalized ADHD strategies were available for adults following her diagnosis.
The ADHD Skills Lab
Research Recap with William Curb: ADHD & Hot and Cold Executive Function
Why can you plan your day perfectly, then forget everything the second something stressful happens?
Welcome to the next episode in our Research Recaps series, co-hosted with William Curb from Hacking Your ADHD.
In this episode, Skye and Will explore the science behind hot and cold executive functions, and what they mean for how ADHD brains make decisions, remember tasks, and stay calm under pressure.
We also break down a fascinating (but early-stage) study using brain stimulation to improve executive function in ADHD, and why your brain might work very differently depending on your emotional state.
What we cover:
- What “hot” and “cold” executive functions really mean, and why they matter
- Why you forget your keys more often when you’re running late
- The surprising way emotion hijacks logic in ADHD decision-making
- A look at brain stimulation research, and why it’s not ready for prime time
- How emotional states affect strategy use, productivity, and self-control
Want more of Will’s work? Go check out HackingYourADHD.com or subscribe to his YouTube channel
P.S. If your ADHD symptoms turn every business day into chaos—unfinished tasks piling up, revenue stuck, systems that don't stick—it's not you. It's your operating system. We help service business owners unblock their next $50-500k with simple systems that focus their brain. Watch this video to see how we do it, then take the program walkthrough.