The ADHD Skills Lab
Navigate ADHD in real life, especially when things get complex.
The ADHD Skills Lab shares research-backed strategies, real-world systems, and honest conversations to help you stay focused, make progress, and reduce chaos as responsibilities grow.|
Hosted by Unconventional Organisation founder Skye Waterson, the show blends ADHD research, expert interviews, listener questions, and practical tools for adults who want support that actually works, not generic productivity advice.
Skye is a former academic turned coach and researcher who was diagnosed with ADHD during her PhD. After experiencing firsthand how poorly traditional strategies translated to real adult responsibilities, she began developing and testing research-based, ADHD-aware systems. She has written over 50 articles read by more than 250,000 people worldwide and now focuses on translating research into strategies adults can actually use.
In 2022, Skye was invited to share her work with the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service. Since then, she has supported late-diagnosed professionals, including academics, senior leaders, and business owners, navigating increasing complexity. Unconventional Organisation was built to meet a gap Skye experienced herself: practical, personalized ADHD support for adults whose lives and work no longer fit simple solutions.
Learn more
https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/
Talk with Skye
https://www.instagram.com/unconventionalorganisation/
The ADHD Skills Lab
Why ADHD Brains Rely on Hyperfocus (and Why It Backfires)
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If you have ADHD, you probably know this pattern. You’re foggy, scattered, or stuck… until a deadline hits. Then suddenly, you’re laser-focused, productive, unstoppable. And afterwards, you’re wrecked.
In this episode, Skye and William Curb from Hacking Your ADHD unpack why hyperfocus feels like the only way to get things done, and why it quietly creates more stress, burnout, and long-term chaos than most people realize.
Using research on university students, we explore how executive function difficulties change the way ADHD brains access focus, why more ADHD symptoms often lead to more hyperfocus (not less), and why relying on pressure is not a sustainable strategy, even if it looks productive on the surface.
This episode is for late-diagnosed adults, professionals, and business owners with ADHD who keep asking themselves:
“Why do I only function when everything’s urgent?”
“And why does it always cost me afterwards?”
What we cover:
- Why hyperfocus shows up most when things feel critical or overwhelming
- How executive function difficulties push ADHD brains into last-minute intensity
- The difference between intense focus and sustainable focus
- How hyperfocus borrows energy from your future self
- What this pattern means for productivity, stress, and burnout long-term
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.