ADHD Strategist Reveals How To Prioritize When Everything Is On Fire (Sky Waterson)

2025-12-31

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What if your overwhelm wasn’t a personal failure, but a wiring mismatch? In this episode, Junaid sits down with Sky Waterson, founder of Unconventional Organisation and an ADHD strategist who went from burning out in academia to building a thriving business, powered by the very brain that once held her back. Diagnosed with ADHD during her PhD, Sky realised no one was going to hand her the “instruction manual” for her brain—so she went and built it herself. Sky breaks down how entrepreneurs and high-performers with (or without) ADHD can stop drown...

What if your overwhelm wasn’t a personal failure, but a wiring mismatch?

In this episode, Junaid sits down with Sky Waterson, founder of Unconventional Organisation and an ADHD strategist who went from burning out in academia to building a thriving business, powered by the very brain that once held her back. Diagnosed with ADHD during her PhD, Sky realised no one was going to hand her the “instruction manual” for her brain—so she went and built it herself.

Sky breaks down how entrepreneurs and high-performers with (or without) ADHD can stop drowning in tasks, escape the “everything is urgent” trap, and finally create momentum that sticks. If your life feels like 100 tabs open and a to‑do list that never ends, this conversation will change how you see your time, your energy, and your potential.

5 Key Takeaways

The diagnosis that changed everything – how discovering she had ADHD during her PhD completely rewired Sky’s understanding of herself.
The Two-Minute Focus Formula – a simple way to sort what’s truly urgent from the noise when everything feels on fire.
Urgent vs. loud tasks – why other people’s priorities are hijacking your brain, and how to take your time back.
The ADHD-friendly 80/20 rule – why effective entrepreneurs ignore 80% of their task list and still grow faster.
Energy over time – how inconsistent energy, dopamine crashes, and boredom lead to self-sabotage—and what to do instead.

Timestamps

00:00 – The setup: Why this conversation matters if your brain won’t slow down
01:41 – Sky’s late ADHD diagnosis and the burnout cycle that led her there
04:07 – From “no instruction manual” to building a science-backed ADHD system
05:55 – How to prioritize when everything feels on fire
07:35 – Brain dumping, working memory, and why your to-do list is lying to you
09:43 – Urgent vs loud: escaping other people’s priorities and people-pleasing
12:06 – Energy management, dopamine, and why discipline beats motivation for ADHD entrepreneurs

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