The ADHD Skills Lab

Why Adults with ADHD Struggle with Friendships (Caroline Maguire)

You meet someone, become instant best friends, and a few months later they're gone. Then it happens again.Most ADHD advice focuses on productivity, but Caroline Maguire believes we're missing something just as important: friendship. Caroline is a certified ADHD coach and the author of Friendship Skills for Neurodivergent Adults.In this conversation, Skye and Caroline explore why ADHD brains often rush into friendships, why traditional friendship advice falls flat, and how to build relationships that actually last without burning yourself out.You'll walk away with a practical way to spot unhealthy friendship patterns before they cost you another connection.What We CoverWhy the impulsive friendship cycle happensWhy traditional friendship advice doesn't work for ADHD adultsThe Ice Cream Scoop Method for balanced give-and-takeHow to spot one-sided friendships earlyWhy interest-based activities make building friendships easierHow to slow a friendship down without ending itConnect With Caroline Maguirehttps://carolinemaguireauthor.com/https://www.instagram.com/authorcarolinem/?hl=enIf you’re an entrepreneur with ADHD who’s tired of being asked “Why don’t you just hire/make a system/delegate?”  We’ve gotchu! 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.

Does Meditation Actually Help ADHD? What Two Studies Found

Meditation is one of the most common ADHD recommendations—but what does the research actually say?In this Research Recap, Skye Waterson and William Curb examine two studies on mindfulness and ADHD. The first explores an 8-week mindfulness program for primary school children, while the second compares mindfulness with structured psychoeducation for adults with ADHD.The children's study found improvements in attention and psychological wellbeing. The adult study found something just as interesting: learning about ADHD in a structured group setting produced many of the same benefits as mindfulness.The takeaway isn't that meditation doesn't work. It's that there are multiple evidence-based ways to engage with your ADHD—and the best approach is the one you'll actually stick with.What We Cover:What an 8-week mindfulness program changed for 7- to 8-year-old childrenHow researchers measured attention and psychological wellbeingHow mindfulness compared with psychoeducation in adults with ADHDWhere mindfulness showed unique benefitsWhy understanding your ADHD and connecting with others may matter as much as the specific techniqueWant 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 “Why don’t you just hire/make a system/delegate?”  We’ve gotchu! 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.

Why ADHD Founders Quit at Exactly the Right Time

Every founder with ADHD has wondered whether they quit too early. A 2024 foraging study unexpectedly suggests the opposite may sometimes be true. Researchers built an experiment expecting ADHD traits to be a disadvantage, and instead discovered the average person stayed too long.Skye and Robert explore what that means beyond the lab, why ADHD may be an advantage during the exploratory stage of entrepreneurship, why pivoting is not always a flaw, and why the same trait can become either a strength or a liability depending on the environment.What We Cover:Why researchers expected ADHD traits to hurt performance, and what the data actually showedHow "leaving too soon" turned out to be closer to the optimal strategyWhy ADHD entrepreneurs may be overrepresented in the exploratory startup phase, but not in scalingThe real costs of pivoting for teams, and when those costs are worth payingWhy the same ADHD trait can be either a strength or a struggle depending on the environmentIf you’re an entrepreneur with ADHD who’s tired of being asked “Why don’t you just hire/make a system/delegate?”  We’ve gotchu! 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 Daily Reminder System That Actually Works for ADHD (Sharon Pope)

She stared in the mirror one night, still wearing the workout clothes she'd put on that morning, and realized she couldn't remember if she'd had a sip of water all day.Years before being diagnosed with ADHD, Sharon Pope was successfully leading startups while privately struggling with the basics of everyday life.So she built the tool she wished she'd had: an AI task manager that follows up like a person instead of another notification.In this conversation, Sharon shares how that breaking point became Shelpful, why she still relies on it every day, and what she's learned about building a company around a problem she still hasn't completely solved.What We CoverWhy doctors dismissed her ADHD because she was "too successful"The night she built the first Shelpful prototype in 24 hoursWhy human accountability didn't scale into a businessHow "Mega Remind" follows up until a task actually gets doneWhy she still depends on the product she built herselfConnect With Sharon PopeWebsite: https://shelpful.comInstagram: @shelpfulIf you’re an entrepreneur with ADHD who’s tired of being asked “Why don’t you just hire/make a system/delegate?”  We’ve gotchu! 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.

How to Stop Panic-Planning and Actually Lower Your ADHD Anxiety

You keep rereading the same task on your list. You know it matters. You still haven't started.If that sounds familiar, it probably isn't a motivation problem. It may be because you're treating a project like it's a task.In this episode, Skye and Robbie unpack why hidden complexity makes seemingly simple tasks feel impossible, why the ADHD brain mistakes importance for urgency, and how giving tasks a trusted "home" can dramatically reduce overwhelm. They also share practical strategies for breaking projects into manageable steps without falling into perfectionism or all-day hyperfocus. These ideas are grounded in the episode's central insight: urgency often comes from the fear of losing the task—not the deadline itself.In this episode, you'll learn:Why some "tasks" are actually projects in disguiseHow hidden complexity leads to procrastination and overwhelmWhy breaking a project down is progress—not procrastinationThe real reason everything starts to feel urgent with ADHDHow to build a system you actually trust to hold your workWhat to do when you've stalled on a project and don't know how to restartWhether you're running a business, managing a team, or simply trying to get through your to-do list, this episode will help you understand why certain tasks feel so much harder than they should—and what you can do about it.If you’re an entrepreneur with ADHD who’s tired of being asked “Why don’t you just hire/make a system/delegate?”  We’ve gotchu! 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.