Creating ADHD-supportive systems for your business: Why it’s more than just getting organized
“My mom has always said my brain is chaos.”
“All through school I was told I needed to manage my time better.”
“People look at my desk and wonder how I can find anything. I mean, I’m just so disorganized.”
These are real quotes, from real conversations, with real clients.
They’ve reached out to me because they’ve tried it all… pomodoros, time blocking, Eisenhower Matrix, Eating the Frog. All of it. Nothing worked for longer than a week or two.
And they say to me, “I need a better system.”
Usually they mean they want to try a different project management tool, or invest in a CRM.
What they quickly discover is that my approach to systems isn’t “let’s fix you with Clickup.”
Instead, it’s about understanding what a system is, where your friction points are, and how we can design a system that is supportive of the way your brain works.
Why a project management tool won’t be the magic fix
Time blocking, eating the frog, and all the usual ways of getting shit done were created mostly by neuro-typical folks. And their systems assume you can reliably prioritize, easily initiate a task, and remember the next steps even in the face of kids yelling and your partner popping in 20 times to ask your opinion on dinner.
Yes, I will pause for you to laugh/cry right now.
If you’re an entrepreneur with ADHD (like many of my clients) you likely struggle with managing your attention, completing long tasks that don’t interest you, and staying “organized”. (source)
Unfortunately, adopting a new project management tool isn’t going to be a magic wand that solves all that.
You can have the most beautifully set up Asana workspace, but on days when you’re limited on attention, energy, working memory, or task initiation, Asana can still be hard to use. Maybe even down right counterproductive
Asana, or any project management tool, works with the assumption that you see a task and then you do a task. Simple as that.
For many business owners with ADHD, getting started is often one of the biggest hurdles.
When clarity doesn’t lead to action
Psychologist Thomas E. Brown describes ADHD-related executive-function challenges with six different, but interconnected, areas: activation, focus, effort, emotion, memory, and action. (source)
You may have a clear client onboarding process built out in Dubsado and Asana, but that doesn’t automatically make it ADHD-supportive. It can tell you what needs to be done, when, how, and by who.
But if it doesn’t reduce the effort of just getting started… it’s sadly wasted. You’re still having to struggle over the executive-function hurdle of initiating a task.
Understanding Activation
Activation is organizing tasks and materials, estimating time it takes to complete something, prioritizing tasks, and getting started on those tasks.
You could say that Activation is about getting work ready and getting it started - turning an intention into action.
For folks without ADHD, they’re wondering why it’s not as simple as “get started” and “just do it.”
But activation actually requires you to:
Organize the task and materials needed
Estimate how long the task will take
Decide what needs to be done first
And often do something that isn’t all that interesting or rewarding.
So it’s not just “get started.”
Hurdles in getting started
You may open ClickUp on a Wednesday morning and see that the task “onboard Client A” is due today.
You may be wondering:
“Which email do I use?”
“Does the timeline need to be updated first?
“Where’s the client portal link?”
And you decide to come back to the task later.
In this scenario, imagine instead you opened up ClickUp and saw…
“Send onboarding email template 2 (hyperlinked to that template) to Client A (hyperlinked to Client A’s client portal).”
The exact template you need when you need it, where you need it, is one way to support Activation. And one way your PM tool can support you.
Ways to support Activation
Some ways to support you when Activation is a struggle include:
Showing one concrete next step, not the entire process
Breaking down steps into smaller parts, like send client onboarding email becomes: “open client onboarding email template” and “open client portal
Have a default sequence so you don’t have to decide what comes first.
Understanding Focus
Once a task is started you have to focus on it if you want to complete it. And some days that will be harder than others; some tasks will be harder to focus on than others.
According to Brown, focus is “the ability to direct attention, sustain it over time, and shift it deliberately when the situation calls for a change.” (source)
If you’re struggling with focus that could look like: your internal monologue distracting you, external distractions, repeatedly rereading what’s in front of you, or getting stuck and finding it hard to transition onto a new task.
Let’s say you’re working on onboarding that new client. You find the link to the client portal, then realize you haven’t updated your branding in your CRM.
So you jump into the color and font settings, but then you see a Slack ping from a team member. You respond to that, then notice you missed a link someone else sent on Slack about an article on AI and design. You open that up…
Four hours later and your client still hasn’t been onboarded.
Sound familiar?
Focus isn’t about getting started. It’s about keeping your attention on the intended task. Or being able to shift to a new task intentionally.
Ways to support Focus
If you find that focus is a struggle on a particular day or in general here are a few things you can try:
Close all those tabs. I know you’ve got at least 20 open. On each screen.
Minimize or just turn off notifications
Set a defined “done” point. Onboarding Client A becomes “Done means send onboarding email template A, creating Google folder from folder template B, and adding inquiry call notes to Google folder.”
When you have to end a task before it’s complete, leave yourself a note that helps you remember where you left off and what needs to be done next.
Create intentional and simple rituals to do when you transition from one type of task to another. Stand up and stretch. Switch to a different playlist. Light a candle.
Set up a body doubling date with a business friend.
You’ll notice very few of these were something you can add to your PM tool. Instead your PM tool assists your other executive function supportive strategies.
It’s all interconnected
When you find yourself struggling it can be easy to pick one of Brown’s six areas and lay the blame there.
“I’m struggling with Activation today.” or “I can’t Focus at all.”
But Brown described these clusters as interconnected… i.e., they work together, often quickly and unconsciously. The client feedback you just read could cause you to struggle with Emotion, which bleeds into your need to get started on onboarding your new client.
Creating ADHD-supportive systems in your business
As you begin building your ADHD-supportive systems, these four guiding principles will help you discover what works for you and what doesn’t, in this moment of your life and business.
Design for retrieval, not recall
Put what you need for the next action where the work actually happens. For instance, the task inside ClickUp isn’t just “send client onboarding email A.” It’s this, hyperlinked to the template and to the client’s portal.
Use pre-written documents and email with placeholders for the areas you need to personalize (and highlight those areas so you don’t forget them). This means you’re not starting from scratch every time.
Use checklists for repeatable work rather than relying on memory.
Reduce your decision load
Replace broad tasks like “onboard client A” with smaller, more specific steps. An example would be “send onboarding email template A,” “create Google folder from template C,” and “add inquiry call notes to Google folder.”
Limit choices. Stick to one preferred communication channel, always save specific documents in standard folder location, and/or always start client onboarding with the same task
Make the task priority visible
Create a view in your pm tool that is specifically your “Now” view. These are the tasks, and the only tasks, you need to work on today.
Choose more than “urgent, high, normal, and low” labels. Consider labeling tasks with the energy it usually requires. If you have only 3 spoons available, this makes it easier to pick out the tasks that won’t deplete you and set you in the negative.
Create a daily and/or weekly reset where you choose the next one action to take when the next day or week begins
Build for the not great days, not the ideal days
Create clear re-entry points for recurring tasks so if you have to come back to it you know where to start when it’s time to pick it back up
Create “minimum viable” options for tasks. For instance, create a minimum viable version of a client onboarding email template. Maybe you like to add several paragraphs of personalization to each one, but on low capacity day, what would be the minimum viable version of that email?
Finding support for creating your ADHD-supportive systems
If you’ve made the decision to hire someone in helping you build more supportive systems, consider that ADHD-supportive systems should be designed collaboratively, provide options and flexible support, and avoid a single “right” way to work.
Questions to ask system strategists
Do you build in one specific tool or do you use a variety of tools?
Do you build from a template or from scratch? If you use a template, how flexible is it?
What channels do you use for communicating with clients? How flexible are you in what channels you use?
What are your policies on rescheduling calls?
Do you have experience working with business owners with ADHD?
What are some examples of support that you have built into ADHD-friendly systems?
How collaborative is your process?
Not every system strategist will be the right fit for you, even if your coach or business bestie raves about them. Look for system strategists that share accurate content about ADHD and neurodivergent topics or identify as neuro-divergent themselves. Read their case studies, chat with them in the DMs. The key thing to look for… do they approach your conversations with curiosity or a ready-made solution.
If you’d like support in creating your supportive systems, and you think I’ve got the right vibe, send me an email or schedule a Discovery Call.
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*This article discusses workflow design and does not replace individualized medical or mental-health care.
** This blog post was made with the assistance of AI. Claude acted as my editor. However all thoughts, ideas, and words are mine unless otherwise cited.
