ADHD for Smart Ass Women with Tracy Otsuka

EP. 352: AI, Delegation, and ADHD: Work Smarter, Stress Less with Skye Waterson

Oct 1, 2025

Skye Waterson, an ADHD strategist and founder of Unconventional Organisation, shares her journey from academic burnout to building ADHD-friendly productivity systems. She critiques typical productivity advice, emphasizing that it often fails ADHD brains and introduces her unique 'five-senses reward method' for task initiation. Skye also discusses the power of delegation, utilizing AI for business processes, and the importance of understanding one’s own mind for success. Her insights are a game changer for anyone looking to work smarter and reduce stress.

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ANECDOTE

From Burnout To Diagnosis

Skye burned out after overworking through her master's and multiple jobs and left academia to work at a bakery and take art classes.
Her ADHD diagnosis came as she restarted a PhD and turned her academic research skills toward understanding her brain.

INSIGHT

Research Drives Her Approach

Skye used her academic training to read ADHD research and turn diagnosis into a research project.
That research foundation shaped her evidence-based approach to ADHD strategies and coaching.

ADVICE

Use A Recipe To Start Tasks

Create a sensory reward and a tiny ‘recipe’ for starting boring tasks to bypass initiation resistance.
Open the app, write step-by-step actions, then ease into work to build momentum.

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Burnout was Skye Waterson's PhD companion. She'd switch majors—psychology to law to sociology—convinced each time that she just hadn't found her passion yet. The truth was simpler and more complex: she was trying to outwork her undiagnosed ADHD, and no amount of grinding harder was going to fix a brain that needed different systems entirely. By the time she finished her master's thesis, she was so burned out she couldn't even process being offered a guaranteed PhD scholarship. Instead, she worked at a bakery and took art classes until her now-husband asked the obvious question: "Wait, you did a master's? You have a scholarship? What's going on?"

The ADHD diagnosis came at the perfect time—right as she was starting her PhD. Instead of seeing it as a limitation, Skye turned her academic brain toward understanding how her mind actually worked. She started researching, writing articles, and building the productivity systems that traditional advice couldn't provide. What began as survival became her calling, and eventually, her business grew so successful that her supervisors encouraged her to leave academia entirely.

Now, as founder of Unconventional Organisation, Skye helps entrepreneurs, founders, and executives scale their businesses without scaling their stress. In this conversation, she and Tracy dive into why neurotypical productivity advice fails ADHD brains, how to prioritize when everything feels urgent, and Skye's game-changing approach to delegation using AI. They explore her "recipe" method for breaking down tasks, why the Pomodoro technique wasn't designed for us, and how understanding dopamine timing can revolutionize your work flow.

Resources:

Website: https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unconventionalorganisation
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skye-waterson-026286204

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