Subreddit: r/Entrepreneur
User: u/GreedySven
Original Post:
Hey builders,
Quick background: I'm that guy with 100 business ideas living rent-free in my head. ADHD makes me amazing at starting projects (that dopamine hit, you know?) but terrible at finishing them.
My problem isn't coming up with ideas - it's staying focused long enough to turn them into reality. I keep jumping from one exciting project to the next, leaving a trail of unfinished work behind me.
What I'm really looking for is a clear framework. Something that helps me navigate from "this could be cool" to "holy shit, it's actually working". The endless possibilities of each project often lead me into analysis paralysis, or I get lost figuring out what to tackle next.
I need your help. How do you validate ideas quickly? What's your process for staying focused when your brain wants to chase the next shiny object? I'm especially interested in hearing from other entrepreneurs with ADHD who've figured out a system that works.
No BS, no "just focus harder" advice. I want to hear your real-world strategies for getting from idea to launch when your brain is wired differently.
Looking forward to learning from your experiences. 🚀
My Answer:
I wrote this in the EntrepreneurRideAlong subreddit on another post about ADHD. Hope it’s helpful:
Hi there, I’m a food scientist with ADHD who runs his own consulting business.
I have terrible executive function, despite having a PhD (I know, I know, those two aren’t always correlative). When I first started my business, I was all over the place with my projects.
It’s been 4 years, and I still occasionally drift out of my main project work on the next shiny thing. But I’ve learned a few tricks to get back into gear:
• Every morning, I read out a list of long-term personal and professional goals for myself. I try to ask myself once an hour if what I’m doing at the moment is supporting those goals.
• I give myself one hour per day to do just one business critical task, then I let myself off the hook if I’m doing other things. I notice I get overwhelmed and procrastinate if I think too hard about how much there is to do.
• I only work three days per week on high-leverage projects and tasks that require my full concentration. If I work more than that, I am extremely fatigued and the last two days become just nonsense.
• I multi-task about four to six projects at the same time, and give myself a very large window to complete them. I’ve found this is much more effective for my brain than focusing on one single project, otherwise I get very bored very quickly.
• When I get bogged down, I play the same song over and over again on repeat. I’ve found that this helps calm my brain down and learn to deal with repetitive tasks in a less sporadic manner.
• This is my cheat code, for better or worse, and I get is almost impossible to replicate in most circumstances. My wife has far greater executive function and intelligence than even your average person, so while she doesn’t love knowing the ins and outs details of my business, I try to update her every so often and she gives me tips on how to deal with specific management issues. She’s also a psychotherapist who helps a lot of clients with ADHD, but this was even before I was diagnosed.
Comment:
Damn, managing 4-6 projects at once with ADHD is impressive! You mentioned giving yourself a large window to complete them - but how do you actually keep track of everything without dropping balls? Are you using some kind of project management system (Notion, Trello?) or just good old pen and paper? Would love to understand your system since my brain goes into chaos mode with multiple projects.
My Response:
No doubt I end up dropping balls doing it like this. But what I’ve found is that I can hold at least two to three projects in my head long-term, and those are my high-priority projects. That can mean either I’ve had a long-term relationship with the client, it’s high-paying, or I like working with the person. Which results in a real working business with good revenue and low churn.
The rest have a lower impact on my business, so they sit in the back burner and I don’t think too hard about them until the first three are done.
I use a single Word document and keep it simple. I have one file that I write bullet points for which client, the one task that needs to get done for that client, and how high they are on the priority list based on if it’s at the top or bottom. And I try to update it at least once a week, but mostly every few days. I write the date above for each group of updates.
I only have 8 to 10 bullet points maximum. Most days it’s 4 to 5. Very low visual footprint. About 16 to 20 font, Arial to be easy on the eyes. No more than a few words per bullet point, I need to be able to summarize the task in less than six words or I don’t read it.
If the task lives too long in the list, I don’t keep it on there for the next update. Obviously not important enough to get done. It’s not breaking my business if it’s just been sitting there for four weeks.
No color coding. No underlining. Occasional bold. Literally the least amount of work and information on my end so I actually remember to update it and don’t feel overwhelmed reading it and doing the task.
The key has been I don’t delete anything, I just cross it off in the Word document, and then I add the next update right above. Nothing gets deleted. Literally it’s a horrible +500 page word document. I just keep saving and updating, and crossing things out. I don’t even search through it, I just read the latest update and add from the top.
For some reason, just knowing I have a living history reduces my mental load significantly. I only figured out this works about two years ago - before I tried all sorts of systems. Spreadsheets, Asana, paper and pen, etc. Too complex.
If they’re too complicated, I end up using it to procrastinate by playing around with all the bells and whistles, then never remember to use it next time.
This worked like a charm. I don’t know why, but my drop rate was reduced quite a bit.
Also, I give myself permission to let my brain wander. Honestly, most days I probably get one big ass task done. That’s it. From some objective corporate standpoint, I’m heavily underproductive. But the funny thing is that about one out of three “brain wanderings” leads to more business or better opportunities. I’ve found that if I don’t get good positive dopamine feedback from my side brain adventures, I stop doing them after a few weeks.
That means only very immediate returns get time spent on them. And so it’s been a good feedback loop, where if I get paid, I enjoy working with the person, the project is interesting enough to hold my attention; and it doesn’t overwhelm me, I work on it.
Low paying, high stress, high maintenance, boring clients fall to the wayside, and that’s been okay. In fact; it’s probably been better because I can hyperfocus my attention on the clients/projects that actually make a difference to my bottom line (and don’t make me want to kill myself doing) and that last 20% that would take up more time and energy than it’s worth just falls off naturally.
I’ve only had three refunds in the last four years from that strategy.
Are you working on a new food or beverage product? Interested in working with me and my team to get started?
Click on the button below to get in touch and set up a meeting today!
P.S. If you're interested in developing cannabis food and beverage products or confections, head over to my good friends at Patric Food & Beverage Development.