184: The ADHD Entrepreneur's Time Management Lie (What Actually Works)

📖 Read Full Show Notes: https://sociallyausome.com/post/adhd-time-management-lie-what-actually-works

Episode Overview

Time blindness isn't a character flaw...it's a neurological reality. Every time management system out there is designed for brains that can estimate how long things take, maintain focus on demand, and generate motivation consistently.

ADHD brains can't do any of that.

Stop forcing neurotypical productivity methods onto your neurodivergent brain and learn what actually works: energy management over time management, dopamine-first strategies, and systems designed for time blindness.

What You'll Learn

Why Traditional Time Management Fails ADHD Brains:

How time blindness affects ADHD entrepreneurs (thinking something takes 20 minutes, then 3 hours later...)

Why time blocking doesn't work for brains that hyperfocus for 3 hours or can't focus for 3 minutes

The "early bird" myth and why forcing morning routines is self-sabotage for many ADHD brains

How planning paralysis keeps you from actually executing

5 Strategies That Actually Work for ADHD Time Management:

Energy Management Over Time Management - Organize by energy levels, not clock hours (protect your 2-3 peak hours for revenue tasks)

The Two-List System - One must-do task per day + optional can-do list (stop overwhelming yourself with 47 tasks)

Time Anchors Instead of Time Blocks - Attach tasks to natural rhythms ("after coffee" not "9 AM")

The Dopamine-First Approach - Start with enjoyable tasks to generate dopamine, THEN tackle hard stuff (opposite of "eat the frog")

External Accountability Beats Willpower - Body doubling, accountability partners, public commitments work better than self-discipline

Key Takeaways

Time blindness is neurological, not a personal failing

ADHD brains have 2-3 peak productivity hours per day—protect them fiercely

Energy management beats time management for neurodivergent entrepreneurs

Dopamine-first approach works better than forcing yourself to do hard tasks first

External accountability replaces unreliable internal motivation

Time anchors provide structure without rigidity

Stop system-hopping and build ONE that works with your brain

Rapid-Fire ADHD Time Tips

Always late? Triple your time estimates

Forget everything? Voice memos immediately

Can't start tasks? Lower the barrier ("write one sentence" not "write whole post")

Easily distracted? Work in public spaces for external structure

Schedules don't stick? Try task-based days (Content Monday, Client Tuesday)

Resources Mentioned

📚 Flow First Book - Waitlist

The complete guide to building a business around your ADHD energy cycles

→ https://sociallyausome.com/books/flowfirst

🎓 ADHDpreneur Academy

ADHD-friendly systems for energy management and sustainable productivity

→ https://sociallyausome.com/academy

🎯 Focused & Free Membership

Accountability and systems that work with time blindness

→ https://sociallyausome.com/membership

🎧 Secret Podcast

Unfiltered ADHD time and energy management strategies

→ https://sociallyausome.com/secretpodcast

📱 Connect on Instagram: @socially.ausome

About The ADHD CEO

Hosted by Alyece Smith, ADHD Business Coach & Founder of Socially Ausome™

New episodes weekly featuring real strategies for building profitable businesses with ADHD—no shame, no hustle culture, just systems that work with neurodivergent brains.

Subscribe & Review: Help other ADHD entrepreneurs find this show!

Share Your Win: Tag @socially.ausome with your time management breakthrough

Full blog post with all strategies, examples, and FAQs:

→ https://sociallyausome.com/post/adhd-time-management-lie-what-actually-works

#ADHDEntrepreneur #TimeBlindness #ADHDProductivity #NeurodivergentBusiness #ADHDTimeMana

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You know it's wild every time management system out there is
designed for brains that can estimate how long things take.
Which is hilarious if you have ADHD.
Because we're over here thinkinglike this will take 20 minutes
and three hours later we're still not done.
Or we avoid tasks for weeks thinking it'll be awful and it
literally takes 5 minutes. So time blindness isn't a

(00:20):
character flaw. And every single time I have
talked about this topic, it is ahot 1 because it's a
neurological reality and no amount of planners, time
blocking or just get organized is going to fix it.
So today we're going to talk about what actually does.
And that's exactly what you need.
So it's not what the productivity gurus are selling

(00:41):
you. That's why I'm here.
Let's dive into it. All right, let me guess.
You tried it, right? Pomodoro Technique, time
blocking calendar, color coding,getting up at 5:00 AM,
productivity app everyone swearsby digital detoxes, bullet

(01:04):
journaling, and the two-minute rule.
For about 3 days, you felt like you finally cracked the code.
You were productive and you wereon top of things.
You were that entrepreneur. And then life happened.
Or your brain got bored, or the system required too much
maintenance and suddenly you're back to scrambling, missing
those deadlines, feeling like you're constantly behind.
Look, I get it it and a lot of these things are effective if

(01:25):
you customize them to your ADHD.But the truth is, nobody tells
you that traditional time management assumes you have the
consistent relationship with time, that you can accurately
predict how long things are going to take, that you can
maintain focus on demand. That motivation is a choice.
And for ADHD brains, none of that is true.
We experience time differently. So some days an hour feels like

(01:48):
10 minutes and on other days 10 minutes feels like eternity.
When we really hyper focus on the wrong things and can't focus
on the right things, we're either all in or completely
checked out. And every time management system
out there acts like this, right?This is a personal failing that
you need to fix. But I really want to talk about,
you know, the stories that we tell ourselves about time

(02:10):
management, the if I just found the right system or, you know,
we keep thinking that some perfect planner or app or method
out there will finally make our brains work normally.
So we keep trying new systems, convinced that this one will be
different. But the truth is your brain is a
broken. The systems are wrong for your
brain. And so that thought that you
have like, I'm just lazy. When you can't stick to a

(02:33):
schedule or you fascinating important tasks, it's so easy to
internalize that as laziness, especially when neurotypical
people make it look effortless. And ADHD is not laziness.
It's a dopamine regulation issue.
Your brain literally cannot generate motivation the same
way. And beating yourself up about it
just makes everything harder that I should be able to do this

(02:55):
trap that you put yourself through when you see other
entrepreneurs crushing it with their morning routines or their
stories are full of went to the gym, got my content out, taking
the rest of the day off, right. And you kind of have that
feeling like, why can't I just do that?
You physically cannot. And it's because your brain
works differently. And trying to force neurotypical

(03:16):
time management into, you know, what will work for you and onto
your ADHD brain is like trying to use, you know, Windows
software on a Mac. It's just, it's not going to
work no matter how hard to try. So I really want to talk about
the garbage productivity culturehas fed us because the time
blocking will save you. I call it a myth.

(03:39):
And I will say I have found a certain type of time blocking
that works for me. But for years, years, I've spent
a ton of money hiring business coaches.
And every business coach would tell me the time block my
calendar from 9:00 to 10:10 to 12:12 to 1:00.
And I did it and I made it work,but I was so exhausted mentally
and physically because ADHD brains, you know, we experience

(04:04):
time totally different. We don't experience these neat
little blocks. We hyper focus for three hours
or we can't focus for three minutes, like there is no in
between. And so time blocking assumes
that you can control your attention, and we often can't.
And pretending you can just setsyou up for failure.
The early bird gets the worm. That bullshit productivity

(04:25):
culture is obsessed with morningroutines.
Waking up at 5:00 AM, meditate, journaling, exercising, meal
prep. And I did it again.
Did it, bought the book, did allof it.
Did I feel better after it was completed?
Yes. Did I spend more time trying to
get myself into that morning routine than actually doing that
morning routine? Yes.
Most ADHD brains just don't fully wake up that way.

(04:48):
RP productivity might be at 9:00PM and forcing yourself into
this like morning person box when you're naturally a night
out isn't discipline, it is legitimately self sabotage.
Like I started losing hair from the amount of stress not even
getting. And so the more planning equals
more productive. That is a trap for us.
We're told to plan everything. Playing your week, playing your

(05:09):
day, playing your hour and preparation and being proactive.
1000% but it's not going to looklike everyone else's.
And so we often will plan to plan to plan to plan and never
execute, spending more time in the planning than the doing.
And we make these beautiful plans that we never follow
through with because planning feels productive.
But it's not the same as executing.
And the more complex the plan, the more likely we are to

(05:31):
abandon it the moment something unexpected happens.
And so that breakthrough moment for me was realizing I don't
need to manage time. I need to manage energy and
attention. So time is going to pass whether
I use it well or not. But my energy and my attention,
those are actually under my control.
So when I work with my brain instead of against it, I stop

(05:52):
asking how do I fit everything into my own schedule and start
asking what does my brain actually need to function?
That's when everything will change.
Because once you stop trying to fix your ADHD and start
designing your business around how your brain actually works,
time management stops being a constant battle.
So what actually works for ADHD time management?

(06:13):
I want to give you like a real framework here.
OK, one, energy management, overtime management.
Stop organizing your day by time.
Organize it by energy. So you probably have two to
three hours of high functioning time per day when your brain is
really capable of complex work. That's it.
Maybe it's morning, maybe it's night, maybe it's change, you
know, whatever that looks like. But your only job is to protect

(06:34):
those hours for the most important revenue generating
tasks for your business. Everything else can happen in
low energy windows or not at all.
So for the next week, really notice when your brain feels
sharpest. Don't try to change it.
Just observe and then schedule your most important work during
those natural energy peaks. The second thing here is the two
list system. So forget those complex,

(06:54):
complex, complex task managementsystems.
You need 2 lists, must do today list.
This one has one task, maybe 2 if you're feeling ambitious.
These are tasks that directly move your business forward and
then a can do today list. Everything goes here.
You'll do these if you have the energy, if you have the
attention leftover, but they're not priority.
ADHD brains do much better with what's the one most important

(07:16):
thing. And then here's 47 other things
you might do today. So right now, write down the one
task that would make today a success.
Do that first. Everything else is optional.
OK, strategy three time anchors.So instead of time blocks, do
time anchor. No rigid schedules used flexible
anchors. These are activities that help
naturally and can trigger work sessions.

(07:38):
So for example, after a morning coffee, you know, I might work
on client projects. Not 911.
Difference is time. Anchors work with your natural
rhythm. Time blocks fight against it.
And so look for two to three activities you do consistently.
Coffee, lunch, evening walk, attach those two important tasks
so that they're anchored in instead of very specific times.

(08:00):
So there are tons and tons and tons of strategies, and I'll be
talking about this even more on IG, so make sure you're
following on Instagram. But this is the work that I do
every single day in my membership, focused and free.
So these are those daily trainings that you get because
you have to know your brain and have enough clarity around how

(08:21):
it operates in order to really work with it.
In order to really work with it,you have to understand this.
And so if you're always late, stop estimating time, double or
triple, whatever you think something will take.
OK, you're probably just being optimistic if you forget
everything, voice memos immediately, the moment you
think of something, record it. Don't trust yourself to

(08:41):
remember. So there's a lot of little like
rapid fire tips that I give every single day inside focus
and free. And then I'm going to be really
deep diving on my system called Flow First Thinking in my new
book, which I'm so excited about.
It's coming now later this year,so I will make sure in the show
notes I have information on flowfirst thinking and get on the
wait list so you're first to know when it comes out.

(09:03):
So excited about this book, you guys.
Like I am smiling ear to ear just saying it out loud.
And also the membership because I do daily trainings in there
and there's only so much I can pack into one podcast episode.
But you have to have that accountability as well.
So I could sit here and rattle off all of my strategies to you
and then you will absolutely do nothing with them because you're
going to be overwhelmed. So the time management industry

(09:26):
has gas lit ADHD entrepreneurs and they're thinking more of the
problem. And we're not We're not.
We need systems designed for brains that experience time,
energy and attention totally different.
And once you stop forcing neurotypical productivity
methods onto your brain, everything gets easier.
You don't need to manage time better.
You need to work with your brainbetter.
So before you go, pick one strategy from this episode and

(09:49):
implement it this week. Just one screenshot it.
Send it to me on IG at Social dot.
Awesome. Don't try to overhaul your
entire system. That is a trap.
One small change that works withyour brain is worth more than 10
perfect systems you'll abandoned.
So if this episode helped you reframe how you think about time
management, share it with another ADHD entrepreneur or

(10:10):
another ADHD person in dental who is really beating themselves
up about productivity. And look, your brain is not
broken. You just got to find one that
works for you. Oh, make sure you leave a review
for the podcast. If you got any value out of this
episode at all, it is the absolute best compliment you can
give. And until next time, make it
simple, make it social, make it awesome.