Most business advice assumes you are a machine that just needs better software. It tells you that if you bought the right planner or woke up at 5am the chaos would stop.
It is not true.
You know you did not build your business by being lazy. You got here because you can sprint when the adrenaline hits. The problem is that sprinting is now the only tool you trust and when the adrenaline fades you are left with an uphill struggle.
These are the three patterns I see most often with ADHD founders:
the email that sits in an inbox for 20 minutes,
the graveyard of abandoned apps,
the cycle of breakthrough then burnout.
These are not hypotheticals. They are based directly on client experiences and the conversations we have when they are stuck.
The Email Paralysis
It is Tuesday.
You have one important email to send - you know the answer, you know what to say, yet you do not send it.
You stare at the screen and the shame builds.
You wonder why other adults can manage this while you just… can’t.
What is actually happening
Your executive function is overloaded.
It handles prioritising, starting tasks and regulating focus.
For ADHD founders this system is often asleep or overwhelmed.
When you try to solve this by trying harder you are borrowing energy you do not have.
When forced effort fails, you pile on self-criticism which makes the next task even heavier.
What worked
ADHD adults often struggle to organise thoughts internally and the ideas get stuck. When you talk a task through with someone else you can start to listen to what you are saying and things start to clear.
This is body doubling - another person in the room to anchor you.
"Talking through my to do list and having [Piera] write it up and send it over is a godsend as I lack the patience to make a list without starting on tasks - all of which will feel equally urgent to me."
~ AB, Documentary Filmmaker, April 2025
For one creative freelancer, the email that was taking an hour was sent in three minutes once we worked through it together. The task itself was never the problem.
The System Graveyard
You download a new app and build a colour-coded calendar.
It works for three days then the novelty wears off and maintaining the system becomes a job in itself.
The graveyard of abandoned apps on your phone tells you something.
Every time you set up a new system there is a brief window where it feels possible. Then the structure that felt helpful starts to feel rigid and you stop opening the app.
What is actually happening
The chaos grows because of a mismatch between how you work and off-the-shelf systems.
You work twice as hard to hide the struggle and stay late to catch up on what should have taken an hour.
"I felt stuck. I had brain clutter with lots of projects on the go. But to be honest hardly any of them were getting done. I was unfocused and procrastinating on things that were out of my comfort zone. I've always known I'm not wired the same as most people.
— MD, Therapist, January 2026
What worked
A burnt-out consultant came to me surrounded by numerous systems he had given up on. In a Clarity Session we mapped where the friction actually was - not where productivity gurus said it should be.
We identified tools and workflows that suited how he worked and, for once, his optimism was backed by a plan that matched the reality.
The Breakthrough-Burnout Cycle
You have had breakthroughs before.
Usually you have a great meeting, feel energised for a day and then the old patterns creep back in.
You wake up on a Tuesday and the dopamine is just gone.
Every item on your to-do list feels equally urgent and impossible. Your head will not let you choose so you do nothing. Or, you pick the easiest task and spend two hours reorganising desktop folders instead of finishing the proposal that is actually due.
What is actually happening
You have ten priorities and find yourself immobile. You cannot be the CEO and the administrator at the same time.
The energy required to decide what to do drains the energy required to actually do it.
What worked
A couple running a renovation business brought in external support to handle the planning.
"We hoped that Piera would be able to develop some new systems which made it easy for my husband to keep up to date on all of his tasks. This was completed in week one."
~ JC, JCM Renovations, August 2024
Once the path was clear the work happened.
For another business owner with ongoing support, I handled the follow-through:
· managing inbox and calendar to prevent task paralysis,
· ensuring the projects kept moving,
· writing social posts when their head will not cooperate.
This created a gap between impulse and action where they were able to make decisions instead of reacting to the loudest fire.
Where LVA Fits
Bring your email, your inbox or just the knot in your stomach. We will untangle it together in a:
Suited to freelancers. You talk through whatever is stuck - we discuss alternatives for workflows, systems and methods that work for how you actually operate. One client described the feeling:
"I massively valued our session together and felt a huge sense of containment and relief."
~ FC, Education Psychologist, December 2024
Or a:
We work through the friction points across your business. I research further and produce a report of our discussion with suggested systems, apps and workflows that match how you actually work.
If this sounds familiar and you want someone ADHD-aware to work through it with you, book a free 15-min call