3 Productivity Practices for ADHD Entrepreneur Teams

How to support ADHD teams  to thrive

Entrepreneurship can be an exciting endeavor, and one that adults with ADHD particularly favor. Studies have shown an association between ADHD and self-employment. One particular study found that people with ADHD are 300% more likely to start their own business. Many characteristics present in adults with ADHD, such as risk-taking, impulsivity, tenacity, and creative problem solving can be an asset to any entrepreneur starting their own business. In other words, ADHD can often be a superpower for entrepreneurs. 

Despite this superpower, and all of the benefits of an ADHD brain for starting your own business, having ADHD can also be challenging for small entrepreneurial teams, especially when many team members have the condition. ADHD affects a person’s executive functioning skills, such as focus, time management, organization, and task initiation. Executive functioning skills are essential to business and working within a team, so gaps can present challenges to gettting things done. ADHD can also challenge your team’s ability to communicate and effectively plan. 

3 PRODUCTIVITY PRACTICES FOR ADHD ENTREPRENEUR TEAMS   

To optimize your ADHD team’s productivity, focus on these 3 practices outlined below.

1. Create simple and reliable systems for your business 

To be a productive team with ADHD, it is essential to have consistent systems in place for your business needs. Shared calendars and reminders are a great way to keep your projects and meetings front of mind. It is also important to have to-do lists for each deliverable your team needs to complete. Develop a planning practice to establish, document and review each week’s meetings and key tasks. This approach creates a productivity framework to keep your team organized. You can download my free weekly planner designed for busy entrepreneurs like you here.  

To combat ADHD entrepreneur teams’ executive dysfunction challenges, create deadlines for each task. Managing time on your ADHD team can be a challenge. To combat time troubles, break bigger tasks into smaller portions, and assign each a deadline to motivate your ADHD teams to build accountability. Shorter deadlines can also be more motivating for people with ADHD. Although it may be tempting, avoid moving deadlines to alleviate the performance pressure. A deadline creates an ending (completion point) that works to generate dopamine surges necessary for task initiation challenges. 

Lastly, online project management tools can help teams with ADHD keep their work on track. Asana is a great work management platform that can help your team collaborate and keep track of tasks and deadlines. LeanTime is a digital planner for people with ADHD, which could be helpful to utilize if your team has several people with ADHD. 

2. Practice time-blocking to get work done.

Focus can be one of the greatest challenges for getting work done when you have ADHD. Our world is saturated with distractions. Interruptions, digital alerts, and our virtual workplace has created an intense state of hyper-vigilance for most workers. This is harder to manage with ADHD. Distractions and interruptions make it nearly impossible to find the time to exclusively devote to a specific task. 

To limit these distractions, your team can begin by using website blockers, such as Freedom, to choose which websites you want to block and for what amount of time. 

Time-Blocking is an individual productivity tactic.

To time-block successfully, each ADHD team member should determine their ideal focused work time (when they get their best work done), and communicate that with the rest of the team. Flexible work hours are helpful. One team member may focus best in early morning, while another’s productivity may peak during the late afternoon or evening. Knowing each ADHD team member’s ideal productive work times can help the team create a consistent schedule, and allow for time blocking in the team’s shared calendar. 

Time blocking can help you schedule your time effectively. To begin using time-blocking techniques for your team, you can block out specific amounts of time on your shared calendar to complete certain work tasks. You can find more productivity tips such as time blocking in my article here. 

3. Develop consistent scheduling and meeting times.

Consistency is key for ADHD teams, and frequent check-ins can greatly help your team stay on track. A consistent weekly team meeting can greatly help your ADHD team by providing a consistent time and space to give progress updates. 

During these team meetings, it can be helpful to invite open conversation and safety for feedback. Each team member should feel empowered to be open and honest about their skills and challenges. It can be helpful to assign weekly tasks based on each person’s abilities and interests. 

After each ADHD team meeting, be sure to follow up in writing with action items discussed. This practice helps promote a shared understanding, and prevents key action items from slipping! Giving instructions in written format can also help people with ADHD initiate tasks and stay on track.  

Another way to support your ADHD team members is to take the Time and Space Style Inventory here. This tool helps team members understand their own personality preferences for managing time and organizing. And, finding additional ways to support your ADHD team’s individual approaches to managing time and staying organized will help everyone interact more effectively on the team. 

CONCLUSION 

Being part of an entrepreneurial ADHD team is exciting, as your team’s creativity and risk-taking can accomplish great things! However, ADHD executive dysfunction can be a challenge to your team’s productivity and communication. You can overcome these challenges by establishing systems for your team, time block to get things done, and have consistent communication through weekly meetings. Do you find yourself challenged to get work done in your entrepreneurial small team? As a certified ADHD coach, I’d love to talk about it with you and see if I can help. Book your free Discovery Call with me today.