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The 10k ADHD Scaffolding System
AKA the 8 Key Steps I'd Use Today To Get To 10K Months
Most business advice focuses on the steps that a business should take, like marketing, sales and operations.
Instead, I focus on the steps to stabilise you and your ADHD brain on the path to 10K months.
These steps remove the bottleneck your brain can be, and create continuity, focus, and momentum—even when your attention wanders.
Watch a video of me talking through these

Hustle & Grind vs. Smart Work
The pervasive "hustle and grind" culture, often championed by successful "celebrity" entrepreneurs who got through, can cause confusion and slow productivity for you.
While their business knowledge is valuable, their productivity advice rarely is effective for a neurodivergent brain.
Stop listening to productivity gurus who don't understand how to succeed with ADHD. Their paths are inefficient for you. Instead, look at systems (like mine) that provide stability, continuity, and momentum without relying on unsustainable effort.
What Defines a Startup?
A startup is a business actively seeking a stable path to market.
This crucial phase can span from a swift three months (for those with existing market insight), up to five years for others.
Only after establishing this consistent route can you truly begin scaling.
My focus here is to equip ADHD entrepreneurs with the tools to navigate this initial discovery period successfully, preparing you for significant growth.
Before we start: What if you don't have enough capital to start hiring?
If you don't have a business generating much profit you can use yet (<$1K), you need to find a way to invest first.
My recommendations? Get a part time job, or freelance using skills you already have.
These are temporary income opportunities that fund your journey. You can close them down later.
Ready? Let's get into the steps.
Quickly though, I don't have any affiliate links on here.
Step 1
Install External Memory Systems
Your brain is brilliant at generating ideas—but terrible at storing them reliably. It causes anxiety.
The moment you think "I'll remember that later," you've already lost it. It's how ADHD memory works.
Download the app Voicenotes. It's only $15 a month.
Capture every idea, task, commitment, and random thought immediately. Speak it aloud. Don't worry about organisation, categories, or making it perfect.
Your job is capture—not organise. That comes later. Right now, you're building a safety net so nothing important disappears into the void again.
More memory help?
If you want to go further, look into Memorae, which is a WhatsApp based reminder system.
Why Voicenotes?
  • Captures thoughts in seconds, and can install as a widget to quickly add a note
  • No boring typing required that makes you lose track of your thought
  • Works whilst you're multitasking and working
  • Searchable transcription via AI - this is the most important bit!
  • Always in your pocket
Step 2
Hire a Project Coordinator
This is your first hire—and the most important one. An hour or two a week is enough to start.
A project coordinator holds everything that should be in your brain. The plan. What you discussed last week. What you've thought about since.
They keep you organised, and the important projects moving forward—even when your brain decides to hyperfocus on something unrelated.
Start Small?
Begin with just 1-2 hours per week. That's enough to create stability without overwhelming your startup budget.
The Right Person
Use the my Upwork Hiring System to find someone organised, patient, and proactive. Not someone who is also ADHD!
Build Trust Early
Give them access to your systems, like your voicenotes. Let them see the chaos. They're here to help, not judge.
"Your project coordinator isn't just an assistant. They're the external operating system your ADHD brain needs to function reliably in business."

But what's important? Prioritise with the Important/Urgent Matrix

Your ADHD brain excels at responding to urgency. However, not all urgent tasks are important. The Eisenhower Matrix helps you work out what truly matters for your business's survival and growth. Dedicate your daily focus to the 'Important & Urgent' (tactical, reactive work), tackling immediate crises and impending deadlines. Pro Tip: Install a CEO Hour (or two) Every Week. Set aside dedicated, uninterrupted blocks each week for 'Important & Not Urgent' tasks like strategy, planning, time with your coordinator, and long-term growth. This approach prevents future crises and propels your business forward.

Step 3
Weekly Processing: Voice Notes → Plan
You Capture. They Organise.
Throughout the week, you dump everything into Voice Notes without thinking. Ideas, tasks, commitments, worries, inspirations—everything goes in.
Then, once per week, you review Voice Notes together with your coordinator. They listen. They extract tasks, follow-ups, and priorities. They create structure from chaos.
Nothing important stays trapped in your head anymore. It's all out. It's all visible. It's all actionable and plannable.
01
Capture All Week
Record everything in Voice Notes as thoughts occur
02
Schedule Weekly Review
Set a recurring calendar event with your coordinator
03
Extract & Prioritise
They transform voice notes into structured tasks

Almost nothing is important enough that it can't wait a week. But if something truly is urgent? It's OK to break your plan and shift. But it should only happen once every few months. If it's too often, you're systems aren't working.
Step 4
Install Now / Not Now
Overwhelm kills execution. When you're staring at 47 tasks, your ADHD brain freezes. Nothing gets done because everything feels equally urgent and impossible. It's not a personal failure.
Your coordinator creates two lists every week. Just two.
Now
Maximum 3 items. These are your only priorities until they're complete. Nothing else exists.
Not Now
Everything else goes here. Still important. Still visible. Just not something to look at until you've finished the Now items.

You only ever work from the Now list. That's the rule. When something on Now is finished, your coordinator moves the Next priority across. But never more than three active items at once. Four at the very most.
Why is this important? Our brains don't do well with lists of more than 3 to 4. We get confused. This is not a personal failure.
"The power isn't in starting more. It's in doing less—and finishing it."
Step 5
Understand and Work With Your Motivational Types
ADHD brains don't run on logic or discipline. They run on specific motivators: interest, urgency, novelty, and accountability.
When these factors are present, you're unstoppable. When they're absent, even simple tasks feel impossible.
Every day, think how to use these to get work done. Design tasks with these in mind.
Interest
Work becomes engaging when you're genuinely curious about the outcome
Urgency
Deadlines and time pressure activate your focus immediately
Novelty
New projects and fresh challenges naturally capture your attention
Accountability
Knowing someone else is waiting makes starting easier
Step 6
Body Doubling: A successful way to get work done
Starting & Completing: The Hardest Parts
Starting and completing work are often more difficult than the middle phase of work.
Your brain resists. You scroll. You reorganise your desk. You research tools you don't need.
Your ADHD brain is struggling to initiate tasks without motivation. But we can give it some, easily.
Increase urgency with body doubling, or work with your coordinator or VA—even if they're just quietly doing their own tasks.
Other peoples presence activates your brain automatically. Body doubling is one of the easiest ADHD strategies available at this level of business to get through work.
You're not being judged. You're simply working alongside another human, which creates just enough social accountability to bypass your brain's resistance.
This removes the need for willpower. Willpower is unreliable for ADHD brains.
Virtual Sessions
Work over video call with others who are also ADHD.
Scheduled Blocks
Book regular sessions. Your coordinator do this with you.
Immediate Results
Tasks that felt impossible to start suddenly get done.
Step 7
Two-Day Cooling-Off Rule
New ideas feel electric. Exciting. Urgent. Your ADHD brain screams "DO THIS NOW" and suddenly you're researching, planning, and abandoning plans.
This creates instability. Your business never gains traction because you're constantly pivoting towards the newest shiny object.
The Solution?
Capture every idea in Voice Notes immediately. Get it out of your head. Then wait at least 48 hours before acting on it.
Your coordinator enforces this rule. They hold the ideas.
1
Monday: Capture Idea
Record the exciting new idea in Voice Notes, in detail
2
Tuesday: Wait
Let the idea sit untouched for 48 hours
3
Wednesday: Review Idea
Discuss with coordinator—still relevant? Action now, or delay?
4
Thursday: Decide
If still important, add to "Not Now" list
"The ideas worth pursuing will still feel important in 48 hours. The unhelpful distractions won't."
Step 8
Increase Your Team: Hire Specialists
This is part of my Upwork Success System, but don't hire generic admin or "virtual assistants who do everything." Generalists create more work for your brain, not less.
You end up managing them, explaining tasks, and fixing mistakes.
Instead, hire specialists for small, specific functions that needs ownership. A bookkeeper. A copywriter. A social media manager. Someone to edit your PDFs. Just a few hours a week. Someone who knows their domain better than you do and won't need checking in on.
Identify the Gap
What function keeps breaking because you can't maintain focus on it?
Define the Role
Be specific. Not "admin help" but "weekly bookkeeping and invoicing"
Hire the Expert, and Delegate Responsibility
Find someone who owns this function completely
Coordinator Manages
Your project coordinator handles most onboarding and ongoing communication
Responsibility can leave your brain permanently. You're no longer managing people. You're not remembering to check in. Your coordinator does that. You just receive the output.

Start specialist hiring only after your coordinator system is stable—usually 2-6 weeks in.
THE WIN
Why you get to 10K months using this system
Your brain stops being the only place where critical information lives, and where actions get finished. You stop being responsible for remembering, organising, and executing everything.
Tasks stop disappearing into the void. Work continues even when your focus drops. Your business develops continuity independent of your attention span.
Continuity
Your business runs even when you can't focus
Momentum
Progress accumulates week after week
Stability
Revenue becomes predictable and grows
This is the foundation for reaching £10k/month. Not hustle. Not willpower. Not working harder.
Just structure that works with your ADHD brain instead of against it.
Beyond 10k Months? Scale Business Alongside Me
10k months mark your entry into the next, exciting scale phase.
For ADHD founders, scaling requires specific specialist strategies that leverage your unique strengths while managing new complexities.
This is the phase where time with me creates huge growth.