Episode 328
ADHD, Energy, and Focus Swings in Business [Ep. 328]
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You know those days when you can knock out a week’s worth of work in one sitting, only to crash the next day and barely open your laptop? That’s not inconsistency or laziness. It’s the ADHD productivity cycle of hyperfocus and distraction, and it can send even the most driven entrepreneurs on a roller coaster of burnout, guilt, and chaos.
In this episode of The Real Truth About Business, Michelle breaks down the truth about hyperfocus and the inevitable crash that follows. She shares practical strategies to manage your energy, work with your brain, and build a sustainable rhythm for consistent business growth. If you’ve ever felt like you’re either “all in” or “completely checked out,” this episode will help you create structure without stifling your flow.
Whether you’re a coach, consultant, OBM, VA, designer, copywriter, or ADHD entrepreneur, you’ll learn how to stop fighting your natural cycles and start planning your business around your energy, so you can grow without burning out.
You’ll learn:
- Why “inconsistency” is really an energy management issue, not a character flaw
- How to identify your hyperfocus windows and track your energy patterns
- The importance of building in recovery time to avoid burnout after big projects or launches
- Simple ways to use energy mapping and calendar boundaries to stay productive and balanced
- How sustainable growth depends on energy stability, not constant hustle
This is the real truth about business growth, especially for neurodivergent service providers who crave clarity, structure, and results without falling for every trend online.
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Here's your Next Steps:
- Take the "Where's the Gap in Your Business Strategy" Quiz
- Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads or Facebook
- Visit my website to learn more and apply for the Focused Visionary Accelerator
- Sign up for my newsletter - Sunday Morning Brew - delivered every Sunday at 6 am
About the Host:
Michelle DeNio is a business strategist and growth advisor for service-based entrepreneurs, especially neurodivergent and ADHD business owners. Creator of the Focused Visionary Accelerator and host of The Real Truth About Business podcast, she helps clients simplify, focus, and grow sustainably. With 15+ years in business operations, she’s known for turning big ideas into simple, profitable action plans.
Transcript
Do you ever have a day where like you can crank out a week's worth of work in one sitting, but then the next day, like you cannot even open up your laptop or get sit at your computer or, you know, even go to your office?
Speaker A:And we feel like, why am I so inconsistent, right?
Speaker A:Why is my energy ebb and flow like this?
Speaker A:And the reality is, is that is not inconsistency.
Speaker A:It's the ADHD cycle of hyper focus and, and then distraction.
Speaker A:And it can leave entrepreneurs stuck on this productivity roller coaster.
Speaker A:And it's not always a fun ride, if we're being honest.
Speaker A:Let's.
Speaker A:I definitely struggle with this one terribly.
Speaker A:Is this just up and down, up and down, up and down.
Speaker A:However, there's ways to work with it, as always, and that's what we are talking about today.
Speaker A:So let's dive in.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:We're talking about hyperfocus and then distraction.
Speaker A:And so what does this look like?
Speaker A:How does this present itself in business?
Speaker A:And again, I think that this plays a role, as I keep saying, and I'm going to continue to say it because I don't necessarily think it's only ADHD entrepreneurs that struggle with this.
Speaker A:I think business owners in general can struggle with these energy swings.
Speaker A:This focus, this energy focus, you know, the focus, this hyper focus versus not, motivation versus not.
Speaker A:You know, I, we've talked about this versus momentum, but I do think that obviously ADHD plays a role in it.
Speaker A:But here's the thing around hyper focus and distraction and what this looks like, right?
Speaker A:So you all know hyper focus is like all in hours.
Speaker A:Can't break free.
Speaker A:Hours just pass by and you get so much done because you're like in the zone and you just are, you're there.
Speaker A:And I know for me a lot of times, which is crazy, but I also have learned not to do this, is that I can get massively hyper focused if I come back into my office after dinner or like that 7 o' clock time frame.
Speaker A:So even last night I'm recording this on a Monday, it was Sunday night.
Speaker A:I was like, let me just go into my office and just do a couple things because tomorrow's gonna be busy and I wanna get a few things done.
Speaker A:I had been out of town the week prior and I was like, I mean, I came in to the office to do, I don't know, one thing, which I think was to clean up my desk.
Speaker A:Just to make sure that like when I walked in Monday morning, my desk wasn't a mess, it was organized.
Speaker A:I had a list I was really working on my to do list of like what needed to get done this week.
Speaker A:Just looking at my calendar because again it was out of town and I ended up in here until like almost or after 9 o', clock, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker A:It felt amazing to, to get things done and to have that hyper focus and I was just like in the zone and nothing could, could break that, just that focus.
Speaker A:But the other thing is too is that then it takes a long time to come down from that, right?
Speaker A:And so I didn't sleep that good, which made my morning slow, right?
Speaker A:And this is what happens is you get this hyper focus and then distraction and then so you're all in.
Speaker A:And then the next day the energy is at a low.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And so I had a hard time getting going this morning.
Speaker A:I thought for sure, like, okay, you're going to get up and feed the dog, do the things and then just get into your office.
Speaker A:Just get into the office and just start banging some of this workout because you were gone all last week.
Speaker A:Guess what?
Speaker A:It didn't happen.
Speaker A:It was like 10 o' clock before I sat down, which is typical for me is 10 o'.
Speaker A:Clock.
Speaker A:But it was just that like exhaustion of like I can't even think about going in there right now.
Speaker A:And so that's part of the problem, right?
Speaker A:This is part of the problem with hyper focus and this happens all the time is these hyper focus.
Speaker A:And I know for many of my neuro neuro spicy friends that that hyper focus comes late at night and that then creates lack of poor sleep.
Speaker A:Poor sleep leads to exhaustion, right?
Speaker A:And so you just kind of lose this consistency because again, it's this roller coaster that you're riding of ebb and flow, highs and lows, up and down, really hyper focused.
Speaker A:And then like I don't feel like doing a damn thing the next day, right?
Speaker A:And so again, this can really affect you as a business owner because it can create a lot of burnout, missed deadlines, inconsistent marketing.
Speaker A:I've seen this one a lot where people go all in.
Speaker A:They're crazy good.
Speaker A:Creating content, creating content, creating content.
Speaker A:They're on this massive cycle, hyper focused.
Speaker A:And then it's like total burnout and they shut down and they can't create another piece of content to save their freaking life.
Speaker A:I'm talking to myself here.
Speaker A:And it's weeks before they show up, or maybe it's days and there's a lot of inconsistency.
Speaker A:And so it's like, it's, it can be really Difficult because the inconsistency is the hardest part, right?
Speaker A:I think that's really the hardest part about this is this like inconsistency also too.
Speaker A:One of the other things that.
Speaker A:Not necessarily just hyper focus, but this like roller coaster of energy and then needing downtime is especially if you are somebody in launch mode, right?
Speaker A:And I learned early on several years ago that I do not enjoy being in launch mode at all.
Speaker A:Be for this reason, for this exact reason is that it requires so much energy and then I shut down, like I cannot do another thing.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:But I've learned this about myself and so you can kind of work around it.
Speaker A:And part of the problem, one of the other things, like I was out of town last week, but I came home on Saturday specifically instead of Sunday because I wanted that dime because I knew I was going to be like in shutdown mode after three days of being in person speaking and peopling and all the things, right?
Speaker A:And so I kind of buffer in those downtime, those down days.
Speaker A:And that's one of the workarounds that I'm going to give you here in a minute is like just making sure that you.
Speaker A:Again, awareness is key to all of these things, right?
Speaker A:Like, for anybody listening, like the biggest thing that you can do is just become aware of it, right?
Speaker A:Just even having this awareness about yourself makes such a massive difference in just being like, you know what?
Speaker A:I get it.
Speaker A:I really banged out a ton of last night.
Speaker A:I worked really hard, I worked really late.
Speaker A:It's no wonder that I'm low energy today.
Speaker A:So don't try to like push through it, work with it, right?
Speaker A:And you don't necessarily.
Speaker A:Because it's not that you're unreliable, it's not that you're lazy, it's not that you're any of those things.
Speaker A:But I definitely sometimes feel like, man, I just can't get myself motivated today.
Speaker A:Or I'm just feeling super lazy.
Speaker A:Like I just want to sit here and couch rot all day.
Speaker A:It's really not laziness.
Speaker A:It's your body screaming and saying, like, we need a reboot, we need, need a time to reset.
Speaker A:Like you just expended a ton of energy and focus and that's exhausting to ADHD brain.
Speaker A:So you are literally not.
Speaker A:It's not lazy, it's exhaustion and your body is screaming that at you.
Speaker A:So you need to be willing to hear it and aware of it enough to listen to it, right?
Speaker A:Don't create all this judgment and frustration and you know, shame of like, why can't I just be consistent, right?
Speaker A:I mean there's so many factors that play a role into that and some people are just really, really great being consistent, others aren't.
Speaker A:I mean there's a lot of factors whether you're ADHD or not.
Speaker A:There's just other things that play a role into this.
Speaker A:But this hyper focus and distraction or hyper focus and then these lows that is, you know, typical for neuro.
Speaker A:Neurodivergent community, right?
Speaker A:So a couple workarounds is energy mapping, right?
Speaker A:So tracking your peak times, right?
Speaker A:So if you know for a fact that you are, you can get into that hyper focus mode late at night and you know this, then don't schedule things first thing in the morning, right?
Speaker A:Just give yourself the mornings off.
Speaker A:Like it's okay if you don't have a scheduled a call at 8 or 9 in the morning.
Speaker A:Like, trust me, the world will wait.
Speaker A:It's not that important.
Speaker A:Like if you know you are typically on Tuesdays because your husband goes to play cards or whatever.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Like you know that those nights because you're home alone, you can get massive focus and get a ton done, then just give yourself the grace the next morning to not feel like you got to schedule a million things all at once in first thing in the morning, right?
Speaker A:Like map and track those peak times of when you can get hyper focused.
Speaker A:I know for me typically too it's if I cut out my distractions, I turn off my text messages, I turn off my notifications, I pause my inbox, which by the way, if you're not using inbox, pause you highly.
Speaker A:You really should.
Speaker A:It's a Gmail plugin.
Speaker A:But you know, if, if I do all those things, my peak times truly are after lunch.
Speaker A:Like 12 to 4 is I can be so insanely productive.
Speaker A:But from like 8 to 10 noon, not my best time.
Speaker A:Really truly not.
Speaker A:I usually if I have a call or something like that.
Speaker A: now I'm recording this, it's: Speaker A:Because if I would have tried to sit down and record these podcast episodes first thing this morning, first of all, they would not have really, they probably would have been all over the place.
Speaker A:I would not have felt good about them and I would have had to restart and you know, record a million times.
Speaker A:It's just because my energy is just not there, right?
Speaker A:So I know my peak energy time is typically from.
Speaker A:So if I really want to get something done or I have to really work on a big project, do I plan for 12 to 4.
Speaker A:But I give myself the whole day because in the morning I need that time to kind of reset, get my brain right, get my, my head in the game, do all the other things, do the distracting things, clean the kitchen, take the dog for a walk, whatever it is, right?
Speaker A:You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker A:We do these other things.
Speaker A:But then when I sit down, I know I can get super hyper focused, right?
Speaker A:So track those peak times.
Speaker A:And if you know it's at late at night, that's another one.
Speaker A:There's also times where I will not come into my office, especially on Sunday nights.
Speaker A:I do not like coming into my office on Sunday nights because this is what happens is that I can get hyperfocused, I can get insanely productive, which is a wonderful thing.
Speaker A:But then I also sleep, like, and it just throws my whole week off.
Speaker A:So there's, you know, there's a pro and con to that.
Speaker A:And so you have to just be mindful of it.
Speaker A:Also, again, it keeps me up all night, like, thinking, and so I don't typically like to do that.
Speaker A:So now a lot of times what I will do is I will just brain dump everything I'm thinking about that needs to be done or I want to work on for the week into an email and send it to myself.
Speaker A:So it's sitting in my inbox first thing Monday morning.
Speaker A:But it's like out of sight, out of mind, out of my head.
Speaker A:But I'm also not sitting at my computer where I can actually do the thing.
Speaker A:And that really helps a lot.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And then we talked about this a little bit too, is like batching your tasks during those focus peak times, right?
Speaker A:So if you know that you get really focused in the morning or first thing in the morning.
Speaker A:I was talking with my roomie last week at that conference and she was saying, like, she wakes up, her body just wakes up at six hours of sleep and she just doesn't usually get out of bed.
Speaker A:But she was thinking, like, I wonder what would happen if I get out of bed at like that four in the morning if I could be like majorly hyper focused from like 4 to 8.
Speaker A:And then just maybe after everybody's up and move in, husband's gone to work, whatever, I just kind of lay back down, maybe get in another little, you know, power nap or whatever.
Speaker A:But she also said, like, I'd much rather.
Speaker A:I know for a fact that like, I do better when I take a nap during the day and then I can get more work done.
Speaker A:So again, like I think it's just really understanding, like, what are those windows that, you know, you can really get focused work done and what, you know, make sure that you've got your tasks batched and ready to go so that you can get hyper focused on them and give yourself like bumper rails, you know, like in bumper bowling, you know, like so your ball can't go off the rails.
Speaker A:Like put guardrails up.
Speaker A:You've got to turn off the distractions.
Speaker A:If you don't, if you do want to kind of ride this wave and get things done, but also just get it done in a way that you don't end up getting like so sucked in that you're just there for hours and hours and hours and hours, right?
Speaker A:Like, plan something at 5 o' clock if you know, you got to do dinner, go pick up the kids or whatever it is, right?
Speaker A:And I know that that can be really hard too.
Speaker A:Breaking that hyper focus mode when you're in it can be very hard because then you know for a fact.
Speaker A:And that's part of the problem, why a lot of neurodivergent business owners don't like to break that hyperfocus because they know the next day, or maybe they don't know the reason for it is that, like, once you break that hyperfocus, it's hard to get back.
Speaker A:And it's not hard to get back when you plan for it, right?
Speaker A:Like, if you just know for a fact that you've been hyperfocused and then next day you just plan for that downtime, then you're not, you're not pushing, you're not really creating that frustration and that shame around like, oh my gosh, I should be getting back into that mode.
Speaker A:No, you're not.
Speaker A:You don't need to.
Speaker A:Right Again.
Speaker A:But coming back to launch mode, this is what I'm talking about.
Speaker A:Building and recovering, like recovery time instead of fighting the crash.
Speaker A:So I had a client a couple months ago who was launching a workshop that was leading into a new offer of hers.
Speaker A:And she was hell bent.
Speaker A:And she was like, I'm gonna promote this thing and I'm gonna promote it, promote it.
Speaker A:And we had talked about promotion and how, like, if you're not sick of hearing yourself talk and promote yourself, then you haven't promoted it enough.
Speaker A:And so she was like, really in that mode of just promotion, promotion, promotion, promotion.
Speaker A:She got it done, she did the workshop.
Speaker A:But then a couple things like her body actually got physically sick.
Speaker A:Which there's, there's a lot to that.
Speaker A:There's more around that.
Speaker A:But there was just this crash, right?
Speaker A:The energy crash.
Speaker A:Like the following week, she couldn't get anything done, nothing done.
Speaker A:And she was just burnout.
Speaker A:She was done.
Speaker A:Her energy was zapped because she was so hyper focused on this promotion and she met her goals and she did her thing and she got everything that she wanted to do.
Speaker A:But what she didn't plan for was the crash, right?
Speaker A:And so then she was kind of tied to some client deadlines that she missed and they were late because she was zapped or whatever.
Speaker A:So what we talked about and what I'm telling you right now is a workaround is you've got to build in that recovery time.
Speaker A:Instead of fighting the crash and trying to push through the crash, just build in the crash.
Speaker A:So I was talking to her and saying, like, if you're going to launch this again and you launch, let's say you do the workshop on a Wednesday or Thursday, like that Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, even Tuesday probably.
Speaker A:Like, just don't plan on doing anything.
Speaker A:Just build that time in.
Speaker A:I have my retreat coming up and then I also have biz planning week coming up.
Speaker A:And I know now that, like, after those two events, I need significant downtime, at least a day or two, just because they're high energy, high focus, big, demanding, you know, weeks for me from a just mindset, personal everything, right?
Speaker A:Like, of just client.
Speaker A:And I love it.
Speaker A:And then while I'm in it, I'm so focused on it, you can't.
Speaker A:You can't break my focus on it.
Speaker A:It's just, I'm there and I'm all in.
Speaker A:But I used to fight the crash and have a bunch of calls the following week.
Speaker A:And it's like, no, I've already blocked off my calendar.
Speaker A:Nobody's getting on my schedule, like, because I just want to go sit on the couch.
Speaker A:And I'm not going to freaking feel guilty about that.
Speaker A:And there's too many people make people feel guilty for sitting on the couch, watching Netflix or reading a book or doing whatever.
Speaker A:Like, and I just say, f that screw this, this is enough.
Speaker A:Is enough with this, like, guilt and shame around it.
Speaker A:Like, if somebody else doesn't like watching Netflix, go do that's fine for them.
Speaker A:But like, if you like watching Netflix or playing Fortnite or whatever it is, reading a book or going for a million walks, like, I don't give a shit what it is.
Speaker A:But, like, just build in your recovery time, right?
Speaker A:Build in your recovery time and don't feel bad about it.
Speaker A:Because when you build the recovery time in you will then be able to get back back into that hyper focus mode much quicker.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So I don't know if you listen to the episode on time blindness.
Speaker A:I was giving the example of my client with her website project and how we said like it's going to take you more than four hours, so we're going to plan on eight.
Speaker A:But also then like she kind of got into this stage of like hyper focus exhaustion.
Speaker A:Hyper focus exhaustion.
Speaker A:So we were like.
Speaker A:And then I said schedule two days for it and then schedule a day with nothing.
Speaker A:Because one of three things is going to happen is one, it's going to take you longer than you think.
Speaker A:Two, you're going to procrastinate on it because demand avoidance is going to kick in, which we've already talked about.
Speaker A:Demand avoidance, Right.
Speaker A:Or three, you're going to get so hyper focused on it you're going to need the downtime.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So scheduling in that extra day of no calls was simply it's just there and working with your brain.
Speaker A:And then if all three, like let's say demand avoidance didn't kick in, she didn't feel like she had an energy crash.
Speaker A:Well now you have an entire day to do something different.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And get hyper focused on a new project.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But you've got the time and space built into your calendar.
Speaker A:So at the end of the day it's a win win for all the way around.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So you've got to really think about this and start tracking and measuring this and watching your energy.
Speaker A:For those you know, we.
Speaker A:I brought in and did a guest expert spot inside of FVA with somebody who's very into cycle seeking.
Speaker A:Whether you're menopausal, perimenopausal or still menstruating.
Speaker A:Like there's a lot with cycle syncing of like tracking your energy and not working through your energy like there, that is a big thing too.
Speaker A:So if you feel like your energy is kind of flowing like certain days of the month, there's times during the month obviously.
Speaker A:I know for me like around different moons I always, I was tracking this for quite a while because I went into, you know, menopause and so you're your cycle, then you really want to work with the moon.
Speaker A:And I always found like day 18 of the moon cycle, I was just like super low energy, not at my best self, really struggled.
Speaker A:And so I just started like taking that week off with no calls and just giving myself the grace.
Speaker A:And so there's so many things that you can do to Work with this, okay?
Speaker A:But you can't work with it if you don't track it, right?
Speaker A:That's with anything in business, right?
Speaker A:Whether that's energy or anything that you're trying to get results on, you can't change it if you don't know what you're working with.
Speaker A:So you've got to start tracking things so that you can work with them.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:Because sustainable, sustainable key, not, not just scalable.
Speaker A:Sustainable growth requires energy stability, not burnout cycles, right?
Speaker A:You don't want to be running in these burnout cycles over and over and over again.
Speaker A:It will, it will create, you know, not a sustainable business.
Speaker A:It's going to affect your profitability, it'll affect your scalability, it'll affect your clients.
Speaker A:There's just a lot of things, right?
Speaker A:So again, all about working with your energy, not against it, and being mindful of that hyper focus, right?
Speaker A:So even if you catch yourself in a day where you're like, didn't expect to get hyper focused, but you just got in the zone when you end your day or whatever that period of hyper focus ends, take a look at your calendar and think, like, what can I do to really try to accommodate for this tomorrow?
Speaker A:Because you will have that energy crash.
Speaker A:You can push through it for a while.
Speaker A:I've seen people push through it because it's.
Speaker A:Sometimes we have to, right?
Speaker A:We can't always like change our schedules, but at some point you need it.
Speaker A:I'm looking at my calendar right now.
Speaker A:So again, I came off of a busy week.
Speaker A:I was out of town last week and I'm.
Speaker A:I really didn't schedule in a ton of downtime.
Speaker A:I had today as an admin day to get caught up.
Speaker A:But like, the next two days are back to back with calls.
Speaker A:I mean, like back to back with calls.
Speaker A:And so what I did though is on Thursday I saw that I had a window, a block of time, several blocks of time where I didn't have any calls and it was open.
Speaker A:And not that I was handing out my call link, but just for my own protection, I went in and blocked it off so that nobody could book it.
Speaker A:Because I know I'm going to need that time.
Speaker A:Even if I do nothing with it, even if I go take Piper for a walk, I'm going to need some time to catch up because my freaking week is balls to the wall, right?
Speaker A:And so I'm going to have that energy zap.
Speaker A:I definitely am going to have that energy zap.
Speaker A:So fill in, fill in.
Speaker A:Like, this is where calendar management Plays a huge role, right?
Speaker A:If you're feeling it already of like, man, this is a busy week.
Speaker A:I'm going to be feeling this like.
Speaker A:And you got time available this week and or next week, go block it off, right?
Speaker A:The world is not going to fall down because you blocked off two hours on your calendar.
Speaker A:This is part of the problem is this people.
Speaker A:You know, there's this, like, this perfectionism.
Speaker A:It's not people pleasing.
Speaker A:I was going to say people pleasing, but I do think it's.
Speaker A:It's not people pleasing.
Speaker A:We talked about this in another episode, but it's more of this feeling like you have to be available all the time, right?
Speaker A:That's where there's some rejection.
Speaker A:Sensitivity comes in and we feel like we're going to miss out.
Speaker A:There's fomo or we feel like our clients are going to move to somebody else if we're not available immediately.
Speaker A:In the reality is that just doesn't happen.
Speaker A:And if it does, then they're really not that great of a client, right?
Speaker A:So just be mindful of your calendar, right?
Speaker A:You're in control of that.
Speaker A:You get to block it off.
Speaker A:You get to pick and choose when people can get on it.
Speaker A:So be mindful of that.
Speaker A:Especially if you struggle with this hyper focus and distraction and then energy zaps and all of that, your calendar is going to be your best friend or your worst enemy, and it's on you to make it your best friend.
Speaker A:Nobody else, right?
Speaker A:Nobody else's job.
Speaker A:You're the only one that can control this.
Speaker A:You're the only one that knows your energy cycles.
Speaker A:Nobody else does.
Speaker A:Nobody else can do this for you, okay?
Speaker A:So be aware of it.
Speaker A:Map your energy, track those peak times and build in that recovery time.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:I love you.
Speaker A:I believe in you and I'll talk to you soon.
