ADHD Avoidance-5 Days Wasted on “Perfect” Systems While My REAL Business Burned

From the Dopamine to Dollar BTS series #Week2 – the messy truth about ADHD entrepreneurs and why we avoid what actually matters. Read #Week 1 Here.

ADHD avoidance is a sneaky beast, and this week it got me good.

It started with a perfectly reasonable thought on Tuesday evening: “You know what would make my weekly blog posts more interesting? A comic strip.”

That innocent spark somehow turned into building an entire fantasy kingdom with AI assistants, four different character archetypes, and approximately 47 different image generation apps.

Let me walk you through exactly how ADHD hyperfocus works – because I lived it in glorious, chaotic detail.

The Simple Idea That Spiraled Out of Control

I’ve been writing these weekly behind-the-scenes newsletters for a week now. They’re honest, they’re helpful, and people seem to connect with them.

But my ADHD brain heard “weekly newsletter” and immediately thought: “This is the perfect time to revolutionize how we tell stories about ADHD entrepreneurship.”

Classic ADHD hyperfocus move #1: When you have something that’s working, completely reinvent it into something infinitely more complex.

Instead of just adding some simple illustrations, I decided to create an entire comic universe where I’m Queen Hema of the Pandya Kingdom, and each of my businesses is a different city in my realm.

The “Perfect” Comic System That Broke Everything

Here’s what I built :

Characters

Characters that represent my ADHD patterns: Dopamine as the court jester, Logic as the royal advisor, Experience as the wise oracle, Inner Critic as the court dragon

Kingdom Map

An entire visual brand: Complete with consistent character designs, kingdom maps, and episodic storylines.

A weekly comic strip format

A weekly comic strip format: That would automatically turn my business struggles into entertaining, relatable stories.

(The above comic strip is based on my Week 1 blog post)

I spent hours with Claude and ChatGPT crafting this elaborate world. We created character backstories, plot arcs, even conversations between Logic and Dopamine.

The result? I registered for at least 10 different apps trying to create comic strips, and none of them worked the way I envisioned.

The images weren’t consistent. The layouts looked amateur. The whole thing felt like a disaster compared to the brilliant fantasy in my head.

This is textbook ADHD hyperfocus gone wrong: Instead of just making my newsletter more visual, I convinced myself I needed to build an entire entertainment empire – and then spent all my energy on that instead of actually writing.

But here’s where ADHD avoidance gets really twisted:

While I’m obsessing over this content system that nobody asked for, there’s a much bigger crisis happening that I’m completely ignoring.

The Real Crisis I Was Avoiding

My Facebook ads agency for My Little Moppet – the one that’s been successfully running my profitable e-commerce business for six years – just told me they’re switching to a different niche.

Six years of steady income. Six years of not having to think about ads. Gone.

I have two choices:

1. Find a new agency – which means starting over, explaining everything, and risking my main income source with strangers
2. Take ads in-house – which means relearning Facebook ads (they’ve changed completely since I last touched them), training someone on my team, and being responsible for daily monitoring

The responsible thing would be to handle this immediately. My ads are currently running unattended. Meta made some changes last week that tanked my performance, and I have no idea how to fix it.

So what am I doing instead? Creating Comic Strips that don’t work.

ADHD avoidance at its finest: When faced with a scary, important problem, find something else – anything else – to focus on instead.

When ADHD Avoidance Goes Meta: The Spiral Within the Spiral

And here’s where ADHD avoidance gets even more twisted: Instead of dealing with the Facebook ads crisis, I’m now spending hours reflecting on why I started hemapriya.com in the first place.

My Little Moppet business – the one that actually pays my bills – has an emergency. And what am I doing? Deep-diving into the psychology behind my ADHD business pivot.

This is ADHD avoidance inception: When faced with one overwhelming problem, create a completely different problem to think about instead.

The Business Pivot Rabbit Hole (While My Ads Burned Cash)

So there I was, supposedly working on comic strips, but actually spiraling into this whole analysis of my business decisions.

Why did I really start this ADHD business? Was it because I genuinely wanted to help people, or was I just running away from the pressure of client work?

Until December 2024, I had 10 one-to-one e-commerce coaching clients making great money. But I couldn’t handle the pressure of deadlines and client expectations.

January and February were limbo months where I hired coaches and therapists instead of fixing my actual business problems. Then my therapist suggested voice notes about my ADHD struggles, which became this whole new obsession.

When I shared those insights in ADHD groups, people responded amazingly. That’s when I decided to pivot to this ADHD business.

But here’s what I’m realizing now, while my ads run unmonitored: Maybe starting hemapriya.com was just another form of ADHD avoidance – a way of avoiding the hard stuff in my existing business.

And now I’m doing it again – using ADHD avoidance to dodge the Facebook ads crisis by obsessing over whether my business pivot was even the right decision.

The Numbers That Made Everything Worse

Because while I’m having this existential business crisis, the uncomfortable truth is staring at me: Since launching hemapriya.com in March, I haven’t made great sales.

Compare that to the consistent monthly income I walked away from, and you can see why ADHD avoidance feels so appealing right now.

My ADHD mind equates success with sales – that’s how I was wired from my e-commerce background. And right now, those numbers are telling me I made a huge mistake.

I keep thinking about Nathan Barry, the founder of ConvertKit. He’s literally the only person I know who built a successful business using behind-the-scenes marketing like what I’m doing. He shared his journey while building ConvertKit back in 2015, and I followed along.

One person. Out of thousands who try this approach.

Speaking of business journeys – I’ve documented every single one of my 57 business ventures (yes, really). The failures, the wins, and the patterns that finally made it all work. Want to see the complete list and learn what I discovered? Grab it free here.

Sometimes I lie awake wondering: Did I leave something that was working for something that might never work? And is this just more ADHD avoidance – avoiding the reality that maybe I made the wrong choice?

Why Perfect Systems Are ADHD Kryptonite

Here’s what I’m learning: Product businesses and personal brands require completely different systems.

My e-commerce businesses run smoothly because I built them for consistency. Same templates, same processes, same results. I can hand my team a Canva template and they can create content for months.

But personal brands need me. They need authentic connection, real vulnerability, and that’s hard to systematize when your brain craves novelty and gets bored with routine.

I’m trying to solve an impossible equation: How do you build a personal brand that doesn’t require you to personally create everything?

That’s literally the whole point of this experiment – to prove it can be done.

But ADHD avoidance whispers: “Why deal with this hard stuff when you can think about easier problems instead?”

The Moment I Caught Myself Red-Handed

Friday afternoon, I had a realization while staring at my failed content prompts:

An ADHD coach recently posted that we avoid taking action because our brain is protecting us from failure.

That’s exactly what I’m doing.

ADHD avoidance was running the show:

• Instead of dealing with the Facebook ads crisis (scary, important, real consequences), I was obsessing over content systems (controllable, contained, safe to fail at)
• Instead of just posting authentically like I used to, I was trying to build the perfect system because if the system fails, it’s not really me failing
• Instead of facing the possibility that my business pivot was wrong, I was analyzing why I made it in the first place

My brain was keeping me busy with problems I could solve so I don’t have to face the ones that actually matter.

Classic ADHD avoidance strategy.

What 5 Days of Spinning My Wheels Actually Taught Me

I’ve spent five days learning something I could have figured out in five minutes:

ADHD brains don’t need perfect systems. We need to recognize when ADHD avoidance is driving our decisions.

We have seasons of intense focus followed by seasons of recovery. We need systems that work with that rhythm, not against it.

But more importantly, we need to catch ourselves when ADHD avoidance is keeping us from dealing with what actually matters.

Instead of building one master system, maybe I need multiple simple systems I can rotate between based on my energy and interest levels – and the awareness to know when I’m avoiding the real work.

My Stop-the-Madness Action Plan

Here’s what I’m actually going to do to break the ADHD avoidance cycle:

This week:

• Stop building the “perfect” comic strip, or stop this whole directio,n as I find it so silly now (ADHD avoidance disguised as productivity)
• Deal with the Facebook ads situation (even though it’s scary and that’s why ADHD avoidance wants me to avoid it)

Going forward:

• Accept that some weeks will be hyperfocus breakthroughs
• Accept that other weeks will be ADHD avoidance weeks like this one
• Build systems that can handle both – and catch myself when avoidance is driving my choices

The bigger picture:

• Remember this is all an experiment
• Trust that sharing the messy truth about ADHD avoidance is valuable even when it doesn’t feel productive
• Stop comparing my behind-the-scenes reality to everyone else’s highlight reel
• Recognize ADHD avoidance patterns before they take over my entire week

The Real Experiment: Building When Your Brain Wants to Hide

This isn’t really about proving that building a business with ADHD is easy.

It’s about proving we can build businesses that work with our brains instead of against them – even when ADHD avoidance tries to derail us.

Even when we’re confused.

Even when we’re avoiding important stuff.

Even when we’re not sure we’re doing the right thing.

Because here’s what I’m realizing: Neurotypical entrepreneurs have weeks like this too. They just don’t tell you about them. And they probably don’t have ADHD avoidance whispering in their ear quite as loudly.

We do. And maybe that honesty – that willingness to show how ADHD avoidance actually works in real time – is exactly what other ADHD entrepreneurs need to hear.

The story isn’t over. It’s just getting real about ADHD avoidance.

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Week 3 starts Monday whether I feel ready or not. The beautiful thing about ADHD is that next week might bring the hyperfocus breakthrough that changes everything. Or it might bring more ADHD avoidance. Either way, I’ll be here, calling it out and figuring it out one honest step at a time.

Will I finally deal with the Facebook ads crisis?

Will I really build a comic book?

Or did I find a completely new way to avoid both?

Honestly? Even I don’t know yet.

But you’ll get the real story in next week’s newsletter – the messy, unfiltered truth about what an ADHD brain does when it’s backed into a corner.

What does your ADHD avoidance look like? The perfectionism paralysis? The creating new problems to avoid old ones? The questioning everything instead of taking action? Hit reply and tell me. Sometimes the best thing we can do is remind each other what ADHD avoidance actually looks like – so we can catch it before it takes over.

P.S. Yes, I see the irony of writing about ADHD avoidance while literally using content creation to avoid dealing with my Facebook ads crisis. But maybe that’s the point – we build the plane while we’re flying it, and sometimes we need to call out our own ADHD avoidance to break the cycle.

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