🎙️ Unapologetically Imperfect – Functioning-ish

S2, Ep 2 (9) - ADHD: Building Systems Around Your Capacity

Segment: Functioning-ish

Seasonal Arc: Summer – Expansion

Theme: System Design for Real Life Capacity

🔗 Links & Resources

Join The Balanced Life Lab — private community for brain-based, body-aware systems that actually work.

💥 Episode Summary

Your planner doesn’t know your hormones. Your calendar doesn’t account for crash days. And your rigid routine? It only works on fantasy-you, not real-you. In this Functioning-ish deep dive, Jen breaks down how to actually build systems that hold when your brain doesn’t—by designing around your energy, attention, and nervous system capacity.

She shares the behind-the-scenes of how launching this podcast taught her to flex, pause, and recalibrate—on purpose. Then she walks you through practical strategies like MVP Menus, energy mapping, 70% capacity design, and shame-free backup plans.

This isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing it smarter. Flexible structure is the strategy.

🧠 What You’ll Learn

• Why your calendar is lying to you (and how to fix it)
• How to design your day around energy, not just tasks
• What MVP Menus are—and why they’re ADHD gold
• The power of built-in recovery time (and how to use it)
• How to plan at 70% capacity (not 110%)
• What to do when your day goes sideways (without shame)

🔧 Tools & Frameworks Mentioned

• MVP Menus (Minimum Viable Productivity for low, mid, and high energy days)
• Energy Mapping (Use your natural peaks to drive your day)
• Plan B Systems (Design for the off days—not just your ideal ones)
• Capacity-Based Planning (Structure that bends, not breaks)

🌀 Season Note

Season 2 is a 5-week bridge: Summer – Expansion. We're syncing up post-chaos, pre-routine with tools that help you expand without exploding. It’s about designing systems that actually work when your hormones don’t.

🔗 Links & Resources

• 💬 Join The Balanced Life Lab – Jen’s private coaching and support community for high-functioning women navigating ADHD, perimenopause, and not-enough-hours-in-the-day syndrome. Check it out here
• 🎧 Share the love: If this episode hit home, share it with someone who needs it. Or leave a review—it makes a difference.

👋 Stay Connected

Follow the podcast to get new episodes every Monday and Thursday.

Monday = Hormone Headlines

Thursday = Functioning-ish

Because the systems that work are the ones that flex with your real life.

You don’t need perfect. You need possible.