Balancing Work and Conference Attendance as an ADHD Introvert

This week I'm going to a conference and speaking at it. And well, I'm nervous.

First, because this is the first event like this that I'm attending since I've been an entrepreneur (yes it's been 7ish years). And second, as a speaker, I'm invited to some of the behind closed doors events where I'll be rubbing shoulders with corporate folks, some of whom will indubitably be very into capitalism, and all of whom probably work a lot harder than I do on given day.

The third reason I'm nervous is because I'm doing a lot of hard, but necessary work in my business right now and socializing with people is extremely disruptive to my work flow. I also find people exhausting and generally prefer to be at home reading a book.

So once I got over the freeze response of "holy shit I'm going to a tech conference and speaking at an event as part of it and invited to fancy happy hours and brunches with fancy career people," I started to realize I need a plan to get through the week and feel accomplished.

And since this blog is where I document my experiments with cadences as an entrepreneur, I thought it'd be good to write out the plan here and then report back with how it goes in a week or two.

This article will cover:

• My goals for the week
• My energy management plan
• How I'm getting ahead of the logistics.

Big Week, Lofty Goals.

Alright, so the first thing I do every week on Sunday or Monday is think about what I need to accomplish, what I want to accomplish, and what needs to happen for those things to be true.

Need to Accomplish List

Most of the stuff I need to accomplish this week is directly tied to my business. My #1 priority is finishing my new improved sales pages for my signature offer lowercase legal. That is number 1 because I want to sell 10 more lifetime memberships before the end of the year and the current sales page does not have the conversion rates to pull that off.

My second and third priorities are selling heavily discounted 1:1 sessions for my new lead-in offer and scheduling some additional customer research interviews. This is all part of building out my 2026 and beyond offer suite and a big theme for my Q4 is customer obsession.

There are 3 customer research interviews I need to do with ideal clients and 4 discounted sessions I need to do to build the lead in offer the way I want to. Not all of these need to be booked this week, but it'd be nice to get them off of my to do list to continue my current forward progress. Not to mention, they'd be helpful financially.

Want to Accomplish List

Then there are the things I want to accomplish. I've got two.

So the odd thing about my work experience is that I've worked with a lot of different kinds of businesses. That means that even though my day-to-day focuses on legal and business strategy for corporate consultants, I still have a solid audience of tech founders from my time as counsel for startups.

I've been genuinely trying to figure out how to get paid to be a legal strategist/consultant for early stage startups since I officially moved back to the East Coast a couple years ago. So my biggest want of the week is to meet the right people who either have or are connected to the right opportunities for me to be paid good money to work with early stage founders. Ideally, I'd love to be a part-time employee or consultant for a value-aligned venture firm or family shop that supports their portfolio companies in setting up their legal foundations.

Other than being booked to speak at an event during DC Startup and Tech Week, this is the only reason I'm going. I would really love to find something part-time where I actually put this aspect of my career to use for intentionally marginalized founders, especially black ones.

Other than that, my second "want" is that I want to close a strategic consultant proposal I sent to a nonprofit about a week ago. I'm waiting to hear back from them, but I need to make sure I have the client onboarding process ready to go for them when they respond. It's a small gig, but for a nonprofit that I absolutely love and want to see do well in their next chapter.

So if you're keeping track I have 3 needs and 2 wants for the week. Now let's get into how I'm managing my energy.

Crafting My Energy Management Plan

Let's start here: I don't like people or big crowds and the only reasons I subject myself to either are usually music and food.

And even though I aspire to be my version of a booked and busy public speaker, conferences are definitely not my favorite. I like meeting people. I'm good at networking, but I'd rather be at home or at my favorite bakery eating a pastry and reading a book because people exhaust me.

I'm committed to being in DC 3 days this week: Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday and I'm people-ing all 3 days. Here are the tried and true routines I'll be leaning into to make it through my week and honor my goals.

No Skipping Emotional Regulation

I've already checked the astrology and I know I'm going to be touchy so emotional regulation is key. That means I need to do two of these three things every morning: journal, meditate, move my body. I also need to take time to tap (EFT) every other day just to clear what's coming in each day.

Routinely checking in with my emotional state and feeling my feelings is crucial for my overall energetic capacity. If the emotions are bottled up, it throws everything off and this is not a week where that works.

Meal Prep Like My Life Depends On It

I'll be honest, I love meal prepping. I get hangry easily so having a meal ready to go is critical for me. Since I'll be on the go this week, a big part of my meal prep involves packing food: having sandwiches and snacks in my tote in case whatever food is available at the event isn't up to my standards.

Because in addition to being a meal prep queen, I am also a food snob and very particular about what I do and don't eat. I've already got a rotisserie chicken I can eat off of for the week and make easy to-go sandwiches. I have plenty of almonds, carrots, celery, and dried fruit, and cereal for easy snacks. For meals, I'm going to make a gigantic batch of lentil dal (my fave) to eat off of during the week, roast some sweet potatoes, and sauté a bunch of kale. That will be my primary Monday task along with making headway on my sales page.

Limit Screen Time to the Max

This is not a week where my brain will be able to handle excess mental clutter, which means no social media apps on my phone this week. I'll also try to turn my phone off as soon as I get home at night so I have enough time to wind down, especially on the days where I'm actually at the conference.

Take Breaks Outside

The last networking event I went to in Baltimore was located in a pretty walkable area. When I got tired of people-ing and felt a little claustrophobic, I decided to take myself on a walk instead of sitting there and enduring it. It was a great call.

This week, I'll be depending on walking breaks to reset my energy the days I'm at the conference. It will help that I'll be walking to the locations from the Metro and then have to walk back to the Metro to get home at the end of the day. But I'll do my best to take a walk midday as well to reset my energy and simply enjoy some time not talking, nodding, and smiling at people before I get back to it.

Get in Bed By 10:30pm

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but everyone who is neurodivergent knows that the quickest way to ruin your life is not to prioritize getting good rest. For me this usually means getting in bed well before 11pm so I have time to wind down. Knowing me the days of the conference, I'll be crawling into bed by 9pm crying about too much people-ing, but having a hard deadline to hold myself accountable is always a good idea.

Okay, those are my hard and fast energy management rules. The last thing to talk about is how I manage logistics.

Getting Ahead on Logistics

The bane of everyone with ADHD's existence is planning, or at least it is for me. I'd rather wing it every time. This week's logistics consist of travel, finding time and places to work, and being prepared for connections/collaborations.

Travel

When it comes to travel, I have wild anxiety, even if it is for a 30 minute train ride down the road. Since I have to take the train into DC to the Metro, I like to look up the locations of where I'm going and which Metro stations and lines are closest way ahead of time. I did this over the weekend and am pleased that I don't have to change Metro lines once I'm in the city (not a big deal, but it makes travel easier). I'm in DC often enough that I know how to make my way around, but knowing the general vicinity I'm going to makes day of travel a lot easier.

As for tickets, I already have the app on my phone and can buy tickets at a moment's notice. I'll buy the ones for Tuesday ahead of time and then go from there. My metro card is already in my wallet and I've made a note that I need to leave a little early on Tuesday in case I need to add money to the card.

The last thing I need is a good book to read on the train and a reminder to fill my water bottle and grab a snack before getting on the train each way in case there are delays and I get hungry/thirsty (most of ADHD management is honestly asking yourself toddler questions all day - are you hungry, thirsty, tired, or do you need to use the restroom, lol).

Getting Work Done

I was talking to myself earlier and literally said out loud "Unfortunately I have bad news: we're going to have to leave the house on non-DC days to get work done."

And UGHHHH am I upset about this because there is nothing I will want more than to stay home.

My current plan is to gift myself a full day at home on Wednesday since I have to speak on Thursday. That way if I'm hyperventilating with self doubt or anxiousness, I can be at home and do what I need to do to regulate. But tomorrow, my beloved Monday, I'll be heading out to my co-working space to make some headway on projects that need movement. I'm already dreading it because I love a slow Monday, but I know Thursday me will thank Monday me for pushing on Monday.

As for working during the conference, I need to go in my desk drawers and find a conference notebook to take notes in and then I need to investigate the wifi situation at each site because I may feel inspired to write or create content and I need to know where I can do that. If it's not onsite, then I'll need to know where the closest coffee shop with good pastries and tea is.

Preparing to Make Connections

A major point of going to a conference is to meet people, which means you need a way to give them your contact info.

I WAS going to print out some cute flyers with the Free Prints app, but alas, I have procrastinated too much. So now I need to figure out how I want to connect with folks. The easiest option is probably the LinkedIn App and the second option is my virtual business card. I think I'll do both so people can choose what they want, but you better believe I'm kicking myself a little for not getting the flyers together.

Conclusion

Okay, this is a very LONG post, but I wanted to document how I approach things like this for anyone else who might be neurodivergent, introverted, and/or sensitive who wants to know what it's like to plan for things like this.

Conferences can be so worth it, but they can also be extremely overwhelming and draining so knowing how you're going to make your way through it ahead of time is key.

The other key is to make sure your days/week following the conference are mellow, which mine absolutely are. I'll probably turn off my phone and go no tech for at least 24 hours next weekend to give myself a break.

After that, I'll be back with a debrief. Have a great week!