About this episode

William Cerdelli discusses the balance between planning and doing work, particularly for those with ADHD, and shares insights from his experience building an AI desk companion.

Is planning becoming a distraction? William Cerdelli spent years building productivity systems, tweaking workflows, and optimizing how he worked, only to realize that sometimes the excitement of building the system was greater than actually doing the work. In this episode, we explore ADHD self-awareness, productivity traps, hyperfocus, energy management, startup building, and the lessons William learned while creating Stu, a physical AI desk companion designed to help people with executive dysfunction stay on track. William Cerdelli is the co-founder of Hey Stu, an AI-powered desk companion designed to help people with ADHD manage executive dysfunction, focus, and productivity. Originally from Italy, William transitioned from a career in data science to full-time startup building after seeing strong demand for Stu, which sold out its first production run and quickly attracted hundreds of pre-orders. Episode Highlights 00:09:07 — When planning becomes more exciting than doing William describes a pattern many ADHD people recognize: spending hours designing productivity systems instead of completing the actual work. Learning to recognize when optimization becomes avoidance helped…

People in this episode

Host: Jeremy Nagel

Guest: William Cerdelli

Topics covered

• ADHD
• productivity
• self-awareness
• energy management
• startup building
• executive dysfunction

Keywords

• ADHD
• productivity systems
• hyperfocus
• energy management
• executive dysfunction
• startup
• Hey Stu

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Hey Stu

Products: Stu

Places: Italy

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