Tapping into the power of the different ways we tick

Natasya Jones had personal motivations for launching DivergenThinking in early 2020 with co-founder and psychologist Anton Ashcroft.

The startup works with organisations to help them better understand and harness the benefits of neurodiversity in their teams through individual and group education programmes, training and an accreditation scheme allowing workplaces to gain a neurodiversity tick.

Jones has a son who is ADHD Autistic and her journey to gaining diagnosis and support for him spurred her to create a better future for him, and others. “I'm really hopeful – the fact that we're working with large corporates who are getting it [neurodiversity]. I hope that one day he can get a job for an organisation where, with the way things are going, they’ll ‘get’ him.”

The business fosters the idea of neurodiversity ‘with a little n’ – that we all think differently from each other, and better understanding how we and our colleagues think can help us collectively be more productive, innovative and happy, she says.

Jones has a background in corporate learning and development and herself was diagnosed in early 2020 as ADHD with dyslexic traits. She says accessing knowledge and expertise while developing the startup’s products and services has also benefited her own mental health and wellbeing.

“We create programmes that help me and then they help others,” she says. “I'm so focused on the business – it's so important to me – and being a startup, I can do silly long hours … but I'm lucky to be doing something that I love and is important at its core.”

Here Jones shares some other things she does to keep fighting fit for startup life.

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Burning energy

Exercise is a really big one for me. I've always done sport and exercised … Later in life, I joke about it being for sanity and vanity. I love to eat what I like to eat and I still like to fit my clothes, so that's part of what motivates me.

At the moment I've been running a few days a week. It's a great way of burning energy. And it's funny because people go, ‘do you do it to just zone out?’ But no – I listen to audiobooks or music because I don't like thinking about running. As soon as I start sweating, I'm like, ‘oh, I can stop now’, so I do whatever I can to keep myself distracted. I have a free running app so I can check if I'm doing okay or if I'm too slow and I follow my route. I'm an absolute creature of habit.

I've also set up a little home gym with my sons so that we can burn energy and just get a little bit stronger. We've got a boxing bag and gloves, a range of weights and we bought a weight bench, which my boys were so excited about.

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Friends and founders

Catching up with my friends and staying connected is important because I do work from home a lot. The lovely thing about having my own business is, if I don't have meetings, sometimes I will pop out and catch up with a girlfriend for lunch. I've got that flexibility, which is actually cool.

Then it’s connecting with people we've worked with so far on the journey and also through Cultivate. So, one of the directors of Cultivate is great at networking and bringing people together, and there were about a dozen of us that they invited to an event about three months ago – all people with passions and businesses about driving good change – who they wanted to connect. And that was brilliant. That's actually evolved to me coming into their office on Tuesdays, and I’ve just had a coffee now with someone who I met from that group.

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Supporting structure

When I worked in the corporate space, I used to get to work around seven and because it was quiet I could chunk through a whole lot of work and be really productive. At that time I really didn't realise why I did that, but I’m now aware I've always tended to block out my diary in the morning because that's what I'm most productive and focused. Then by lunchtime I’m ready to do my meetings.

Tools are important to give me structure with my time. With ADHD, my calendar is my bible. Any meeting I usually try to put in my schedule half an hour earlier so I can do prep or if I need to travel. I also attach any relevant notes because otherwise I would struggle to find it in my inbox, and I also use my phone alarm a lot. I have lots of structures in place because I am time blind and when I'm into something I love, I just lose track.

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Sleep hygiene

When we went through my son being diagnosed – or trying to get there – I ended up with depression myself, trying to work it out and get support. I lost about 10kg, and I ended up going to a sleep expert, so I now have quite good sleep hygiene.

I like to have a shower around 6.30pm to wash off the day and relax. I love watching a bit of rubbish TV; my younger son and I lay on the couch last night and had cuddles watching a programme that we both liked. And I listen to a [guided] meditation every night; [the meditation guide] is literally telling you to relax through the body because otherwise my brain kicks in and that's the only way I can do it, and that goes on repeat. I also take melatonin every night – sleep is a huge one for me.

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Noticing the little things

We have international students staying with us, so we try and make sure that a couple of nights a week, we'll sit at the table and play Jenga and talk. And we're always very structured with having dinner together and I love to ask ‘so what was the best part about your day?’ A couple of times recently I've been late to the table and my eldest child has asked the student ‘so how's your day going? And I'm like, ‘yes! You got this.’

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‍As told to Caitlin Sykes

‍‘How I keep well’ highlights what individual founders do to keep themselves mentally and physically in the right shape to deal with the demands of startup life. If you know someone with wellness insights to share, email caitlin@caffeinedaily.co