ADHD meds, sh*tty art, and to niche or not to niche?
Field Notes: 007
Welcome to The Slow Lane ☁️ Every Monday, I send out field notes from the trenches — a candid peek into how I’m balancing creativity, business strategy, and the chaos of an ADHD brain while building an Internet business.
🗒️ Top of Mind
A front-page report from my world — what I’m testing, tweaking, and totally overthinking
To niche or not to niche?
The idea of “finding your niche” has seriously messed with a lot of creative people’s heads, so let me step up on my soapbox for a second:
Niching is a business strategy. If you’re selling a product or service, yes, you need to know your market and who you’re serving.
But if you’re a multi-hyphenate creative trying to carve out your little corner of the internet… you don’t need a niche. What you’re craving is a personal brand — and no, they’re not the same thing.
A niche is planned. It’s about targeting and you have to get specific. But a personal brand is something that emerges over time. If you try to plan it from the jump, you’ll probably feel boxed in or like you’re “not allowed” to talk about certain aspects of your life. That’s because you’re treating yourself like a business — not a human.
Your personal brand is the byproduct of you showing up consistently and sharing what feels real, interesting, and relevant right now. Yes, it might feel chaotic or random at first. Remember that you can’t read the label from inside the jar, but other people can. Your audience will start to see the through-line of your work, even if you can’t yet. Trust.
The dots only connect in hindsight — stop trying to plan them all in advance.
A case to make more shitty art
In an attempt to defy my perfectionism, I gave myself one goal: make more shitty things. Draw shitty doodles, write shitty sentences — anything that felt fun, low-stakes, and free from pressure. AND WOW. I knew it would make some kind of difference in my life, but it happened faster than I thought.
On Tuesday, I came home with a Jimmy John’s sandwich and couldn’t stomach another dinner of doomscrolling. So I ripped open the paper bag, spread out my makeshift canvas, and started doodling while I ate.
Then I proceeded to have the best Wednesday I’d had in a long time.
The effect was undeniable enough that I moved my art supplies to the kitchen table and started drawing in the evenings while watching TV with my partner — instead of half-paying attention while glued to my phone, I made more shitty art.
I swear, after just one week, I feel less anxious, more creative, and I’m actually having fun making stuff again. God, it feels good.
A love letter to my Vyvanse
After 30 years of raw-dogging life with an AuDHD brain, I was finally prescribed ADHD meds (Vyvanse, specifically) — and I’ve been taking them daily for the last 5 months. Every time I walk out of the pharmacy with my little bottle of magic, I feel overwhelmed with gratitude that I live in a time and place where this kind of support is possible. That’s how much of a difference it makes.
I knew it helped with staying locked in on tasks. What I didn’t realize was how much it helped with emotional regulation and task initiation — until I went a weekend without it.
It snapped me right back to the height of my burnout: lying on the couch, desperate to get up and do something, but completely lacking the executive function to follow through. Then I’d scroll Instagram, see other people doing cool shit, and spiral into shame for not being able to do the same.
I know medication isn’t the right or available option for everyone. But I only got curious about diagnosis because I kept seeing people talk about how life-changing it was. So here I am, saying it too — just in case it reaches one person.
🍿 Media Worth Mentioning
A roundup of books, shows, podcasts, and anything else that stuck with me
The Telepathy Tapes
After venting on my Close Friends stories about the current events in the US regarding autism, I was recommended this podcast that explores the profound abilities (like telepathy) that some nonverbal autistic people have.
I’m only a couple episodes in and haven’t done much research beyond what I’m hearing on the podcast, but I’ll say: It’s nice to listen to media that doesn’t infantilize or attempt to speak for autistic people.
The Last of Us (S2E2)
I mean… this is a spoiler free zone, but let’s just say this EPISODE 2 felt more like a damn SEASON FINALE. I went in thinking it’d be another setup episode, then my jaw ended up in my lap.
I’ve been pretty disgruntled about the epidemic of hollow action movies, sequels nobody asked for, and remakes of remakes, BUT at least I’ve been able to count on HBO Max, Netflix, and Apple TV to put out absolute masterpieces in the form of shows.
I may have only seen 2 good movies in the last few years, but at least I have House of the Dragon, You, Black Mirror, Severance, and The Last of Us.
007: Everything or Nothing
I’m becoming increasingly intolerant of rotting into the couch in front of the TV every night, so we recently dusted off our PlayStation 2 and popped in this James Bond game that, weirdly enough, was released on my 10th birthday.
It might only have a tenth of the pixels my beloved PS5 Spiderman game has, but playing a cooperative game with my partner is always a good time.
Also WHAT a coincidence that the subtitle of this post is Field Notes: 007 hehehe
Currently Reading:
Malibu Rising (Taylor Jenkins Reid)
When I’m stressed, anxious, or creatively stuck, my Kindle gathers dust — which explains the month-long reading drought. My goal is 25 books this year, so I didn’t want to let April slip by without logging one.
I picked up Malibu Rising after a few recs from people who know my taste via IG story book reviews… so hopefully by next week, I can report that this TJR book is my 7th completed book of the year!
🎬 Behind the Screens
Updates from the universe — wins, flops, and all the experiments in between
I’m making a change!
This is the 7th issue of these field notes, and I’m usually feeling drained after writing the first two segments, so by the time I get to this one…
Since I want these field notes to feel easy and this section is the source of some big resistance, I’m going to collapse this in with the first segment starting next week :)
The good news is that we upload a Behind the Screens carousel to our Instagram every Friday afternoon, so everything I wanted to talk about is already captured in this post:
🌀 Clicks & Curiosities
Little corners of the internet I got lost in this week
Leslie Odom Jr. is REJOINING THE BROADWAY CAST OF HAMILTON FOR 12 WEEKS THIS FALL!!!!!!!!!!! What I would give to be there. Oh my god. Oh my god.
I love delightful shit like this
This clip of the ending of Wicked before all the visual effects have been added is so cool holy shit
Don’t ask me why I watched every second of this interrogation footage about a nurse who was caught injecting bleach (BLEACH!!!) into her patients……….
Thanks for reading to the end :)
You guys have been so generous with your clicks, comments, and email replies — I can’t thank you enough for being here.
I still have one beta spot available to rent my brain (which I touched on in last week’s notes), so my DMs are open if you want to chat about working together :)
Take it easy,
MJ :)
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The “Make shitty art” advice is SO relevant to me right now. Nothing needs to be perfect!! Adults need to play, too!!
Brb adding the nurse video to my youtube queue for tn