ADHD can be an indie hacking super power. Marie Poulin ($42k MRR) shares how she’s harnessing it

Indie Hacker: Marie Poulin (@mariepoulin)
Creator of: Notion Mastery (https://notionmastery.com)
MRR $42k
Zone of Genius: Teaching people how to streamline life and work with Notion

Marie Poulin is an indie hacking heroine of mine. In late 2019 she piloted her course Notion Mastery, and within two weeks she’d brought in $10k. By early 2021 over a thousand people had taken her course.

She’s gutsy and authentic, and she makes big things happen. Interviewing her was inspiring (and oftentimes very funny) and our conversation taught me so much about indie hacking with ADHD. If you’re a neurodivergent indie hacker, I think you’ll find tons of value in what she had to share. 🔥

On Indie Hacking w/ ADHD

I was actually only diagnosed with ADHD this past summer. And it explains so much. I had so much difficulty doing things the way I was told to, or the way I was “supposed" to. I’ve always wanted to do things in a better or more interesting way. I really, really struggled with full-time employment and working nine to five. It’s just not how my brain operates. But that’s what the system is designed for.

Getting to work on time was also a challenge, so I was pretty much always late. There were only a couple of jobs I managed to do well at, and I think that was because the environments were tiny and I had really close relationships with the people I was working with where they could sort of begin to understand that I do things differently, and don’t play by the rules. Where they appreciated the work I did or the kind of person I was despite some of my struggles.

At the time, I didn’t realize I was working around my ADHD. I just knew I didn’t fit into a corporate environment and that I needed something very specific to thrive. I started to think about how I could create an environment where my skills could be best leveraged.

I think a lot of indie hacking is born out of difficulty — of this feeling that you’re an outlier or that you don’t fit in. So you start tinkering with the stuff you’re actually interested in on the side. And that's what I did.

Indie hacking has allowed me the kind lifestyle where I can thrive. And where my strengths can be amplified. And, in so many ways, ADHD has actually benefited me. I take huge risks, I’m impulsive, I make decisions really quickly. I jump without a net, and assume the net will eventually appear. I’m very resilient and I have my own back. I can see patterns and connect things very quickly. I’m very personable.

There are tons of traits that I can thank ADHD for that have worked to my advantage. I try to design my life in a way that accentuates and supports these traits.

So in a weird way, I see it as an advantage. But ADHD is definitely a weird double-edged sword. And while I’ve been able to work with my ADHD in such a way that it has become an advantage, I’m very mindful of the fact that for many others, having ADHD is still a huge struggle and they may not have access to the same resources and support that I do.

On benefitting from periods of hyperfocus (and creating a course in 3 months)

It took three months of complete, complete insanity to launch my course. Essentially, I announced publicly that I would share lessons as I created them, then I set up a Gumroad page, and started churning out lessons and videos weekly. The adrenaline/dopamine cycle kept me going!

When I look back at it, I'm like, "I will never be able to do that again."

It was such an incredible amount of work. It's almost like I took a year and combined it into three months and then the rest of the year is a slower pace. So it's hard to regulate for sure. I have boundless energy for things that I'm interested in and I can work, burning the midnight oil, for days and hours on end.

It's so hard to pull yourself away when you are hyper-focusing which in many ways, can be great.

Benefiting and working with this aspect of ADHD has a lot to do with just acknowledging, “I'm very activated right now. I'm so in the zone. Let's keep doing the thing.” And just allowing myself to completely go for it.

It’s like, I’m going down a rabbit hole and I forget to eat and I forget to pee and nothing else matters. That aspect probably isn’t great for my body. I think I've probably wrestled with this my whole life, like, should I just go with the flow?

Should I harness it because it's here and it might be gone tomorrow? Is it even healthy to roll with it or do I need to artificially cut it off? There's always been that tension. And I don't often know when it's gonna hit or when I can kind of seize it and latch onto it.

I’m still learning to harness it, but my ability to hyper-focus has definitely come in handy many times. I can pull off a superhuman amount of work.

On avoiding burnout and harnessing “beast mode” using Notion to journal a thousand days in a row

I think avoiding burnout is one of the reasons I got so obsessed with Notion. It’s been a way for me to track that data in a more interesting way.

So far, I've got about a thousand days of tracking myself — every single day in a row. To maintain that streak, I had to make it fun and easy. I’ve got multi-select properties with emojis and lots of color. It’s FUN and the more I fill out, the more weird data I can see. And I’m incentivized not to break the streak because I like knowing those weird things. And now the data it feeds me is useful in terms of how I plan my days.

I track things like flow and energy and hyperfocus and happiness and effectiveness and all of it. There's so much fun data in there and I can look and see when I had hyperfocus for a couple days. I call those days “beast mode.”

So now I can be like, "Show me all the days of the week throughout the year that I experienced beast mode." It's funny, but I can see like, "Okay Tuesdays are my beast mode days." And then ask myself, “Why is that?”

I just love the ability to reflect and get curious and ask questions.

So far I’m learning that if I have a couple of beast mode days in a row I’m going to feel pretty spent for a couple of days after that. Now that I know that, I can work with it and plan for it.

If I'm launching a training or if I'm doing something that requires me to be on and in front of like hundreds of people, I know that I have to plan to take the next week or two and be really gentle on myself and not expect much of myself.

I’m finding there are cycles that I follow - weekly, monthly, and even yearly. The million dollar question is really how to tap into beast mode at will. Right now I can’t just turn it on. I can just use what I’ve learned from journaling to create the right conditions and hope for the best.

All I know for sure is that if I’m really excited and lit up about something, that’s when it’s most likely to happen.

Why having a team has been a game changer:

Having a team now has been an absolute game changer, especially for someone with ADHD. I might drop the ball, but I have people on my team who can pick it right back up. They’re paying attention and they know how I work. They know I’m likely to forget things unless they are right in front of my face and I have a deadline associated with them.

It’s important to find team members who allow you to find your groove and understand how you operate, without judging you. My team has been such a supportive force.

Advice for other neurodivergent indie hackers

I believe tracking is a powerful way to help understand yourself, your needs, and your tendencies. Start with tracking basics like sleep, energy, feelings, effectiveness… and remember that inconsistent tracking is better than none at all! Sleep, food, and dopamine-spiking activities all impact how we work, so understanding your tendencies can help you create solutions that help you thrive.

Find your support. Whether it’s your team, your partner, resources, therapy, medication… we all need support in different ways. Don’t try to muscle through — name your needs, and work toward finding the support that you need.

Find others who complement your skills; don’t try to do it all yourself. There are people whose skills can fill your gaps!