Iāve been looking into doing entrepreneurship in the future, and I know that mental health is a big issue for startup founders. So I have some questions related to entrepreneurship and mental health:
Do you think itās possible to practice good work-life balance while working on a startup? If so, what might that look like?
How many hours per week did you spend when you first started Wave? How many hours per week do you spend on it now?
How do you take care of yourselves while running a startup?
Iāll answer your middle question first. When we were writing our first version in 2014, I logged probably 60+ most weeks. When living in Africa, I probably also logged around that many hours, since I had little else to do :). But now I start work around 8am and end around 5pm daily and usually take an hour for lunch, and donāt work on weekends, so probably close to 40 hours. I am vaguely thinking about reducing my hours even more.
Transitioning to your first question:
The stage of a company really really matters, and it also matters what you consider to be āgoodā work-life balance. My cofounder is fond of saying, āthereās no such thing as too busy, just poor prioritization.ā And I think that is ultimately how all work-life balance questions should be answered. First, decide on your priorities, then act accordingly :)
Classic startup advice always says that startups need to āmove fastā, speed is how you beat much more established competitors. But āmove fastā is what it looks like from the outside when you have good prioritizationāwhen youāre writing only the code that matters to get the marginal increment of growth rate, so you can learn what you need to learn in order to keep that growth on an exponential trajectory. It doesnāt have to mean work yourself to the bone: on the contrary, Iāve found that when I spend many hours writing code, I have exhausted my capability to do the prioritization work which could save me many hours writing code :). So, I would say that great work-life balance in a startup starts and ends with great prioritization, not just at work but across your whole life. The 4 Hour Workweek is a well-loved treatise on the subject, as is Derek Siversā Anything You Want. I put in 60+ hours in the early days because Wave was my life priority (and was able to get away with it because Drew was able to take most of the prioritization work out of my head and leave me with just code).
How do I take care of myself: I see friends and family, I take vacations, I have a coach/ātherapist person, I cook dinner and light candles and drink beer, I have tons of bright lighting in my office :)
Iāve been looking into doing entrepreneurship in the future, and I know that mental health is a big issue for startup founders. So I have some questions related to entrepreneurship and mental health:
Do you think itās possible to practice good work-life balance while working on a startup? If so, what might that look like?
How many hours per week did you spend when you first started Wave? How many hours per week do you spend on it now?
How do you take care of yourselves while running a startup?
I really like these questions!
Iāll answer your middle question first. When we were writing our first version in 2014, I logged probably 60+ most weeks. When living in Africa, I probably also logged around that many hours, since I had little else to do :). But now I start work around 8am and end around 5pm daily and usually take an hour for lunch, and donāt work on weekends, so probably close to 40 hours. I am vaguely thinking about reducing my hours even more.
Transitioning to your first question:
The stage of a company really really matters, and it also matters what you consider to be āgoodā work-life balance. My cofounder is fond of saying, āthereās no such thing as too busy, just poor prioritization.ā And I think that is ultimately how all work-life balance questions should be answered. First, decide on your priorities, then act accordingly :)
Classic startup advice always says that startups need to āmove fastā, speed is how you beat much more established competitors. But āmove fastā is what it looks like from the outside when you have good prioritizationāwhen youāre writing only the code that matters to get the marginal increment of growth rate, so you can learn what you need to learn in order to keep that growth on an exponential trajectory. It doesnāt have to mean work yourself to the bone: on the contrary, Iāve found that when I spend many hours writing code, I have exhausted my capability to do the prioritization work which could save me many hours writing code :). So, I would say that great work-life balance in a startup starts and ends with great prioritization, not just at work but across your whole life. The 4 Hour Workweek is a well-loved treatise on the subject, as is Derek Siversā Anything You Want. I put in 60+ hours in the early days because Wave was my life priority (and was able to get away with it because Drew was able to take most of the prioritization work out of my head and leave me with just code).
How do I take care of myself: I see friends and family, I take vacations, I have a coach/ātherapist person, I cook dinner and light candles and drink beer, I have tons of bright lighting in my office :)