Ask HN: How do entrepreneurs manage burnout?
For long-term entrepreneurs that are burned out, but do not want to exit yet, what do you do?
1. “Avoid 100%”: By this I mean avoid 100% in that balance can be as little as reserving a minimum of 1% to X% of your available time on things unrelated to the startup (self care, family and friends, health and exercise, leisure, etc). I’ve met enough people that go a full 100% and let life pass them by.
2. Time off: Take a weekend, a week, what ever X time you need
3. Self-Care day: Dedicate a day or evening for yourself. I usually use Wednesdays and refer to them as no work Wednesdays. I focus on myself, spending time with people, errands, leisure, etc
4. Focus on other things. Funny enough I was surprised how much inspiration and ideas I got from doing things completely unrelated to my project/startup
5. Change: This is subtle but quite useful, make a change in your core responsibilities to a lateral role. As founders, we are typically generalists and do a lot of different things in the early stages. Sometimes you can become overwhelmed, stressed, just grinding work. If you can, change what you’re doing. Say instead of intense engineering, spend some time or stretch of time focusing on product, connecting with customers, ideation. Just anything other than the previous role.
6. Time and Place: I’ve always been a night person so my best work is at night, but I realized the type of work I do best at night is more creative, research oriented, ideation type work. It’s not hard problem solving, it’s more relaxed, care free, inquisitive, creative work. Understand when and in what setting you perform the best type of work.