[makeee]

I've been a solo-founder for the past 12 years (currently: https://divjoy.com). I use a kanban board in Notion and work about 4-6 productive hours a day on average. Some days it's 2, some days it's 12, but I don't force myself to a super strict schedule because that has led to burnout in the past.

I try to take a day off every week, but often it's random based on whether friends/wife want to do something fun on a given day.

The only exception is if I'm leading up to a big product launch and need to grind through that "last 10%". In that case switching into hyper planning mode seems to help me a lot. AMA!

[njdullea]

Thanks for sharing.

When you started your business did you have another job and build your own business on the side? Or were you able to jump straight in?

[makeee]

I was doing some contract work on the side while building the MVP, but switched to full-time right after launching it. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that though.. basically burnt through all my savings over 4 months. Right as I was starting too look for more contract work I ended up winning a $15k grant from YC [0] which bridged the gap until I got to profitability. Now at around $6k - $10k/m (not recurring, so it varies).

[0] https://blog.ycombinator.com/announcing-the-startup-school-2...