But I'm a startup founder
I'd love to just sit and code & build right now but...
... the PPC budget isn't being spent right and needs revised
... there's an obnoxious customer that I need to help with
... there's next month's marketing initiative to work on
... there's this networking event I really should go to
... there's a client demo to prep for
I love writing code.
Putting it more correctly - I love problem solving through code. There's something inherently satisfying about the Problem -> Ideation -> Solution cycle that programming hits juuuust right.
But I don't get to do it as much now and for a while it made me really sad.
When I launched my startup I thought I would be coding a lot. I know that sounds naive so let's paraphrase it.
I hoped I would be coding a lot. There you go - much less naive.
And I did code a lot! For the first 2 years when it was just me, my partner and our designer - all part time - I was doing all of the coding.
It. Was. Bliss.
When starting from zero there's a lot to build. And when you hit PMF from the get-go you immediately start getting great user feedback on everything that's missing. So there was more to build! Yay!
But...
But then our little side project starts bringing in real money. I started thinking about leaving my job to work on it full time.
So I did.
I hired people to help with the things I wasn't good at (and didn't really like).
But then I realised I need to manage those people. And that takes time. Time away from coding.
I still got to code 60% of the time though, it was great.
But...
But then things started slowing down. Growth wasn't happening as easily as it did in the beginning.
I realised I needed to "grow up" and get a better understanding of the other bits that make the business work and not just blindly outsource them. Branding, customer support, SEO, finance (just to name a few). And that takes time. Time away from coding.
I told myself I needed to that. That in any successful business the founder isn't just coding all day. I was doing the "grown up" thing.
I was now coding sporadically 20% of the time.
And less coding was being done.
So I hired others to do it. I set the product direction. I even discussed how to build stuff with them. I reviewed their code.
But...
But now I wasn't enjoying myself as much.
I was dreading my days and my endless lists of non-coding tasks.
I was burning out more easily and felt like I needed more breaks.
I wasn't having fun.
So...
So I decided to bring some balance.
To give myself some joy. Even if it wasn't the "responsible founder" thing to do.
I gave myself 2 full days a week to just code.
Coding Tuesday & Coding Friday.
On those days I gift myself at least 4 hours of uniterrupted time for me to just build. I always have a day to look forward to where I know I'll be doing what I like best.
During the other days there can be 10 random things to do:
- I'll deal with obnoxious customers.
- I'll plan marketing campaigns.
- I'll go to networking events.
- I'll context switch a lot.
It's the price I'm willing to pay for my 2 days. The price of balance.
The price of avoiding burnout.
I now code 40% of the time.
And I'm ok with that.