There's lots of great advice here- especially regarding the importance of being connected to other people and taking care of yourself physically (sleep, exercise, diet). Those are the most basic things to tend to when you're feeling off.
I'm a psychologist who works with founders (zenfounder.com) and I can assure you that you are not alone in feeling off your game, even when the business is going well.
Sometimes the answer to the question "why am I feeling this way?" is really hard to come by. It might take some time to sort it out. I'm really glad you're talking about it here. That's an important first step.
It may be a good idea to see your physician and check your thyroid and testosterone levels. Both can wreck havoc on motivation and can affected by sleep-wake cycles (ie. why you feel so low in the morning). A psychologist or therapist can also help you sort out whether you may be experiencing depression or burnout (low motivation is part of both).
Being successful and having a great life don't also protect us from physical problems or from depression. Its a good idea to see a professional to check out a variety of possible causes.
If you have a clean bill of health, then it might be time to ask some existential questions: Are you bored? Is your work meaningful to you? Are you as connected as you want to be to other people? A therapist, coach, priest, or good friend may be able to talk you through some of these questions.
Feel free to reach out to me directly if you'd like more ideas or resources.
Ask HN: I'm a solopreneur and I feel demoralised
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Re: Ask HN: I'm a solopreneur and I feel demoralised
#92I've in a similar situation in the past. For me, the problem was ultimately boredom and lack of fulfillment. It was the prospect of doing the same thing all day every day with no end in sight, with no purpose other than paying bills.
Consider how much of that $10k/mo it would take to hire 1-2 other people and make yourself unnecessary in the business. Turn it into a passive income as much as possible. If you succeeded in this, you can reclaim your time and do anything with it which is a freeing experience.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a solopreneur and I feel demoralised
#93Seems you are into a light depression, what helps the most is routines! Go to bed the same time every day, wake up the same time every day, eat at least three good meals, at the same times every day. Go to work at the same time, and go away from fork at the same time every day. Get some exercise, like go to the gym, and you guess it, same day, same time every week.
Also how long time since your last vacation ? Get at least four straight weeks of vacation every year where you do not work at all.
And how does your life look like outside of work ? Do you have relationships, friends and family ? Relations are essentially how much time you spend with someone, so go work on your relations, eg spend more time with people you like.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a solopreneur and I feel demoralised
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
This goal is too hard to achieve! It is like the 10x programmer, it is just too much to be a realistic goal. I mean, good for you if you can wake up every day at 5 am and meditate. But aside from the 0.0001% of people on the world that can do this, most people can't. This is a way of life which seems like living in a monastery to me. Totally unrealistic.
Neither getting up at 5am or daily meditation are all that rare or difficult. And if you take perfection out of the equation, as you should, then aiming to do them 80-90% of the time makes it even easier. I’m a natural night owl, but I routinely (80-90% of the time) go to bed early and get up at 4am. It’s really not that hard.
> It's really not that hard.
Based on the current research on chronotypes [0], you seem to be the exception, not the norm.
'“If people are left to their naturally preferred times, they feel much better. They say that they are much more productive. The mental capacity they have is much broader,” says Oxford University biologist Katharina Wulff, who studies chronobiology and sleep.'[1]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronotype
[1] http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20171114-why-you-shouldnt-t...
Re: Ask HN: I'm a solopreneur and I feel demoralised
#95I used to be the same way. Wake up at 5am, meditate, exercise, and shower before starting your day. Stop eating processed carbs and sugar. Get off the computer at 9pm and sleep at 10pm. Clean your room. Schedule sprints of work for yourself, drag yourself over to your chair, and force yourself to start typing anything. Talk to your friends more often. Set 1-3 large goals at the beginning of the day and explain to you…
> Stop eating processed carbs and sugar.
If I could pick one of all advices you gave this is the one which I think has more impact. Free yourself from food slavery.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a solopreneur and I feel demoralised
#96How's your social life both during and outside of work? I personally think working with great comedies is invigorating.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a solopreneur and I feel demoralised
#97In basically the same situation, here's what's helped me: 1. Hard limits on screen time (e.g. no screens after 5pm) 2. Basketball, tennis, chess (find a social activity - physical ones are a double whammy) 3. Personal training 4. Spend time learning - I spend a good portion of my free time learning about my craft, but also about other things. Variability spices life up a bit. 5. Working from coffee shops 6. Writing.…
Fun nitpick: Can "double whammy" be used in a positive context? I think it implies two negative things no?
Re: Ask HN: I'm a solopreneur and I feel demoralised
#98What helped for me is build a team around you. The moment there are others that join your mission, everything changes. I started out my service based UI design business ( http://fairpixels.pro ) as a solopreneur. At some point, I started getting the same feelings as you're describing and realised (from past projects) that having a team for support had always worked for me. If you don’t have the budget, no worries. Yo…
Yep, I was going to suggest this as well. $10k/mo is borderline on being able to hire someone else, but if you can scale the business it should help a lot.
As someone who works solo probably far too much, and in the past did the self-bootstrapped startup thing the stuff I can think of is:
1) As soon as possible get someone to join your team as an employee. If it's not working out fire fast and find someone you mesh well with. While it was certainly a huge challenge hiring and finding the right people, after the initial pains there is absolutely nothing as motivating to wake up in the morning after hacking on something the previous night, only to see the project being progressed in your absence. You go from "ugh" to "holy shit, now I have to do my part!".
2) If you work from home 100% of the time - stop. Shared office space, even getting out once a day to work in a different environment is key for me. I can do 1-2 weeks head down hacking on a project, but beyond that I start to go a little loopy and if I continue I have motivation issues like you describe. Everyone is different, but I'm far happiest when I have an office I can go into but don't have to go into.
3) Network more in the evenings. Sounds silly, but just find some groups for hobbies/industry/whatever you can casually attend. Most you likely won't find that awesome, but when you do find a good fit you'll make some great friends/contacts/mentors.
4) Know when to get out. Sometimes it's time to sell your baby and move on to the next thing when you start feeling stagnant. Again, different types of people on this one. Plugging away at the same thing for half a decade (or more!) where you are completely unmotivated is a great way to kill your soul as well as your career.
5) When all else fails - make a major life change. This kind of motivation issue will kill a career eventually, so it must be addressed. This can be as drastic as moving across the country, or as simple as working from a foreign country remotely (if you can swing such a thing) for a few months. For me it's changing the scenery like that, for others it may be something entirely different.
6) Make sure you are taking quality restorative time off. Since it seems you are socially isolated, it may be best to force yourself to do more social things on the weekends if you haven't been. I know I struggle with this a ton (getting motivated to meet up with friends/whatever on the weekends) - but whenever I do it I feel much better than if I stayed home and binged on video games or whatever.
7) Get out of the house every day!!! I can't stress this enough. Working from home makes it easy for me to stay on a single floor of my house for days on end, much less getting out and getting a little exercise. Just a 30 minute walk a day is a huge benefit - for me I try to find errands I can do, since I hate "idle" active time.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a solopreneur and I feel demoralised
#99You may benefit from a bit of life coaching. I have a friend who specializes in this. You've created something awesome but just need to fix a few things in your life. Happy to make a referral if you're interested. E-mail is in my profile.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a solopreneur and I feel demoralised
#100If it's earning you $10k+ a month then you can probably afford going to specialist and by that I mean psychotherapist. Just do it. Don't listen to random advice from random internet people. If you're feeling miserable (especially if it's going on for quite some time) that might be the symptom of some bigger underlying issue.
> Don't listen to random advice from random internet people. > [Go] to [a] specialist and by that I mean psychotherapist. It sounds like you've got a great setup. The way you're feeling could destroy what you've built, however, and you may not recognize how. Drop a few Benjamins and get professional advice from a psychologist. You might also consider seeing a doctor and getting a physical, and start the Couch to 5K i…
Assuming you have health insurance and are based in the US, your plan most likely covers this. Check your insurer's website or talk to your doctor's office. Many insurance plans also have remote mental health services.