You are so right. I have been in the space for 15 years. Started my career at Netscape and kept going to smaller and more edgy startups since. The most stressful episodes happened at dead-in-the-water memories like RealNames and OpenHarbor. Let's put it this way though, I have learned and I am proud to say that I am now a sustainable contributor. I can keep going for a long time but there will always be something crazy about working in any entrepreneurial setting that is both my engine and a best that has to be tamed or else...
Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
11–20 of 124 posts
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#12"Taking in a brainy podcast at the gym combats that feeling."
Similarly, I find watching TED videos while lifting weights (at home) is a nice combination.
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#13One other thing that has helped me keep my sanity: wash and fold laundry service. You take your dirty laundry, put it in a bag, and they'll clean and fold it for a modest fee (the place around the corner from me is around $1.10 a pound). In urban areas you can find services that will pickup and deliver. It's a luxury, but it isn't that expensive (especially if you typically rely on coin-op laundromats anyway) and it'…
the place around the corner from me is around $1.10 a pound
The pricing is based on weight? It seems to me that the time it takes to fold a pound of clothing varies dramatically based on the type of clothing...
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try thinking about the issue before you go to sleep. This has worked great for me, often I'll awake to a keen sense of understanding what I was thinking of, although a few times it has resulted in keeping me up for hours frustrasted with neither sleep or understanding!
Every time the challenge du jour pops into my head before sleep I just end up thinking about it for hours. And not sleeping. It's tough.
Me too. For a little while it feels productive and nice because I often have good ideas, but then after half an hour or so, I want my brain to shut up so I can sleep.
A friend of mine told me she has a similar issue and has a special meditation that she does in bed to wind her brain down. I should email her, but if anyone has ways they deal with this issue, I'd love to hear them.
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#15One other thing that has helped me keep my sanity: wash and fold laundry service. You take your dirty laundry, put it in a bag, and they'll clean and fold it for a modest fee (the place around the corner from me is around $1.10 a pound). In urban areas you can find services that will pickup and deliver. It's a luxury, but it isn't that expensive (especially if you typically rely on coin-op laundromats anyway) and it'…
the place around the corner from me is around $1.10 a pound The pricing is based on weight? It seems to me that the time it takes to fold a pound of clothing varies dramatically based on the type of clothing...
But is it quicker to charge every customer the same rate per lb of laundry than to spend time analysing the laundry or ask your customers to pre-sort? I'd say yes.
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every time the challenge du jour pops into my head before sleep I just end up thinking about it for hours. And not sleeping. It's tough.
Me too. For a little while it feels productive and nice because I often have good ideas, but then after half an hour or so, I want my brain to shut up so I can sleep. A friend of mine told me she has a similar issue and has a special meditation that she does in bed to wind her brain down. I should email her, but if anyone has ways they deal with this issue, I'd love to hear them.
I absolutely do not think about stuff like that before I sleep - I try to spend at least an hour winding down with a book and peppermint tea or something similar.
I do however think about tough issues when I'm half asleep in the morning, reaching for the snooze button. (Sometimes it's counterproductive, making me want to snooze more to make the world go away, but I reach some surprising insights here - and then crystallise them in the shower, of course!)
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#17One other thing that has helped me keep my sanity: wash and fold laundry service. You take your dirty laundry, put it in a bag, and they'll clean and fold it for a modest fee (the place around the corner from me is around $1.10 a pound). In urban areas you can find services that will pickup and deliver. It's a luxury, but it isn't that expensive (especially if you typically rely on coin-op laundromats anyway) and it'…
Funny, for me it's the opposite. I've taken to kind of _enjoying_ folding laundry since I started working on AppStoreHQ. It's the mindless release that I need every once in a while.
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#18A lot of this applies to working for yourself, or for a big company. Startups exaggerate the extremes of stress and crunch, but I pretty much do all these things (and have done for the last 18 months or so, so ~8 months of BigCo and ~10 months of CEO) and they work equally well in both contexts. As long as you're working somewhere that you can go and take a walk when your wheels are spinning. Things that I've found h…
I probably should have put massage in there. I don't get massages regularly, but man do I ever feel better when I do. Good suggestion.
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#19For me, spending time with my kids (ages: 0, 2, 4) produces a similar results as exercise and meditation do for Alex:
- "combats stress"
- "always feel calmer than when I started"
- "feel like I’ve got my head screwed on straight"
- "makes my work time more productive"
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every time the challenge du jour pops into my head before sleep I just end up thinking about it for hours. And not sleeping. It's tough.
Me too. For a little while it feels productive and nice because I often have good ideas, but then after half an hour or so, I want my brain to shut up so I can sleep. A friend of mine told me she has a similar issue and has a special meditation that she does in bed to wind her brain down. I should email her, but if anyone has ways they deal with this issue, I'd love to hear them.
I'd love to hear her advice if she gets back to you on this.