Ask HN: Bootstrappers, what do you do during down time? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrappers, what do you do during down time?

#21

Post by chromaton » Thu, Feb 12, 2015, 5:15 PM UTC

marcusgarvey wrote: post #19

chromaton wrote: post #18

I think you've got this backwards. Your scheduled time should be focused on building the business, whether that means new features, improving operations, or marketing. Figure out which of these are the most important, break that down into individual subtasks, and then schedule that out for the next week. The stuff like sales and bugfixes are really interruptions to doing the stuff which builds your business. Ultimate…

>The stuff like sales and bugfixes are really interruptions to doing the stuff which builds your business. Sales and marketing is what will build a business....

In general, I agree, but I get the impression that the OP is spending a lot of time on small sales, rather than figuring out how to automate or delegate those.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrappers, what do you do during down time?

#22

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Thu, Feb 12, 2015, 6:18 PM UTC

jordanwallwork wrote: post #5

Not wanting to work on new features during down time seems like a strange move to me. If the addition of these features improves your product (and should in turn hopefully help with your sales) then wouldn't that be a good thing to do?

"If"

He said (correctly, IMO) that he only works on features that enough customers ask for. If no one needs a feature, then working on it is wasted time.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrappers, what do you do during down time?

#23

Post by alltakendamned » Fri, Feb 13, 2015, 9:48 AM UTC

I tend to make a quite strong distinction between 'work' mode and 'not work' mode. Certainly when working on your own business, there tends to be some gray areas. I also aim to set aside reasonably fixed time frames for work. So in 'work' mode, even if there's nothing to do right now (almost never in my case but well), I'm always doing business development, research, planning/building new features etc.

When I'm not working on my business, I tend to study (unrelated) topics, read, travel or spend time with friends.

But why not build an extra feature? Even if it's not requested, it can make your overall product better. Or work on increasing your conversion rate?

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrappers, what do you do during down time?

#24

Post by milesvp » Fri, Feb 13, 2015, 12:10 PM UTC

jarcane wrote: post #20

bromley wrote: post #7

I wonder if you feel that you ought to be at your desk for at least the bulk of the traditional working day... Other people are working 8+ hours a day, so I should be too. I struggle with that feeling. I've been bootstrapping my own business for years, and I have a strong inclination to feel guilty if I'm not "at work" while other people with more conventional jobs are at work. It can result in me spending a lot of u…

I wonder if you feel that you ought to be at your desk for at least the bulk of the traditional working day... Other people are working 8+ hours a day, so I should be too. What I learned as a writer is, focus on output, not time-spent or schedules met. Set yourself a daily goal, but from there, be flexible in how you achieve it. When I was still writing, I'd try and aim for about 2k words a day, usually done off and…

This. I have to say my happiest and most productive period was when I didn't have a desk job. I found a trick that worked really well was to start the day with a list of accomplishments that I thought would take less than 6-8hours. Often framing it like "I'll be happy if I do X,Y, and Z". If I finished in 15 minutes, I was done for the day. If I didn't finish by my 6-8 hour time limit, then I was still done for the day, and tomorrow I'd try to break up the task in such a way as I could finish parts of it in less than a day. I think an important part, and something OP might note, is that framing the tasks in terms of "happy if" really changes the psychology of the process. No longer can you say "I did all this stuff and it's not enough", since you already identified enough at the beginning. This coupled with the constant readjusting of expectations really helps avoid feelings of anxiety. I'm not sure this helps for a failing business (or if rent is due tomorrow) but it certainly helps if you have even a month's runway.