4 ms·

Don't build in the evening. In the evening, wind down the day, have a beer and plan out how you're going to use two hours in the morning tomorrow most effectiv

Don't build in the evening. In the evening, wind down the day, have a beer and plan out how you're going to use two hours in the morning tomorrow most effectively. Set one clear goal. Then... 1) Go to sleep 2) Wake up early (I recommend 6am) 3) Do the work you thought up last night I find myself remarkably productive in this cycle. If you've planned well, you'll whiz through the tasks. Focus on "doing one thing" each day and you'll be racing through iteration cycles. I find that I'm usually so productive like this that I can comfortably keep the weekend purely for recreation guilt-free, rather than continuing to iterate on my down time and burning out. This is how I built http://goodgecko.com http://goodgecko.com It's taken about 3 months* of doing exactly the above, now has paying customers and is an extremely satisfying "side project"! UPDATE: *I should elaborate - 3 months since the very barebones MVP. The MVP took about 2 months and featured basic surveys and a one-page sales site. The current product features web, mobile, popup and kiosk surveys and has a fully-realized sales site. The sales site itself took about a month to make...

stevederico 16y ago
@Fookyong thanks for the plan. I have noticed, I am much more effective in the morning and this new plan will help me take advantage of exactly that. Much appreciated.
ojbyrne 16y ago
I do like, and have done, the idea. But don't you find yourself dragging in the mid-to-late afternoon at your daytime job?
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- fookyong 16y ago
  it's different for me since I am also a partner at my "dayjob", so my motivation is very high for both of these projects :) that said, I think it's normal to feel a little drag now and again - whether it's on a side project or your day job. just take a break and come back to it after a few days.
  - iampims 16y ago
    I thought you had quit everything to work full-time on Peashoot… now everything makes more sense!
- prawn 16y ago
  I imagine that happens with a lot of people already, whether or not they're sneaking in 1-2 hours as soon as they get up.
- Dramatize 16y ago
  Yes, it's really hard. Lots of coffee helps.
aagha 16y ago
@fookyong Do you have kids?
- fookyong 16y ago
  no. also, my daily commute is only about 20 mins each way, so I guess I have some fortunate circumstances.
PhrosTT 16y ago
most certainly the "DO ONE THING" part. very small milestones. the constant progress motivates you. do one thing. no more. no less. there should be quick 30 minute days where you don't get burned out. save the hard parts for sunday. also that thing about 'don't pretend to work'... don't sit at your computer with the IDE open, but just dicking around on gmail or the web... either work or don't. don't fool yourself.
japherwocky 16y ago
I work on fun/speculative stuff in the mornings too! It really helps motivate me to skip that extra hour of sleep when my eyes first crack open, if I've got something interesting to go work or play with. And slowly but surely, stuff actually gets done. :)
enoren 16y ago
This is exactly what I do. I used to try to do it all at night, but with a wife and 2 kids you are just too drained to think and you end up making really bad decisions. I also tend to be able to plan when I am tired so I think about what I am going to do in the morning before I go to bed so that the second I wake up I am up and running and chomping at the bit to get at it. I also find that this carries over to the weekend too in that I can get in a couple hours before the kids are awake and then still have the rest of the day to play with them. Both myself and my other technical partner switched to mornings and would never go back, this after having been a night person for 15 years. Not quite to the MVP phase yet though unfortunately...but getting there! Another huge benefit that the morning has over working in the evening is that you can drink coffee to get you going...if you're into that sort of thing.
- fookyong 16y ago
  Both myself and my other technical partner switched to mornings and would never go back, this after having been a night person for 15 years I hear that. I used to be a night person too, beavering away until the wee hours. Then I'd sleep until noon and feel awful the whole day. Never going back to that. I realised that the only reason I worked for such long hours is because I had no structure to my work. Now, I get up early, get stuff done that I planned the night before, and by the time I've finished, most "normal" people are starting their day and I feel super awake. It's a great way to be. The downside is that I can never stay up past midnight. I just zonk right out. Sucks if you're the type who likes to go partying, but thankfully that's not me :)
bdwalter 16y ago
I have been trying to move to this model for about a year now. When I can pull it off, this is the best thing in the world. Problems arise when your day job runs into the night, and you cannot get up early to do job #2.
fezzl 16y ago
I see that you're based in Singapore (which I suspected, seeing HPB as one of your paying customers). Where exactly are you based, are you a single founder?
- fookyong 16y ago
  company is in Singapore, but I live in Tokyo :)
arikfr 16y ago
This is an awesome tip. The only problem I see with it is that if I'm busy with the side project during the morning, it's hard for me to concentrate on anything else during rest of the day. But I should try doing this in a more structured way, as you suggest (planning first) -- maybe that will allow me accomplish more, removing the need to think about it during the day. Thanks.
swombat 16y ago
Agreed. I did 9 months of waking up at 4am and working until 7am to build my first startup's product. Then I would nap for an hour, go to work for 9am, work until 6pm, have as much of an evening as I could salvage, and then go to bed around 10pm. It's very hard. I think it was worth it to escape from the corporate world.
- leftnode 16y ago
  Yes, this is what I do everyday, punctuated with time with my son and wife in the mornings. I try to spend most of the evening with them.
Dramatize 16y ago
That's how I taught myself how to design for Magento and setup my first ecommerce store. Getting up at 3am, working to 7am, then heading into the city for my day job.
wmblaettler 16y ago
This is exactly what I do. I spend my evenings relaxing with my family, and get up early when the house is quiet and I am fresh from a night's rest.
clistctrl 16y ago
fookyong, you're a genius! My only question, how do you transition? I feel like I have a process before I can write a line of code. I tend to think of it as loading the program into my mental RAM. However "unloading" it, and "loading" my work project is really exhausting for me. Any Tips on forgetting it all when I leave to go to work?
funnycoder 16y ago
lol.. mate.. appreciate your hard work.. but i guess it doesnt take much time for anyone to guess that you have simply stolen basecamp's design? ROFL.. get some originality dude... u "may" ve gotten an awesome product... but do try to stick to a bit of ethics and not copy other websites designs.. P.S.the pricing page is an exact copy of basecamp!

stevederico 16y ago

@Fookyong thanks for the plan. I have noticed, I am much more effective in the morning and this new plan will help me take advantage of exactly that. Much appreciated.

ojbyrne 16y ago

I do like, and have done, the idea. But don't you find yourself dragging in the mid-to-late afternoon at your daytime job?

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
fookyong 16y ago
it's different for me since I am also a partner at my "dayjob", so my motivation is very high for both of these projects :) that said, I think it's normal to feel a little drag now and again - whether it's on a side project or your day job. just take a break and come back to it after a few days.
- iampims 16y ago
  I thought you had quit everything to work full-time on Peashoot… now everything makes more sense!
prawn 16y ago
I imagine that happens with a lot of people already, whether or not they're sneaking in 1-2 hours as soon as they get up.
Dramatize 16y ago
Yes, it's really hard. Lots of coffee helps.

aagha 16y ago

@fookyong Do you have kids?

fookyong 16y ago
no. also, my daily commute is only about 20 mins each way, so I guess I have some fortunate circumstances.

PhrosTT 16y ago

most certainly the "DO ONE THING" part. very small milestones. the constant progress motivates you. do one thing. no more. no less. there should be quick 30 minute days where you don't get burned out. save the hard parts for sunday. also that thing about 'don't pretend to work'... don't sit at your computer with the IDE open, but just dicking around on gmail or the web... either work or don't. don't fool yourself.

japherwocky 16y ago

I work on fun/speculative stuff in the mornings too! It really helps motivate me to skip that extra hour of sleep when my eyes first crack open, if I've got something interesting to go work or play with. And slowly but surely, stuff actually gets done. :)

enoren 16y ago

This is exactly what I do. I used to try to do it all at night, but with a wife and 2 kids you are just too drained to think and you end up making really bad decisions. I also tend to be able to plan when I am tired so I think about what I am going to do in the morning before I go to bed so that the second I wake up I am up and running and chomping at the bit to get at it. I also find that this carries over to the weekend too in that I can get in a couple hours before the kids are awake and then still have the rest of the day to play with them. Both myself and my other technical partner switched to mornings and would never go back, this after having been a night person for 15 years. Not quite to the MVP phase yet though unfortunately...but getting there! Another huge benefit that the morning has over working in the evening is that you can drink coffee to get you going...if you're into that sort of thing.

fookyong 16y ago
Both myself and my other technical partner switched to mornings and would never go back, this after having been a night person for 15 years I hear that. I used to be a night person too, beavering away until the wee hours. Then I'd sleep until noon and feel awful the whole day. Never going back to that. I realised that the only reason I worked for such long hours is because I had no structure to my work. Now, I get up early, get stuff done that I planned the night before, and by the time I've finished, most "normal" people are starting their day and I feel super awake. It's a great way to be. The downside is that I can never stay up past midnight. I just zonk right out. Sucks if you're the type who likes to go partying, but thankfully that's not me :)

bdwalter 16y ago

I have been trying to move to this model for about a year now. When I can pull it off, this is the best thing in the world. Problems arise when your day job runs into the night, and you cannot get up early to do job #2.

fezzl 16y ago

I see that you're based in Singapore (which I suspected, seeing HPB as one of your paying customers). Where exactly are you based, are you a single founder?

fookyong 16y ago
company is in Singapore, but I live in Tokyo :)

arikfr 16y ago

This is an awesome tip. The only problem I see with it is that if I'm busy with the side project during the morning, it's hard for me to concentrate on anything else during rest of the day. But I should try doing this in a more structured way, as you suggest (planning first) -- maybe that will allow me accomplish more, removing the need to think about it during the day. Thanks.

swombat 16y ago

Agreed. I did 9 months of waking up at 4am and working until 7am to build my first startup's product. Then I would nap for an hour, go to work for 9am, work until 6pm, have as much of an evening as I could salvage, and then go to bed around 10pm. It's very hard. I think it was worth it to escape from the corporate world.

leftnode 16y ago
Yes, this is what I do everyday, punctuated with time with my son and wife in the mornings. I try to spend most of the evening with them.

Dramatize 16y ago

That's how I taught myself how to design for Magento and setup my first ecommerce store. Getting up at 3am, working to 7am, then heading into the city for my day job.

wmblaettler 16y ago

This is exactly what I do. I spend my evenings relaxing with my family, and get up early when the house is quiet and I am fresh from a night's rest.

clistctrl 16y ago

fookyong, you're a genius! My only question, how do you transition? I feel like I have a process before I can write a line of code. I tend to think of it as loading the program into my mental RAM. However "unloading" it, and "loading" my work project is really exhausting for me. Any Tips on forgetting it all when I leave to go to work?

funnycoder 16y ago

lol.. mate.. appreciate your hard work.. but i guess it doesnt take much time for anyone to guess that you have simply stolen basecamp's design? ROFL.. get some originality dude... u "may" ve gotten an awesome product... but do try to stick to a bit of ethics and not copy other websites designs.. P.S.the pricing page is an exact copy of basecamp!