+1 to this. I'm a relatively early employee at my team, and while my founders don't really mind whether I'm in the office or not, they do know that I give a dam

+1 to this. I'm a relatively early employee at my team, and while my founders don't really mind whether I'm in the office or not, they do know that I give a damn and that our work is on my mind 24/7. And I don't mean that in a workaholic sense. I mean that if that anything arises or emerges, I respond to it immediately out of genuine interest rather than out of obligation. It's just the way things are, I think, when you're that much closer to the "value source". (How I choose to think about it.) Things like rigorously structured work days are constructs that can only exist in large companies. I'd use a naval metaphor: If you're working on an Aircraft Carrier or a huge Cargo Ship, you can take sick days, you can operate tight schedules. If you're working as part of a small team on a little rowboat, though, the concept of a schedule itself is rather ludicrous– just mutual fiction. The real schedule is closer to "do whatever it takes to get it done, and take whatever breaks you need to stay fighting fit".