Struggling with so many hats as a founder

From my experience, consistency is the most important factor for success.

Ambitious people naturally overdo it with their responsibilities, burnout and quitting being the consequence. After some time the vicious cycle begins again.

Instead, you should accept slow progress, stay healthy and motivated. This keeps you on track and success will only be a matter of time. This, of course, supposes your working on the right idea.

Pete, I'm in your shoes (solo founder wearing multiple hats), and I think the most important thing for you is to accept that you'll progress slower than everyone else, accept that you'll take longer to accomplish your tasks, and that it's okay.

It's very easy to get overwhelmed if you try to tackle multiple tasks at once with strict deadlines.

Definitely no need to "crack the whip" on yourself, as you're already doing something extremely difficult (especially after being left high and dry by your co-founder).

If anything, you need to loosen up a little and realize it's okay to let some tasks sit on the shelf for a while, while you handle your current task at hand.

Either way you'll be fine, your business will be fine, nothing is on fire, you don't need to work at escape velocity for any particular reason whatsoever.

So what you need to do is to alter your mindset for now and take things at a slower pace.

Can you do that?

I wrote this post on efficiency a while back. A few thoughts that might help:

• Take care of yourself
• Change your mentality (be ok with doing less, say no, focus on results, etc.)
• Create a routine that works for you
• Optimize your environment
• Time block
• Try the Pomodoro technique
• Batch tasks
• Take breaks
• Stop multitasking
• Delegate
• Get an accountability buddy
• Eat the frog!

The main thing IMO is using project management (or todo list) software to organize and prioritize your work.

Hey Pete,

Thanks for sharing. It's only natural when there's so much happening. When I started my first business... I was doing the majority of the work. Although we could hire some people... my co-founder wasn't up to scratch and didn't have the same drive I had. So we went our separate ways.

When I started my second business I found a co-founder who made my life easier. He does his job and I do mine. And over the years we've grown as a team.

When things get super busy I know I can't take everything on. So I prioritise what needs to be done or even slow down. I used to write long lists of the things that needed to be done. Now I just make smaller lists with a focus for 3 months. I also try to get my team to just achieve one thing...

I'm not sure if that helps?

Cheers

Simon

I feel your pain Pete, beside a solo founder I am also the designer, coder, devOp and marketer.

Fortunately, I happen to find a way to unlock my brain power and complete some impossible tasks within a short timeline. I am not sure if this will works for you or anyone else but it works for me.

1. A sticky note of the main task on the wall in-front of my desk.

For instance, I want to develop a new feature for my startup, no timeline or due date. There are so many mini tasks that I don't even want to remind myself. If I don't have something physical, visible such as that sticky note, the feature will be still in the back log after one year.

Amazingly, if I have the sticky note visible in-front my desk, it kind-of reminding me everyday and the feature will be completed very very soon.

Now I have 20++ sticky notes over the years and you won't believe it when you look at those features that have been completed.

2. A sharp and fresh mind

I play badminton 6 hours a week. I find my mind was sharper every time when I back from the session and able to solve some bottom-necks real quick and easy.

3. Endorphin or Dopamine: Entering a very strange performance peak period.

When I focus and concentrate on a main task as shared above with a sharp and fresh mind (often after the intense sport session), there is a few times I've entered a very strange performance peak period. I don't feel like hungry or time is passing.

During such a period, a very complicated feature has been completed within few hours. Usually it will takes few weeks to complete with your normal performance. Your brain will reward you with something and you want to enter this strange peak period again and again.

After seven years of being stretched too thing and wearing too many hats, my biggest realization that most of sustainability comes down to mindset and taking care of yourself. If you can get one or two tasks done every day, even small ones, those will compound into something large over time. It's trite - but it really is a marathon, not a sprint.

Here are some specifics that have helped me:

• Take care of yourself first and foremost with proper sleep/exercise/diet. It's so easy to try to squeeze out some extra work by ignoring yourself, but that short term sacrifice will catch up with you.
• If you can, try to find some friends in the indie world for mutual accountability.
• Make a list of your top one to three tasks every day, then only focus on getting those done and ignore everything else. If you get even one done, then that's a great day and you should be proud of yourself.
• Embrace the fact that there's only so much time in the day and there's always more to do. We live in a go-go world, but it's highly likely that 99% of your work doesn't need to get done that day and can actually be punted back. This mindset took me far too long to develop after burning out a few times.
• So NO to anything that isn't mission critical.

Yep, it is hard. Different roles require different mindsets and flexibility and superhuman energy to work them well.
I believe a small team, or better a band of brothers is optimal, so not only you can execute well but also try many projects without risking burning, plus social vitamin. Obviously, building a high-function team is not a simple task. Also, you need a larger project to sustain the crew.
If you go all solo it is better (a must) if your project is super tight - just one thing, one value creation, super niching down, laser-focused operations, predictable customer and market. Here you can work on automating sub-roles.

You are not alone and we all feel the same at some point of the time as an indie maker.
But consistency is what makes us stronger. So stay there mate!

I will suggest talking about it with your partner, at the end, if your own situation gets worse it will affect him as well. It's crucial to maintain fluent communication between partners to win to all the ups and downs a startup faces. Also just try to focus more, multitasking is a really bad enemy, maybe like having a schedule "Monday and Tuesday just for X", "Wednesday for X".... Good luck! 💪

Thanks for sharing this! As founders, we all face this situation one way or another. I've actually had burnouts multiple times when I tried to ship things fast & do work that my cofounder was unable to complete.

In retrospect, I feel that I should have gone slow. But now being a solopreneur, I put my mental health first as tenacity is the most crucial factor for a founder. And there can be no tenacity without good health :)

I can feel you brother.

As a solo founder myself, nothing makes me happier than feeling appreciated by users.

I guess that is just part of the daily job of a founder or manager where you need to constantly hold people around you and your ownself accountable.

Try to take time to heal and come back stronger and motivates people around you to work harder with positive energy.

Have you identified which area of your business you need the most help in?

as already stated consistency is the way. also most people dont realize that pressure/ CEO is NOT for everyone. its a certain type of crazy that a small % of population are wired for long term.

When my wife (who is also my cofounder) was in her first trimester of pregnancy, she basically couldn't work for 3 months. I thought I was going to lose my mind juggling so much. What helped me was knowing that my predicament wasn't going to last forever. (Well, the likelihood was low since morning sickness usually only lasts for the first trimester). 😅 Anyway, my point is I think you should try to get a clear idea of when your business partnerr will be back in action so you know how long you have to be in this predicament for. And then in the meantime, maybe print off your favorite customer feedback to motivate yourself for the weeks/months (hopefully not more than a couple!) that you're in the grind. Good luck!

I actually love the struggle. When things are easy, I lose motivation and life gets boring / stale.

I feel this and as a solo founder in progress I haven't found a great answer yet BUT...

1. Prioritize the highest value items first.

2. Timebox! P.S. I built Timeva for this very reason. To help me and others Timebox important work.

3. Learn to accept you can't do everything on your own and that's okay. Make sacrifices (basically #1).

Yes you are right

I hear ya, man! I think most of us have been there. If you've got a day job, then I'd advise that you use some of that money to make your life easier. Outsource some of the work, whether that's customer support, design, development, marketing... just take it off your plate. Eventually, it might even be necessary to bring on another full member of the team — particularly if your cofounder is out of commission.

Totally understand what you mean. When I feel overwhelmed, I tend to revert to accomplishing what is easiest first and avoid the hard, meaningful stuff. I would encourage you to think of taking it "one thing at a time." Trite I know but it's effective. Your brain can only take on so much at one time and humans are terrible multi-taskers. Just focus on one thing each day (or week) that will move you forward.

"Fast thinking is automatic, emotional, and habitual. This is the type of decision you make when running from a tiger or brushing your teeth. Not much thinking involved here. It’s like a reflex or habit.

On the other hand, slow thinking involves effort, calculation, and reasoning. This type of thinking occurs in your pre-frontal cortex and is the most evolved part of your brain. It’s responsible for controlling impulses, delaying gratification, making predictions, or solving complex problems."

https://leadyoufirst.com/your-brain-prefers-lazy-tasks-heres-what-you-can-do-about-it/

Hi Pete, I can relate. I am not the best person to advise (actually I also need some...) but try to automate tasks as much as possible, and avoid hiring to maximize your profit.

Or try to hire services or people that you boost your productivity (in my case, I pay whatever I can for someone to handle my books and taxes to make my company as compliant as possible).

I don't know you. But i am proud of you, total stranger on internet. You are doing great.

I am working as a full time indie maker on the WBE Space for one year now. In the beginning I felt the same, super overwhelmed. But now I kind of got use to it.
Is like when you start a new job and are super overwhelmed but after a few month you kind of know it all...

Founders need love too, dude. We want that pat on the back or just good feedback like you said. We want to see that we're doing progress.

Sometimes we're so deep in the woods that we can only see the trees in front and that pisses us off - we're the people that envisioned the forest and the promised land acros it, and now you can't see it!

It's frustrating. You can do stuff like write affirmations, stay disciplined, excercise an all the other things a coach will give you. They work until they don't.

It's because you're forgetting a simple fact and I'll tell you which one.

Somethings I do to make myself accountable and gimme a little push:

• I'd snooze emails from successful campaigns, and new contracts made and snooze them at random throughout the following 2-3 weeks. I'd forget about them and when they pop up - boom for a second there they cheer me up and put a smile on my face.

But most importantly, after the initial excitement passes, I just say to myself - you "f$cker, that was a good one! - in a way I prank myself.

What this does is not only bring me in the moment, takes a load of stress off, but it also helps me realize, if I'm not the one who's going to cheer me up and prank me and push me, nobody will. Yeah sure you can hire a coach, talk with people, but at the end it's you who pushes this.

You're the Pusherman. The person that wears many hats - It's probably one of the rarest traits you can find in a person, and only someone who wears many hats will understand fully.

Thanks to IH you get the support of 1000+ of hat wearers, but you won't find a more supportive person, than you when it comes to what you do and the things you want to push forward.

Hope this helps with your struggle today. because you never know what great thing is gonna happen tomorrow!

Cheers,

Hi @innov8or is this what you are building https://personizer.net/?

If you could afford £30/months subscription, you can easily build a team with free talent from https://skilledup.life.

I'm a solo founder and started my own journey back on 1st Aug 2020 all by myself. Today, we have a team of about 35. Except few, all are Volunteers.

Feel free to reach directly [email protected]

I feel the same, so I have decided to take break..

When you say you are having trouble with accountability, do you mean like you are having trouble showing up to complete tasks that you've committed to?