The startup and small business path is anything but steady. It’s full of all kinds of high and lows. This has had an even bigger effect on us after years of steady schedules in school (well mostly steady) and the consistency of working at large companies like HP and Microsoft. Now with only the two of us and no outside investors, we only have ourselves to answer to. At times, things chug wonderfully when energy and focus rides high. At other times, we are left mentally and physically drained from too much intensity in a short time period. In the beginning it was easy to keep sprinting as the excitement of the startup fueled our long hours, but as we start to settle back into an actual lifestyle, a more manageable pace is required.
Here’s where breaks come in handy… Breaks from work. Breaks from each other 
Breaks from thinking. Breaks from typing. Whatever it takes to get rejuvenated and refocused. But it’s not even that simple because how do you know how long a break you need? And without the pressure of an actual boss and job will you be able to reign yourself back in?
I suppose it’s all part of the learning experience. We’ve taken a decent break after 4 months of intense development and a big internal milestone, had some fun with friends and I think we’re ready to get back on track. It’s a marathon and hopefully we can continue at a good brisk pace now. After all, we’re not pursuing some magical end game buyout (although it would be nice), we’re trying to make a lifestyle change to become self-sufficient small business owners that are only accountable to ourselves and our customers. To echo the Carpenters’ song: “We’ve only just begun”!
P.S. For those following the Two-Bit Bios, #2 is running a bit behind schedule - it should be posted on Monday or so.
- JC
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on Jun 13th, 2006 at 1:34 am
How long a break should be? Maybe it’s not defined completely by time. Ive always felt the best on the first day of a job. Although ive only been at two jobs, i remember that im always the freshest on the first day of the job. I doubt that this means that those also happen to be the two days ive got the most sleep the night before. Rather, i think it’s being able to let what’s been done settle in, and start a new chapter on what’s about to be done. The change of the environment had to have played a factor as well.
I guess being able to say “what’s done is done” during the break and having a change of work environment after the break (feng shui anyone?) might be a couple of things that would make the break serve its purpose.
just my 2 cents.
p.s. in a non related issue, my company is finally offering roth 401ks or whatever they’re called. Cool!
on Jun 13th, 2006 at 5:44 am
yeah, that’s a good point. it really helps to set milestones where you can call something “done”, then take a break, then start the next section fresh. because of that reason we’ve schedule all of our work items in chunks of 2-3 weeks. of course, we’re not too good at meeting those schedules so they turn into 4-5 weeks so sometimes we just need to set a date as the milestone instead