(This is a somewhat subjective self-story post, if that is not your thing feel free to skip it)
At the end of last week my combined personal and professional life reached a boiling point and I could feel how close I was getting to actual burnout. I am the software part of a two-person, self-funded startup and the last two years have been a rollercoaster ride to say the least.
I am generally good at maintaining work-life balance, like taking the weekends off to recharge, but as I am sure some of you are aware, sometimes events unavoidably coalesce. We are one week ahead of a very important launch with a hard deadline, and while most things are stable, there are still a lot of little things to do. Since I am the technical cofounder, the responsibility was weighing heavily on my shoulders.
All of a sudden I was feeling distant from everything, and simple things that would normally take me 1-2 hours were taking longer than a day. I felt exhausted, and tired of the constant financial stress of bootstrapping. All i wanted to do was lay down and sleep for a week. Meanwhile, our hard deadline was inching closer and closer.
On friday I decided to take a step back for the weekend to recharge, because I thought to myself "If I can't succeed at this without burning myself out, maybe it's just not meant to be". Life is, after all, more than work (despite what hustle culture preaches).
It was the right decision, even though I felt guilty about making it at the time. Today I have been powering through everything, I shipped some things that I feel confident about, and things are looking up again. I am convinced that we will make our deadline, and looking back I feel proud of what my cofounder and I have already accomplished. I have nothing but the greatest respect for all successful entrepreneurs because this is truly the greatest challenge of my life.
Please remember to set personal boundaries with your work and make time for yourselves. Each time I have almost experienced burnout has made me more fragile, both physically and mentally.
I would be happy to hear about your experiences and your strategies for maintaining work-life balance despite the high-stress environment of entrepreneurship.
Thank you for reading
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