How to Work 60-hr Weeks Without Feeling Drained

I've developed a routine that allows me to work a lot of hours each week without feeling like I'm working a lot of hours. I used to complain about working more than 40 hrs/wk, but it's actually quite easy to just pile on hours after 40 and push that up to 60 --all without feeling like you're working more than 40 hrs/wk.

I've been through several 40 hr/wk engineering internships, and I always felt DRAINED when I got home each day. Even the weekends didn't help refuel me all the way. Why was this?

How is it that I can work 60 hrs a week and feel better than when I worked 40 at a "normal" 9-to-5?

Simple. It's all about spreading work throughout your day. Here's a 10 hr/day schedule for me:

8:30/9 AM: Wake up, go to office
10 AM - 1 PM: Work at office (3 hours)
1 PM - 2 PM: Get lunch, take it easy.
2 PM - 5 PM: Work at office (3 hours)
5 PM - 7 PM: Do some exercise and eat dinner
7 PM - 9 PM: Work at home or at a coffee shop (2 hours)
9 PM - 10 PM: Watch a comedy, or maybe Game of Thrones, or read a fun book
10 PM - 12 AM: Do some work at home (2 hours)
12 AM - 1 AM: Chillax, Facebook and whatnot
1 AM: Go to bed for 7-8 hours.

The benefit of spreading work out throughout the day and digesting it in smaller 2-3 hour chunks is twofold. First, you increase your productivity during these short bursts. Second, you let yourself recover your energy by 'dividing and conquering' rather than trying to hit all of the hours in one unforgiving go.

"But Nick!" you say. "That's only 10 hrs/day! That's a 50 hr workweek!"

As Professor Drew Isaacs from the Haas School of Business put it in one of my classes, "Saturday is a workday, dude."

What do I do on the one day that I have off? I might actually split my 10 hours between Saturday and Sunday, but usually I take Sunday off. I go nuts. I'll go hang in the city, go hiking, do whatever. Sunday is for rapid refueling and recovery.

Luckily, you don't need much rapid refueling and recovery if you're spacing your work out and getting enough sleep each night.

Working many hours per week is not something to be proud of. Ideally you would work very little each week, but still earn enough to enjoy a lifestyle you like. The path I've chosen sometimes requires me to put in a lot of hours --there's just no way around it. Nevertheless, it's still possible to work a lot of hours without feeling like crap.

Startup Competitions are a Distraction

Maybe it's my imagination, but I've seen a huge rise in the number of startup competitions around the Bay Area and Silicon Valley. Some examples include:

• The UC Berkeley Big Ideas competition (mostly for non-profit ideas; max $10K grant)
• The CleanTech Open (up to $100K in in-kind services + mentorship)
• The Berkeley BPlan Competition ($5K - $30K)
• The Stanford BASES Social-E Prize ($5K - $30K for a social venture)
• The D-Prize ($20K to fight poverty through innovation)

While free cash is never a bad thing, I believe that startup competitions are largely a distraction to the startups involved. Filling out applications, practicing pitches, and going through rounds and rounds of elimination requires time. How many days are spent on these competitions?

You may argue that the time sink is worth it if you win the prizes. A few days of work for $10K in funds is well worth it --true. But what exactly is getting rewarded? Entrepreneurs are being rewarded for their ability to articulate their ideas and demonstrate metrics of success. The winners are not necessarily the ones with the best business models (only the market can judge that), but rather the ones who can pitch and present the best.

Competitions tend to reward startups which stand little chance of succeeding in the marketplace in their current state --this is especially true in social entrepreneurship competitions. How is it that a competition can grant $10K to a startup and take no equity, while the startup struggles to find a single investor? Competitions tend to fund projects based on optimism --the feel-good ideas get the attention. Investors fund projects that sound financially viable. There's a big difference. It's easy for a judge to award cash that isn't hers. Try asking the judge to invest her own cash --that's a different story!

One of my friends asked me, "Don't all the prizes your team has won make it easier for you to get funded by investors?"

"No," I said. "They don't really care about any of the prizes we've won."

We've won the following prizes:

• People's Choice Award, UC Berkeley Mobile Startup Challenge
• First Place, University Mobile Challenge; Mobile World Congress, Barcelona
• Second Place, Win Demo Mobile Competition
• First Place, UC Berkeley Big Ideas Competition 
• First Place, UC Berkeley Big Ideas Video Competition 

We're happy to tell the world about what we're doing, and we're grateful for the recognition and the cash prizes we've received. But ultimately, prizes are just like eating candy. Winning tastes great, but you can't feed yourself on it.

Press coverage (the result of winning a prize) isn't what an enterprise startup needs. What we need is customers. Anything not related to getting customers and getting positive cash-flow is a distraction. Investors (the smart ones, at least) understand this and are not affected by prizes. Prizes might win you a few extra minutes of an investor's time, but if you don't have a real business you're not going to get funded no matter how many prizes you have.

Going after investor cash can also be a distraction. Every minute spent going after VC could be a minute spent closing deals with customers.

Plus, the amount of cash that these competitions give to promising startups is nothing compared to the cash that a few customers can bring.

i) $1000 profit/customer x 10 customers = $10,000 cash
ii) A two-round, 10-page application process with 160 competing entrants and an eight-month wait-time = $10,000 prize

What would you rather have? Of course you want the first one. You've gotten cash in the door. You are 100 times more likely to succeed than a zero-revenue startup because you know you have something of value. Isn't that the real prize?

Competition prizes are a double-edged sword. They can give startups the cash infusion they need to succeed, or they can encourage a startup to keep trudging forward towards failure. In the world of "fail fast," winning a $10K check from a startup competition may actually make it harder for you to find your best business model swiftly. A competition's seal of approval encourages you to keep going in the direction that sounds good on paper, rather than following the direction that will actually win you customers and cash-flow.

Winning competitions is fun, but we need to keep our eyes on the real prize --a customer buying what you're selling.

Internal vs. External Deliverables

I wrote this email for Flowbit. The idea of internal vs. external deliverables is borrowed from Larry Chiang of Stanford University. 

Something to think about over the weekend: 

Moving forward, Flowbit staff will need to ask themselves frequently, "Is this task an Internal Deliverable or an External Deliverable?" The answer to this question can mean life or death for Flowbit as it grows. 

An internal deliverable is any work done that is not part of doing business with customers. 

An external deliverable is any work done that satisfies customer demand or gets more business. 

Large companies are full of internal deliverables. Human Resources, IT Departments, Building Maintenance, etc... But this is also why many companies die so quickly. Their non-revenue generating activities become burdens, and they have to make serious cuts. Internal Deliverables don't generate revenue. They're important, but they don't generate revenue. They can keep a company running, but they don't generate revenue. 

Examples: 

Internal Deliverable Examples: 

1. Figuring out corporate documents (an example of an important Internal Deliverable) 

2. Having meetings about what other people are doing (unless it's related to an external deliverable) 

3. Pitching for people who want to hear pitches 

4. Attending lectures and Pitch Events 

5. Talking at events

6. Doing interviews (admittedly they're really fun) 

7. Taxes, other legal stuff for the company 

8. Attending conferences (unless you go to sell or make business connections) 

9. Me writing this email is an Internal Deliverable 

External Deliverable Examples: 

1. Delivering a product to a customer

2. Consulting for a customer 

3. Reaching out to potential customers

4. Getting customers

5. Developing products that will be shipped to customers 

Internal Deliverables are often necessary and important, but only External Deliverables directly create revenue. Companies die through Internal Deliverables. 

An Exciting Day At Flowbit

Startups are hard. Really, really hard. I thought they were joking when they said it was hard --I thought I'd be smarter than the average bear and avoid the hardships. Wrong. Things can get bloody demoralizing at times. It's a good thing I study Stoic philosophy. It helps me survive the tough stuff.

But there are also good days. Great days, actually. Today was one of them.

Woke up for a 9:30 AM pitch at Skydeck. Who did we pitch to? The founder of Splunk, Michael Baum. Michael Baum saw the company to a $50 million valuation pre-IPO, and now the company is one of the fastest growing companies in Silicon Valley. It was an honor to pitch him, but I was also somewhat nervous. I figured he would tear us a new one in the Q&A.

Surprisingly, Baum wasn't too hard on us. Perhaps it was because our niche was so different from his area of expertise? Not sure. Anyway, he liked the idea and gave us some good advice on how to move forward. Or maybe he hated the idea? Not sure --Baum's not easy to read.

I could feel my phone vibrating during the pitch. I let it go to voicemail, but I called it back right after the pitch. It was Big Ideas at Berkeley.

"Hey Phillip," I said. "How are things on your end?"

"I'm about to make your day a bit better," said Phillip Denny on the other line. "Flowbit won First Place in Global Poverty Alleviation, with a grand prize of $X."

I literally jumped up and yelled, "YES!" Denny also invited two of us to a lunch tomorrow at Blum Hall, to meet some execs from USAID. Looking forward to it.

Later this afternoon, I had a conference call with Yasir (CFO) and an exec at a large water non-profit (identity kept anonymous until deal is finalized). The call lasted about an hour, and it got pretty technical. I was happy. I love talking technical to people who are serious about products.

We somehow closed a deal with them, and now we're doing a one-week trial of Flowbit with the potential to work together later. I remember that Yasir and I could barely hold in our excitement as I thanked the exec and quickly hung up the phone. We high-fived, smiling wide. "THAT'S HOW IT'S  DONE!" I exclaimed. "YUS!"

After that, we walked into a meeting with the entire team and Dr. Greg Hamm, a professor at Stanford University and co-founder of Agni Energy (a multi-million dollar renewable energies company in India). We talked to Dr. Hamm for a good hour about our company. We got a lot of good advice, and it turned out that Dr. Hamm was well connected to some angel groups in the area.

After the meeting, I headed home and drafted up the letter of intent for the water group. Shipped it off. And now I'm figuring out how we can solve their problem in our one-week trial period. It's exciting.

Today was definitely one of the good days. Days like these remind you why you're sleeping on the floor at a friend's apartment. They remind you why you've been full-time on no income for 5 months. They remind you that if you just keep pushing the ball forward inch by inch, you'll eventually get somewhere good.

We're not out of the woods yet. I'm sure some dark days lie ahead, but I'll enjoy this one for as long as it lasts.

Day 5+6: DEMO Mobile + Interviewing/Getting Interviewed

Wednesday: Went to UCSF and pitched our business in front of approximately 500 people. I spoke on the same stage as Vinod Khosla and Steve Blank. Kind of stressful, but also very exciting. I didn't even think while I was on stage --it was all over so quickly. I just pitched my 90 second pitch, held up the product, and spoke from the heart. I was a bit nervous walking up there, and the bright lights made it hard to see --but I treated it like having a conversation. As soon as I start to execute, the nervousness goes away. That's the secret about overcoming nervousness in public speaking. Just start doing it and forget about being nervous. Just be in the moment.

We talked to a bunch of VCs and got some good advice on where to take the company. It's exciting.

Yasir (a Flowbit co-founder) and I hung out with some people at the afterparty. We ended up visiting a posh startup incubator called Monkey Inferno over in downtown. That place was ridiculously fancy. It looked even nicer than a rich person's house. Made a lot of friends there --met a reporter from CNET, a photojournalist, some expert product managers and programmers, as well as super cool creative types.

Pretty much spent the whole day in SF. Left at 9 AM, got back home at 2 AM.

Thursday: Took it easy, for the much needed de-stress day after a conference. Interviewed two people who want to join our team, and also was interviewed for someone's class paper on entrepreneurship. Fun stuff.

Anyway, off to bed. I've got to go visit a water treatment plant tomorrow (Friday)!

Too Tired To Write (Day 4)

It's 2 AM and I must wake up early tomorrow. Too tired to write.

Tuesday is prep for DEMO Mobile in SF, and Wednesday is the actual DEMO Mobile pitch day. Couple that with some stressful Flowbit decisions, and you get a perfect storm of stress.

Product works well at least.

Tough Calls, Bird Walks, and Spontaneous Ramen

I went in to Skydeck today to do some work and deliberate a business decision. I thought I'd get some outside advice, so I walked over to the offices to see if Jeff Burton (the director of Skydeck) was in. I knew he likes to come in to work on Sundays, so I figured the chances were high.

Jeff was there, so I sat down and talked to him for a good half hour about Flowbit. Jeff co-founded Electronic Arts back in the days before videogames became popular. He shared some EA stories with me and discussed leadership philosophy, and he also advised me on some things regarding Flowbit's business and fundraising efforts. I left the office with some clarity, and I felt like I knew what I needed to do about an impending business deal for Flowbit. I made up my mind, made a difficult phone call, and executed what I believed was right for the company.

My friend Catherine called me and asked if I wanted to go bird walking with her (yes, she walks her birds). I ended up spontaneously joining her to walk her two cockatiel birds to the bird store. Afterwards, I visited her apartment and helped make some delicious ramen using the baked ramen noodles I had brought up from LA. I hadn't made ramen in years, but Catherine and her roommate thought it was great!

Overall, it was an enjoyable Sunday. Making potentially make-or-break business decisions is absurdly stressful. The information overload from researching alternatives, doing background checks on involved parties, and imagining failure and success outcomes can put the human brain in a state of paralysis --but at the end of the day, a decision must be made. I felt relieved after making the call today. It's time to move forward.

I'm glad I was able to sneak in some spontaneous adventures. They made Sunday actually feel like a Sunday, and not another workday.

Spontaneous Ramen: