# swombat.com

## daily articles for founders

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Play/life balance ✶

Greg Bayer :

> Working for a startup usually means putting in more hours than others. Â Recently, I spent two days on less than 3 hours of sleep in order to push out our new Pulse.me release.

> Chasing after dreams is an essential part of my life. Â The feeling of fulfillment I get from doing so makes me a much happier / more content person, and this in turn positively affects my relationships.

I've argued before that hours are not a measure of productivity , but that's not Greg's claim in this post. He's saying, quite rightly, that working on your startup is not work, it's play - and so, unlike working stupid hours on a job, working stupid hours on a startup is a blessing, not a curse.

I'm reminded of an old saying:

> Why work for someone else from nine to five for a daily wage, when you can work twenty-four hours a day for yourself for free?

So which view is right? is worth pursuing with far more energy than the typical job - but life is what happens while you're busy working on your startup.

I'll finish with an observation: I feel most happy, most rested, and most productive when I have had a solid 8 hours of sleep, starting and ending at the same time each day. This plus a good task list has more effect on my productivity than anything else - other than, perhaps, the pressure of an immediate deadline.

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Friday, 03 June 2011
More from the library :
→ Recruiting in the Valley: the recruiter honeypot
→ The Startup resume
→ Focus on the power users