Ask HN: Founders, how are you managing your mental and physical health?

2 points by selenasecor 4 years ago | 2 comments

I'm a neophyte founder (FT founder since July 2021) working on an HR product that helps employers detect and address burnout in the workplace (https://www.mychangelab.com/). As you all know, knowing something only partially protects you from those pitfalls. Startup life has been lonely, full of uncertainty, exhilarating, full of hope, and everything in between (and this all happens in the course of one day)! I find that I need to be extra vigilant and diligent to be active on a daily basis, take frequent breaks, and eat healthy foods (meaning eating something other than my son's Halloween candy stash and takeout).

In an effort to combine work and exercise, I've been organizing founder hiking meetups.

How are you all managing work and healthy routines to maintain physical and mental health? I'd love to hear your personal stories whether you are trying something new, looking for new routines, or have great routines to share!

nof1 4 years ago |

When people ask me how startup life is I talk a lot about the roller coaster. You can be on top of the world and in the pits of the despair in the same day. One of the struggles is that often you are the only person thinking about something and so many burdens rest entirely on your shoulders. I've found these 4 things help:

1. Having very frank and open conversations with your co-founders. Hopefully you have a founding team you can be really honest with. Go on walks. Talk about your feelings. It can take awhile to build this relationship but it's very worth it.

2. Find mentors. Doesn't have to be someone you meet with every month (though those are great too!) but if you're struggling with some imposter syndrome on a new task ask your investors to intro you to 2-3 people who have done that thing well before. Everyone is happy to share advice. I go into those meetings and say "Hey I'm XYZ, I'm working on this ABC task and would love your advice, here is what we are doing today and what we're planning on doing. What would you do if you were me?"

3. Get a coach. You investors can probably intro you to someone. They can run from $250-$1000+ an hour but very worth it. I meet with my coach 2x a month and it's kind of work therapy. A chance for me to be very vulnerable about where I am and to talk out my problems.

4. Show some vulnerability to your company. Every now and then saying hey I'm not sure about this thing or I'm new to this can actually inspire more faith in you because then when you say hey I'm confident in this thing, they believe you more since you were willing to share a time when you weren't confident. Also can inspire them to speak up if they aren't sure. If we all go around pretending we know everything all the time then our employees will do that too and then you have a culture where things aren't optimal but people don't think they can talk about it or get help.

selenasecor 4 years ago | |

Thanks for sharing!

I'm a solo founder. Still looking for my better half/halves while building the startup. And because of this, I spend a decent amount of time reaching out to other founders for advice & mentorship.

Getting a coach is on my to-do list once we have enough traction/funding.