

Top 6 Tips for Overcoming Entrepreneurial Depression - jonathanmalkin
http://entrepreneurialhonesty.com/top-tips-for-overcoming-depression/

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mindcrime
"Sleep" \-- indeed. There's something more to it though, than just the sleep
itself. There's a lot to be said for giving yourself a break from the (self-
imposed) mental demands and deadlines and stress.

For context: I've been working on bootstrapping a startup for a couple of
years now. About 6 months ago, I stepped down to a part-time position at my
regular job, to free up more time for the startup. That, to me, was the
beginning of "the big push". I decided to sell-out and give everything I could
possibly give, mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, etc., for at
least 6 months, to see how far we could get.[1]

That period culminated with a series of product demos to some pretty important
potential customers over the last week of November and the first week of
December.

In the lead-up to that, I was routinely working 16+ hour days, and had no idea
of a "day off"... Saturdays and Sundays were looked at as cool because
"they're more time to work on the startup".

Needless to say, by the end of all that, I was feeling pretty run down. So I
have chosen to take the rest of December as "relax time". No, I'm not going to
quit working, but it means that for the entire month, I am not working under
any deadlines. And I'm going to spend a lot of time reading research papers,
doing exploratory stuff, reading books, catching up on my "to read later"
bookmarks, etc., along with watching a few movies and catching up on TV.

After only 3-4 days of that, I already feel markedly better. Just waking up
knowing that I'm not "under the gun" to get something or other done by some
deadline, and not having to worry about prepping for a demo or a meeting of
some sort, makes everything feel different.

So yeah, part of it is allowing myself to get 8 (or more) hours of sleep
consistently, but the escape from the stress is significant in its own regard
- or at least it subjectively feels like it is.

So the point of all this? I guess I'd say "find a way to make a period of time
when you can cut yourself some slack". Even if it's not an outright _vacation_
, just a month with no deadlines and no meetings, or _something_ to let
yourself recharge mentally.

[1]: Aside: For anyone wondering "well, how did it all work out?" the answer
is: "TBD". We didn't close any deals, but we made a ton of progress on the
product front, and got our foot in the door at two S&P 500 firms and at least
one other company you've probably heard of. And I like our odds of landing
some kind of deal with at least two of the three. Of course, nothing is
guaranteed, but we are poised to enter 2014 with some good stuff going on

