Ask HN: How to run a startup and party on weekends without dying?

Hi Hacker News,

I have an interesting problem today. I'm coding during the week and I keep track of how productive I am (objectively and subjectively), after several weeks going out on weekends I have noticed a very sharp decline on my productivity on mondays. Going out and going to bed at 6am on fridays and saturdays is my best estimate of the cause, as usually as the week goes by I recover my productivity.

My question then is what can I do to get the best of both worlds (I'm very into e/acc and don't like the zero sum solutions of the style just stop going to parties).

Clearly other founders in their early twenties must have had this problem before and I'm pretty sure there are some best practices I'm not following.

Best, Santy

One idea is to moderate the intensity of your weekend activities and keep track of metrics. A few things to measure might be how much sleep, what you're eating, what you're drinking, and the duration of the activity. e.g. What if you prioritized more sleep before partying and/or leaving the party earlier (vary the times) to see what effect that had. Another might be to keep track of what you're drinking such as water, beer, or whiskey and vary that to see how it affects you. BTW, being well hydrated (water) is always good. Another thing to keep in mind is priorities in how you balance your life and how you will feel 6 months, 1 year, or 2 years down the road for the success/failure of your startup based on how you managed your time/activities during that journey. Also, what effect will that have on the commitments you've made and the people who believe, rely on, and are rooting for you.

santy-gegen · 2 years ago

This is good advice. The funny part is i don't drink alcohol when I go out, just water or soda. So alcohol is not what's destroying my productivity. It's the disruption in sleep cycles (from going to bed at 1am to going to bed at 6am).

I think a sensible idea would be to keep going out (after all going out and meeting new people is part of youth) but to do it less frequently and not twice per weekend, so that my circadian rhythms are not completely obliterated.

Thx for the thoughtful response