Thread by @TweetsOfSumit

I'm running a company on the side while being employed at @stripe full time.
These are my top learnings balancing a side project and a full-time job 🧵

@stripe 💞 Get your partner on board. Especially if you have kids - you absolutely need support from your partner and a shared goal of what you're working towards. Side-projects are fine when you can just ignore them if time is scarce. But you can't ignore a business with employees, etc

@stripe Your partner will be a huge help, motivator, harbor, shoulder, fan, hugger... they have to be on your side. If you're juggling full-time job AND a business, you can't do more juggling at home. Even if they might not directly work on your business, they are in this with you.

@stripe 🕥 Time management & productivity is everything.
My calendar is always up-to-date and (sadly) my daily source of truth. In addition, I have all my todos organized in @culturedcode - literally everything.
Would also recommend to read "Getting Things Done"
amzn.to/3ENjzCY

@stripe @culturedcode I do focus blocks - code, email, even whatsapp messages - I usually don't answer messages when I get them. I answer them when I take time to answer all messages that I have. Get shit done and try to do as much deep work as possible.
Book on deep work: amzn.to/2RPGwNU

@stripe @culturedcode Something I haven't done enough: eat well, lift, run, relax, rest. Without thinking about either of your businesses / work. It's really important and it will make your working hours a lot more productive. We all could be just as productive with 5 hours of work per day.

@stripe @culturedcode Talk to your manager about it. Get approval.
Your side hustle will make you a better employee because you will look a lot further outside of your scope at work. Note down the benefits and articulate them.
Ideally full-time job and side-hustle feed into each other. E.g...

@stripe @culturedcode What I learn at Stripe benefits me when building my businesses and building my businesses gives me so much experience in hiring, leading, product building, customer support, UX, strategy, and more that I can leverage at Stripe. And I'm dogfooding Stripe products. Win Win.

@stripe @culturedcode 🚀 If you need more time, replace consumption with productivity.
3 hours of Netflix before bed? Casual Instagram scrolling? We waste hours on consumption (srsly, track it) which we can use to go for our goals.
Instead, go to bed and rise early and be productive before work.

@stripe @culturedcode Full-time job has priority. If there is some flexibility for emergencies in your side hustle, that's great, but in general, accept the fact that a full-time job is the priority and plan your side hustle around it.

@stripe @culturedcode ☯️ You have more energy in the beginning of the day. Use that to work on your own stuff. You will still accomplish something for your day job but odds are worse when you reverse that and work on your side hustle after you're exhausted from your day job.

@stripe @culturedcode 😌 Depending on how demanding your day job is, make enough time to rest and do something completely different. If you plan to work all Saturday on your side hustle, get some rest on Sunday, I haven't done that enough when thinks got 🚀 and regret it.

@stripe @culturedcode Esp if you get successful - you will become an execution machine. Productivity all day long, high energy, full power super Sayan ⚡.
Make no mistake: that shit is really demanding. Do everything you have to do to keep up motivation, health (nutrition + fitness), relationships...

@stripe @culturedcode a calm mind, kindness and some fun while you're at it. If you have that stuff set it gets much easier. As @indiehackers we all know that this is a marathon and showing up every day is much more important than a few months of sprinting to burnout.

@stripe @culturedcode @IndieHackers There was a day when I worked on my side biz 6am to 9am, then all day back-to-back meetings for my day job until 5pm, jumped on a livestream for 90 minutes, then back to meetings until 8pm. No time for prep or digest.
I was absolutely floored 😵. Avoid days like that ❗

@stripe @culturedcode @IndieHackers 🧭 Always remember WHY you're doing all of that. What life goals should this enable for you? Make really sure you're getting closer to that over time. Otherwise you're just a sailing boat on an ocean without a compass.

@stripe @culturedcode @IndieHackers 🧑‍🏫Look at your employer for processes you need to implement in your biz. Don't copy but get inspiration. Hiring practices, contracts, policies, prioritization, strategy process... learn it!
Even if that means doing things different bc they suck at it.

@stripe @culturedcode @IndieHackers 🤖 As time is your biggest bottleneck: outsource, automate, buy. Avoid building things yourself as much as possible. Yes you MIGHT be able to build a great kubernetes cluster federation with VPN ssh tunnel and fully managed macbooks for your 1-person business but should you?

@stripe @culturedcode @IndieHackers Use abstractions, accept opinionated solutions with limitations and work with them until you *have to* go a level deeper. Time is really *really* precious so every minute you use for your business should be something meaningful. Which brings me to my next point

@stripe @culturedcode @IndieHackers Ruthless prioritization.
It took 6 months until I implemented "delete account" self-serve.
It took 2 years until I implemented email-change-functionality for users.
I still only offer my product in German.

Time is more than money.
Time is everything.
Say No.
A lot.

@stripe @culturedcode @IndieHackers One more note on how important time is to me:
When Parqet took off and I approached 50k registrations, I got a shit ton of meeting requests from investors, users, interested people, entrepreneurs, fans, journalists... I said no to everything except if there was a CLEAR benefit.

@stripe @culturedcode @IndieHackers Not because I don't enjoy meeting people. I would love to. But I have to prioritize. I did that until the business was running smoothly after which I allowed myself to take some people up on their offer for coffee and have met amazing people.

@stripe @culturedcode @IndieHackers TL;DR
💞 Get your partner on board
🕥 Enhance your time management
🚀 Replace consumption with productivity
☯️ Use high-energy times for your side projects
😌 Actively rest
🤖 Outsource & Automate

@stripe @culturedcode @IndieHackers Alright, that's enough for today. If you are planning to start a side hustle (or are in the middle of it), I'm sharing my learnings every day - follow @TweetsOfSumit if this helps you