The Cycle Continues
In the last couple weeks, I did something new, something I’ve been avoiding doing.
I joined someone else’s live. 😳
Khadejah J over at StoryCraft invited me on to talk about breaks, burnout, and what it actually looks like to build sustainably when you’re doing it alone.
No script, we just had a conversation.
Thank you Hodman Murad, Cory Cachola, and many others for tuning into my live video with Khadejah J! Join me for my next live video—whenever that is 😅
What’s up, I’m Clint. Built software. Led teams. Now a founder helping builders who are ready to make the leap but can’t quite see the path yet. Every post is one conversation closer to clarity on ownership, execution and momentum.
OMG, I’m LIVE!
The conversation was great—Khadejah asks the right questions. I was a bit nervous; “what can I say about burnout?” So, what came out of my mouth surprised me—I just shared my private mental models with strangers. 😱
That’s what we’re all here for right?
It was technically rest week, so I didn’t prepare—I jus showed up and had a conversation. Honestly, I had fun and just might do it again.
You should watch it to get the real juice but here’s what’s surfaced in the video: I’ve been running many systems for 6 months—some mental and some frameworks that I’ve never written down or named in detail publicly.
Here’s My 3 Callouts
The 4-week cycle
For 2 weeks I go in hard—building, writing, researching, shipping.
Week 3 I taper: watching what landed, analytics, energy, adjusting, not adding to the pile—that’s happening right now, the week I’m posting this.
Week 4 is rest and reflection—it’s not a vacation, I just do considerably less.
I still have meetings, coaching calls, commitments already on the calendar.
My rule: don’t add anything, whatever isn’t already there, let it wait.
“He who cannot rest, cannot work.” — Harry Fosdick
Purposeful Distraction.
We are so caught up in being focused, we don’t force ourselves to take breaks in hustle culture, so consider Purposeful Distraction as a fun built in break.
You have to genuinely enjoy it
It can’t be related to what you’re currently building
You have to put a time limit on it
For me, I use first-person shooters—quick hit, natural end, nothing to do with code or writing.
If you’re deep in tech, your distraction can’t be tech.
That’s the whole point.
Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer.” — Leonardo da Vinci
My Favorite Book: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
The concept that lives in my head after reading the book several times is the two-system model.
System 1: is your impulse; the fast, automatic response that fires before you’ve had a chance to think—the answer is at the tip of your tongue.
System 2: is the deliberate brain; the one that slows down, checks System 1, and asks: should I actually say that? Should I actually do that?
Burnout doesn’t announce itself—but what if, System 2 has been telling you but you’ve not been listening cause System 1 says go go go.
My wife and my kids reinforce my System 2—really, most times they start before. “you’re working too much!”
How could I even argue back, when all systems and loves ones are saying the same thing.
"Self-control and deliberate thought apparently draw on the same limited budget of effort." — Daniel Kahneman
Checkout: Story Craft Online Writing
Rest week begins next week. Then New articles, Fire Talks continuing, and continuing the build.
For now please go and checkout Khadejah J publication, she promotes staying consistent with writing and a great connector of Experts.
Did You Miss This? — Last 2 Weeks:
Fire Talk 🔥 Podcast Episodes
Recent Posts
Recent Technical Log
How Didn’t I Know About That?
Hello subscribers, thanks for staying with me on this journey.
The last 2 weeks were a lot.
Rest week wasn’t really a rest week.
I did a live, had a guest at my home, and ran out of time the week before rest week.
So, I end up editing videos on what was supposed to be my off days—I know!
I dread editing sometimes. Mostly because of fundamentals I just didn’t know.
I use CapCut and I’ve been watching every clip at normal speed just to edit it— which is painful slow.
Then I found out about spacebar + K to pause, L to speed up, J to slow down.
Today years old. lol 😂
Writing “What Is Shipped Anyway” I really enjoyed—the writing, the curation, the entire process.
Here’s my reminder to you as a builder:
Even when everything fluctuates—motivation, momentum, income—the needle is still moving constantly. So, if you feel progress, know that your process is working—trust it.
And go all the way to done.
Thank you for being a subscriber and reader of my reflection article this week.
