This is the first article in the brand new “startup stories” series. This series of articles will offer some insights into the world of one particular startup (ours!), and all the excitement, confusion, successes, and likely failures too, that are to come. We’ll start with the basics: what’s in a day?

What’s a normal day like?

In general, most weekdays are pretty much the same—check out the diagram. Lots of ten kettles work, as you’d expect. That means coding, learning, connecting with users, and “business” tasks, all anchored by daily music practise and home stuff. Weekends aren’t as structured, but have a lot of the same things too.

Favourite productivity tip?

A huge part about being an indie developer is keeping motivation high. Productivity comes a lot more easily then! Hearing from our users is really motivating, both the satisfied ones and the (happily few) unsatisfied ones too. But in particular, one big productivity tip would be a simple yet really powerful one: sessions.

What’s a session?

It’s a focussed 45–60 minutes of work (no personal email or texting, etc.) followed by a 10–15 minute break, repeated again and again… and again. It feels like you can do it forever. The breaks can be anything at all: reading, exercise, video games… anything. That’s all there is to it.

Whether it’s in band practice, coding a tricky algorithm, or finalizing a new app design, I find regularly stepping away before getting tired keeps me sharp—and in my experience, yields way better quality work. It’s not always easy to stop what you’re doing and take a break, especially right in the middle of a task. But working lots of hours is only valuable if the work is good. For me, sessions help keep it that way.

If you have any comments or stories about your own approaches to work, just pop them below in the comments. We’d love to read them!