This summer is an experiment in finally taking some time off from work, as someone running a one-person company. Here's how it's going so far. 🧵
As we settle into the summer, we’re taking things at an easier pace. Here’s what’s been happening lately, and what you can expect to see over the next few months. https://t.co/6aOUD5bDAm
— Write.as (@writeas__) July 9, 2022
I've been spending a lot of my time these past few months making friends and finding community in a new home. I've settled in with creative people — writers, photographers — and started doing those things more seriously as purely creative pursuits. It's been wonderful.
Now I'm organizing a regular photowalk around NYC. Some of my photos will be part of a group exhibition at a gallery next month. I've never felt this personally fulfilled — but also guilty for neglecting the business that supports me.
It normally runs fine without my full attention. There's very little critical product development needed on Write.as — it's mostly just marginal improvements. Normal customer support takes maybe 8 hours per week, tops.
But, just yesterday I saw some automated systems I have in place had started to block people out of Write.as. And it'd been doing that for a month 😞
We found a very critical issue with our spam detection system that led to many people being marked as abusive users if they had a gmail address on their account. It seems to have started around June 24.
— Write.as (@writeas__) July 22, 2022
Truly sorry to everyone who's been affected by this.
It suppressed new sign ups, new customers, and locked out existing free / trial users. I fixed it quickly once I sat down to figure out what was going on. But it's been difficult finding the motivation to actually sit down and focus on the work lately.
At least it pushed me to do that, and get back in this mindset. Yesterday I mostly cleared the support backlog. I patched some things, and today I'm feeling motivated to knock out a few requested features.
The week before, I decided to abandon the 9-5 schedule I've kept for the last three years.
Especially with new pursuits, no full-time employees, and no major clients for the summer, I don't need to adhere to normal business hours anymore. I only procrastinate, anyway.
So now I feel like the work (running my business) can finally blend with the newly-found vocation (making art, etc). Fortunately enough, that vocation can also inform the work, since I'm building software for artists.
It's all just a process to find the balance. And stepping back far enough from the work, even as a solopreneur, has been key to finding it for me.
#threads Original Twitter thread.
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