Starting Up, One Year Later: The Downward Spiral

Re:Starting Up, One Year Later: The Downward Spiral by edawerd on Sunday June 21, 2009 @05:24AM (#667277)

'All the stuff "normal" folks do to unwind and interact with the world outside of their jobs -- go to the gym, read a book, go out to dinner, watch TV, play a game, etc. -- I either won't allow myself to do or feel guilty over doing.'

This encapsulates exactly how I feel most of the time. It's really hard for me to get past the guilt of not working on the startup. Even things like eating breakfast in the morning, I don't want to do because I feel like I'm wasting time, so I end up starving myself until lunch.

It's weird because it one of those things that you KNOW you shouldn't do, yet you somehow find yourself in that downward spiral.

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Re:Starting Up, One Year Later: The Downward Spiral by tdavis on Sunday June 21, 2009 @05:49AM (#667291)

Damn, one of my favorites and I forgot about it. Eating, period, makes me feel guilty. Maybe because it costs time and money and sometimes I'll watch The Daily Show or something while I do it?

This is one of those I considered too ridiculous to even rationalize; it's in the "because why not" pile.

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Re:Starting Up, One Year Later: The Downward Spiral by Sujan on Sunday June 21, 2009 @06:16AM (#667302)

I realized I was feeling guilty for eating the same way you two did. I also watched TV along the way, so I was feeling even more guilty because often I stayed far longer than needed. There's so much useless stuff on TV you can watch for hours anyway.

First try: Cut the TV, read rss feeds or email while eating. Baaaad idea, obviously. Not only was I still feeling guilty because 'without eating you would read much faster' but I also degraded eating to something even less valuable. There was zero relaxation, I didn't even really _taste_ what I was eating.

Second try: I dismissed TV, rss feeds and everything else while eating. Eating now is my 30-to-60-minute-break of everything 2 to 3 times a day. I just concentrate on preparing and eating the food. I even started to eat in my kitchen again and not on my couch or in front of the computer. Makes a hell of a difference.

I'm so much more relaxed after these breaks. Often I will stay a little longer and read a magazine (brandeins, a german business magazin) or even a book.

PS: Next step is to go out for eating every other day to get some sandwiches, pizza or something. It's a bit more expensive but really helped me to really get away from everything in my head.

PPS: Of course I sometimes still sit over my keyboard with a pizza and work while eating, but well, I never said I was perfect ;)

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