Jason Leow

For the past two weeks since I got off my consulting train, I've been pushing to launch a new product. I wanted to launch something new in a week. But the more I tried, the less motivated I am. The more I worked, the lazier my body became. The more I berated myself, the foggier my mind got. It's like the whole body was fighting me.

Then I chanced across a post on social media and it all came together:

> And then her body whispered... "I'm not fighting AGAINST you, I'm fighting FOR you. Through pain and tension I communicate the boundaries you never learned to set. Through fatigue and exhaustion, I give you the rest that you were never allowed to take. Through the headaches and brain fog I let you know that you are doing too much. You see, I've always been on your side, I'm just waiting for you to be on mine." – Lexy Florentina via [@somaticexperiencingint](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cv55gFXsneI/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==)

I was still moving on the momentum of the past few hectic months that I couldn't stop. But my body needed to us to stop and rest. The mind needed us to lighten up and play.

They whsipered but I didn't hear. So they all conspired to teach me how, in their own unique way. By shutting things down one by one.

Until I finally got the memo.

*Ok body, mind, I got it.*

No more projects and projecting.
No more deadlines.
No more new goals.

Just rest.
And play.
Go to zero.

Do whatever it takes until they come back and whisper, "We're ready."

Turns out, for some Carrd site layouts/templates, the plugin doesn't work. Still a mystery why it didn't work, even though I found the CSS to solve it.

Tutorial:
https://08862e02f9591b74.demo.carrd.co/#troubleshooting

Every day I switch between 2-3—sometimes 4—of my projects. A typical day might be:

- Answer support emails for Carrd plugins
- Build a quick plugin if someone asks a question that needs a unique answer
- Write daily for Lifelog
- Post on LinkedIn for Outsprint
- Build in public on Twitter for Lifelog or Plugins
- Prepare slide deck or content for consulting with Outsprint client

For people who like to focus on one thing, this is a nightmare. For doctors, they'll suggest I go on medication probably. If I'm employed, my boss might frown upon my way of working.

***But I love it.***

To me doing one thing for the whole day it's no different from doing multiple things. I can just do one thing for the whole day if work requires. My consulting projects are often like that. To be honest, I have no deep personal preference. But context switching is fun for me. Switching helps bring fresh energy. So when my schedule is free, I tend to find myself doing multi-tasking more.

Society in general seem to hate this though. It's like how the world favours extroverts. You only read articles titled "Introvert? Here's how to be more social and outspoken." I'd love to one day see an article that says "Extrovert? Here's now to be more reflective and quiet."

Same energy when it comes to multi-tasking, context switching, and generalists. Society explicitly favours specialists and focus.

I like to say, people like me are actually specialists too. Specialists at context switching and multi-tasking. Or master generalists.

I think the neurological diversity has a purpose and benefit for us as a species. But in our factory stamp approach to work and productivity, we've forgotten that diversity is more resilient.

Thankfully, being an indie hacker means I don't have to heed any of that, and just do whatever works for me.

In a way, I didn't find indie hacking. Maybe indie hacking found me instead... because of those divergent traits.

IG influencer [@pichit89](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cv3lzjfBzd_/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) schooling us how shipping should be done on a Sunday:

[](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cv3lzjfBzd_/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)

So peaceful. So calming. So joyful. Now I want that so much. In fact, not just for Sundays but any day. This should be the default vibes for indie hacking on a daily basis.

Calm shipping.

I often find this hard to do, being type-A personality, compulsive and impatient workaholic and all. But it always enthralls whenever I see a version of this in any activity – meditation, mindful living, camping, ASMR videos.

Life's too short to rush through just to get to the goal.

The means is just as important as the ends.
The journey just as enjoyable as the destination.

The real endgame should be to go as fast as I mindfully can, while being fully present and calm to all the things I'm doing and the environment I'm doing it in.

I want to ship calmly.
I want to run a calm business.
I want to be a calm indie hacker.

Is #calmshipping a thing?

If not, it definitely should.

https://logocarousel.carrd.co/#changeimagestutorial

⭐️🛠 NEW FEATURES & FIXES ON LIFELOG

📸 You can now upload images directly on the rich text editor!

🗞 Added markdown rendering to announcement banner on home page. Now we can show links on the banner.

- Remove bug causing directly uploaded images to expire after 10min
- Fixed bug when default markdown for image insertion is showing null instead of placeholder url
- Fixed bug where hover on the light bulb tag isn't refreshing the writing prompt
- Other minor style and bug fixes for better UX, e.g welcome modal

Found a workaround: will add inline styles directly on my Google Sheet which update directly on announcement banner , e.g. to underline use

I always loved bringing sports analogies and lessons into productivity and indie hacking. This tweet by [@fitfounder](https://x.com/fitfounder/status/1690364931252830208) is a good one:

**We perform our best at 85% intensity.**

The long tweet was so good (with ~7M impressions) that I must reproduce in entirety here:

> When an athlete is told to run at 85% they run faster than if they're told to run at 100%. It's called the 85% rule and here's why it works:
>
> Carl Lewis was a 9 time Olympic gold medalist who was known as a master finisher but a slow starter. He began races 2nd to last but usually ended up finishing first. It became known that he's wasn't performing at full throttle. He was going at 85% the whole time.
>
> Why 85%? When you have your best performances it's never when you're trying your hardest. Instead the task usually feels easy & effortless. Going at 85% is a mindset about relaxation & performing at a high level while being in flow. It's about pacing, form & finishing. At 85% you're not striving or straining by operating at the very limit of your ability. You have room to think, focus & adapt. Applying the 85% rule helps you balance intensity while being focused & relaxed. Here's a few example of how to do it:
>
> At work:
> Instead of going full throttle, take your time, release the pressure & focus. Put an emphasis on optimizing your systems & adopt a mentality of expending 85% of your mental energy towards a task. Your perception of energy is the biggest component to your productivity.
>
> In your diet:
> Instead of trying to be perfect aim to get 85% of your food choices right. This takes the pressure off of you and gets you away from an "all or nothing" mindset. You want to be adaptable to any situation and hitting 85% is enough to get your body in shape.
>
> In your workouts:
> Instead of going to failure for every exercise aim for 85% intensity so you can focus on good form & keep your body injury free. We have a rule to keep 1-2 reps in the tank when lifting and this fits perfectly into it.
>
> Keys to the 85% rule:
> 1) Relax
> 2) Focus on form
> 3) Set your mind to 85% intensity
> 4) Work just below your maximum threshold
> 5) Stop when you feel close to 100% of your mental/physical capacity
>
> Instead of putting the pressure by trying to go 100 aim for 85% instead. Doing so might help you unlock new levels of performance.

Mindblown 🤯 We perform better at 85% intensity than 100%.

So much for the mainstream narrative of trying your “best”, going at 110%. Another example of how popular ideas break down when you probe deeper.

So I wonder: What does operating at 85% look like as an indie hacker?

- **Not working 24/7.** Take your breaks and weekends seriously. I work on weekend early mornings but it's more on a hobby side project so it's pretty fun and relaxing.
- **Not working long hours** within a day. No late nights or all-nighters. Instead of 12h full-on days, try 8h with scheduled breaks every hour, or 6.5h of full-on. I find it's too straining if I sit in my chair without getting up for 2h, so getting up and moving about every 1h or so is a good guage of going at 85%.
- **Finish well.** If I'm finishing the day feeling drained, back aching, eyes dry, and throbbing headache, then I've went too hard. The ideal finishing state is feeling fine, balanced or even half-relaxed, even if there's some fatigue.
- **End nice.** I always like to end the day with a bit of recap on what I did, to kinda reflect and review, and have a tiny moment of celebration for good, honest work done for the day. Then spend a few minutes looking ahead to the next day on what tasks to work on.
- **85% posture.** While working, a stance leaning back in relaxed but mindful focus seems to work better than a posture sitting on the edge of my seat, pupils dilated, sweating, frowning, hunkering down. I learned this from long distance running too – good form lets you last longer, and is less straining.
- **Minimal meetings or calls.** Maybe 1 a week for me. If I schedule 3-4 face-to-face sessions in a week, I get drained.
- **Context switching** between projects and tasks. I try to stick to max 2 projects or problems per day, context switching 3-4 times a day (based on how my day is structured between family, lunch etc).

*What other hacks and tricks do you have to work or perform at 85% capacity?*

Wakes up at 4am on weekends excited to work on a hobby side project.

But don't feel that way during weekdays on other 'main' projects.

There's always that nagging thought that it's wrong that I feel that way about the former and not the latter. I thought my motivation was broken. Because shouldn't my main things be more interesting and motivating?

But [someone on Twitter](https://twitter.com/JakeDuth/status/1690360804393070594) broke it down for me perfectly: The dopamine from the novelty of a hobby project feels energizing, because it's meant for recreation. But longer projects takes a way longer time, requires consistency and persistence, has tasks that are boring, and goes through lots of highs and lows. It requires delayed gratification, a belief that the project will pay off eventually in the future.

Which now makes so much sense.

Now that I build features on Lifelog every weekend for fun, for myself, for my friends here, not for growth or profit, there's so much less expectations and pressure. Plus I use this tool every day, so I see direct benefit from sharpening it every weekend. Whereas for the other weekday projects, there's more expectations, more commitment, more customers to support. But in the long term, it'll pay off in terms of revenue and helping me hit my indie hacker goals.

So it's 100% normal to feel more excited on side project weekends.

Nothing's broken.

Keep calm and carry on.

Throwback to mid 2014, 9 years ago. I just left my job as a designer in a government Ministry. It was a stable, iron rice bowl kind of job. It provided what I needed to get married, buy a flat. But I left that safe harbour to try fulfiling my dream of owning my own business. I wanted to push myself. I wanted freedom. I wanted to create products and SaaS.

I wished I could code, but it was waaay hard for me.

So I simply started with what I was good at – design in government, but as a consultant. That made me a good living, but also made it hard for me to learn coding. I tried from time to time for the next few years, got bored of the online classes, dropped out, lose interest, forgot about coding. Then many months later the same process would repeat.

I still wished I could code, but hated coding. I only loved making products.

It was only till 2020 that coding finally stuck. In Dec 2020, I made Lifelog, my first SaaS. That's already 6 years since quitting from my last job.

That took a while.

And now 2023, I feel like I've only just started. Hitting $1k monthly revenue is like turning 1 month old as an indie hacker baby.

Learning to code took 6 years.
Hitting $1k revenue took 3 years.

That took a while.

> Remember when you wanted what you currently have? – [@poppacalypse](https://twitter.com/poppacalypse/status/1689666867823304706)

But everytime I feel impatient with my progress, this question always helps me come back to some gratitude. And most importantly, to be gentler and kinder to myself.

10 years ago, I wished I could code.
10 years later, I can, and make money from it.

Now that's worth celebrating.

- Added image upload functionality to rich text editor on compose page.
- Moved close button of welcome modal at topright of screen to topright of content box on compose page.
- Removed expiration=600 param in imgbb api endpoint url as causing images to expire.

In prep for real launch sometime this month