This is my attempt to reboot into a creative routine after a burn out. Not ready for a full post mortem of what caused the burnout yet. Realised I need to step up my game to meet the creative demands. One of the main causes for the burn out was not giving myself time to reflect & plan. This is an attempt to fix that. This model worked well for me with development. I’m a little lost actually. I’m not sure what I’m trying to do with this. So, I decided I’ll just keep writing about it and see if that brings some clarity and hopefully some structure.


Day 1:

First, I put down our main objectives and the tasks/activities that they involve. That seemed to have freed up some headspace for sure. But it still feels incomplete.

What is my next step?

There are some high priority urgent but not important items that are still drawing my attention. This is a recurring pattern. This is one of the major causes for my burn out. So, I need to gate / timebox these demands. Fixed timeslots is a good starting point. 2-6 for all calls and chores is what I’m thinking.

Reset the todo list system and added all the tasks into it. On the flipside, todo lists are what caused the burn out in the first place. So, may be I’ll reign that in a little bit.

I have the objectives mapped out. I have the tasks mapped out. Can I do a timeline?

I tried to do a timeline, but it felt like wish making. The tasks should be broken down to a more granular level. Exploring Quire to see if it makes the timeline planning process easier. Signed up and mapped the whole timeline on a Quire project. Definitely easier to break things down and plan timelines. But, I feel like I’m losing prioritisation somehow.

I still feel like, something’s missing.

Maybe that’s the way of the jungle. You don’t get to have a beautiful big picture all the time. So, I started prioritizing some of the tasks and setting deadlines.

At this point, I feel the biggest differentiator is streamlining lead generation. For this, the key problem to solve is getting a good marketing agency onboard.

No that isn’t it. It feels like I need to elevate a little more for prioritisation.

Ok, cleared up the PMF doc and reset.


Day 2:

Started working on the PMF document to regroup.

  • Articulated the positioning: Customer segment, USP, Pain points
  • Tweaked the offer

Sync up with Thinkbyte folks. Some insights on digital marketing:

  • Not worth it to hire an agency
  • Digital marketing and cold calling with separate out automatically
  • Lead cost increases in meta if the ads are not periodically updated
  • There shouldn’t be any discrepency between Meta leads report and download.
  • Connection rate for calls should be around 60%. 70-80% is industry best.
  • Have multiple ads in the ad set for facebook to circulate.
  • Retargetting in meta is essential
  • Omnichannel retargetting is also crucial.
  • Futwork & others for lead qualification as a service
  • Claypot for enriching leads and automating marketing.
  • Meta offers webhook API to pull in campaign data automatically into sheets.

Continuted working on the offer. Enumerated problems & solutions with value equation in mind. Pricing is still an issue. Not able to find a convincing pricing model.


Day 3:

Needed a higher level reprioritisation to retain clarity. Cleaned up and reset CEO.xmind. That will contain the big picture. Enumerated most of the important threads. Need to figure out a small daily ritual around revisiting that big picture.

Started working on the ads. Figured out the framework for ad content. Enumerated the campaigns, callouts, value propositions. Started working on the scripts for the value proposition.

Not able leverage AI fully for this. It feels like the words coming out of AI are not authentic. They feel more like marketing language. Need to figure out the right balance of effort and tone. I can get the tone right, but it will be a lot of work. I can use AI, but the tone will feel a little artificial.

For now just using AI, to give me some raw sentences and then editing those sentences to sound a little more authentic.

Had call with Sathwik. Free design. 10-12 designs per month. 1 designer in house, they might move out. Want to get the wives into design. Should definitely be a potential customer. Should keep in mind to follow this up tightly. Ideally should be handled by someone else. May be get a full timer for customer support / training / follow up?

Handed over Starthub enquiry to Viswanadh. Resolved successfully. Need to start preparing for fundraising.


Day 4:

Setup an opening ritual.

  1. Develop the ads further & handoff - Needs more effort from my side - Devanshu is blocked on this - Ads are blocked on this - Will take a week atleast for preparation
  2. Develop engineering backlog - Priority items will get delayed by a week - Needs effort from my side to review beta
  3. Prepare for marketing funnel consultation - One time consultation opportunity. Need to prepare to capitalize.
  4. Finalise the Quote generator design & handoff

Marketing funnel consultation is my priority today. Consultation call is schedule at 4pm. Undecided if I should start my day with the prep or block an hour before the consultation call. Prioritisation vs efficiency. I’ll go with prioritisation. This should be the highlight of my day.

Consultation call was completely useless. Apparently there’s some other guy who might be a better fit.

Worked on the script for one ad and handed over to Devanshu. Gave access to Canva account and gave one reference for the ad video.

Reviewed Dilpreet’s renders for the sample Tridasa model. Feedback still needs to be shared.


Day 5:

Started with opening ritual:

  • Reprioritised fundraising preparation.
  • Planned the calendar for today.
  • Updated the todo list for chores
  • Setup the notes
  • Updated and setup the daily log.

Entire day’s focus is clarifying the engineering backlog:

  • Jayant: 75 hour backlog [Ready]
  • Manan: 50 hour backlog [Ready]
  • Raj: 55 hour backlog [Ready]

Intense back to back calls. Long day. The only matter of concern is that I missed the solo testing.


Day 6:

Started with the opening ritual. Prioritised fundraising preparation. Started with some inspiration from Presenting to Win. Tussled with the flow structure. Feels like still incomplete. Explored the budget plan with the seed raise.

Switched to working on the ad copy to get things into motion. Had a call with Viswanadh to review the positioning implications.


Day 7:

Missed the opening ritual today. Definitely feeling slightly disorientated. But the work itself seems to be disorientating.

Worked on the current offer & pricing. Resolved a pending issue with IT litigation.

Worked on


Day 8:

  • Started the day with a brainstorming exercise.
  • Then had a marketing breakdown call.
  • Then regrouped with the “opening ritual”.
  • Worked on the strategy.
  • Had a call with Viswanadh.

To be honest, this is not really making sense for me. Not sure what I’m doing with this. This feels like reporting. My goal with this reboot was to use this to help elevate.

Day 9:

Was taken over by bug on production for very high end projects. Sat debugging that the entire day and late into the evening. The issue did not get resolved even then. Managed to provide a temporary workaround for a few days of relief. Will have to get back to this very soon.

Day 10:

Got back to the highest priority issue: Increasing call bookings. Redid the website for a booking first flow. Claude is pleasant to work with. I haven’t had a bad experience yet. Got the ad variations ready. Reviewed the v2 of the opening videos for the landing page & the course. Redid the voice over for one of the opening videos. Redid the ending for the intro video to change the CTA.

Day 11: