Juanjo Valiño

It is the laptop stand to have it closed in clamshell mode.

Previously, I had it with a different stand to have it opened, conforming a 3-screen setup.

But I realized it was way too much screen real estate, that it felt distracting and somewhat overkill.

So I tried this option, which I think looks pretty dope on the desk and I’m quite happy so far :)

I don’t think I have a magic recipe for it.

Probably it’s a mix of:
-Experience
-Staying up to date on what’s trendy
-Getting inspired by the big players on the indie hacking scene
-Trying things and making mistakes.

I think it’s super important to learn to get bored, something that is very difficult nowadays due to having all kinds of distractions within our pocket. I recommend for it the book ‘The Stolen Focus’ by Johann Hari.

Usually new ideas come to my mind while I’m mind wandering — usually while working out (running and surfing)

I wake up naturally without an alarm.

I go out to the park for 15 minutes, without phone, to have the first light in the morning. I learned from Dr. Huberman that this is super important to sync our circadian rhythm.

Then I go back home, prepare breakfast and a good cup of coffee.

After breakfast I start working: usually answering emails, Twitter notifications and DMs, customer support… a bit of light work.

Then, I take a deep work session—usually coding. I have the Mac and iPhone Focus Mode ON during that. Notifications completely disabled.

I do a daily workout before lunch. Usually running or if the forecast is good enough, I take a 10 minutes drive to the beach to surf.

Then I have lunch and a bit of doomscrolling, YouTube…

I schedule another deep work session in the afternoon.

Around 7:30-8 pm my girlfriend arrives home, so I leverage it to disconnect and spend good quality time with her.

Some days I finish working later, some days earlier. Some days I’m lazy and I barely do anything… It depends on the day. But normally it looks something like that.

I think the greatest struggle is consistency and discipline.

You have to enjoy the process.

Otherwise, it will be extremely difficult to wake up every morning and start working on your stuff:
-Without a boss.
-Without anyone saying what you have to do next.
-Without a team to rely on.

However, those are also the things that I like about it. Thus, it’s important that you like the freedom and embracing the uncertainty.