How I structure work as a Solo Founder

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This is for sure something that will keep evolving over time, but I got inspired by this Hacker News post to share in more detail how I organize myself and my work (you can see my short answer here).

The question posed is great, so let’s start from there:

When working with a team, I’ve found that Scrum-like short-term goals and organized task backlogs really help keep me focused and on track with the work I have to do. For solo development, however, I’ve never really found any approach that sticks and often end up getting sidetracked and losing track of my objectives.

So my question to all of you is, what tools and techniques have you used to ensure you stick to your objectives?

You could rephrase this slightly to: How do I run my own project management?

For most Engineers, this is not actually something they’ve needed to do often, especially if working in larger corporations. The people that have worked at Startups are a mixed bag, where some learn the value of structure, and others managed to get by without since the fast-paced environment changes things around all the time anyways.

I’ve personally landed in the camp of: Structure is valuable, even crucial, but it should never get in my way. Best of both worlds sorta.

What is my context?

Not every way will fit everyone. That’s actually one of the most important lessons of implementing processes: Make it fit to your reality.

So what is my reality?

I’ve spent many years both as a solo-dev on my hobby projects, and as a leader running multiple teams of Engineers, acting CTO, and even helping managers do the same.

Right now though, I’m a solo founder working on multiple small projects as I figure out both what I want to do, as well as what might realistically allow me to continue doing it forever.

In other words:

• I run many small-to-medium projects
• I have more projects than I have time (like almost all businesses)
• Each project can be a mix of Engineering work, research, a bit of marketing, sales’y activities, etc
• I need to be flexible and able to change focus fast
• I will inherently…