Founder’s Dance with George Levin #16

It’s been an intense week workwise, but I made great progress and want to share a productivity trick that’s helped me stay focused.

For months (years?), I’ve been experimenting with ways to improve focus for deep work—tasks like rebuilding a website, drafting a lengthy proposal for a prospect, or redesigning onboarding paths. These projects require extended periods of uninterrupted attention, which can be challenging to schedule, especially as the founder of an early-stage startup.

Startup Hacks: Balancing Maker and Manager Modes

The root of this challenge lies in what Paul Graham described in his essay Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule. In short, there are two types of schedules:

1. Maker’s Schedule: Built around large, uninterrupted blocks of time for deep work. Even one meeting can disrupt this flow.

2. Manager’s Schedule: Filled with multiple short blocks of 30-60 minutes for work meetings and what Graham calls “speculative meetings”—casual networking over coffee without a clear agenda.

The real difficulty arises when you have to combine both roles. As a founder, you wear many hats: meeting with the team, pitching to VCs, attending speculative meetings (since roughly 1 in 5 creates a new opportunity), and tackling focused work.

A common solution is to group meetings into one or two days, but that’s not always feasible for me. With a team in Portugal, clients in the U.S., and investors across the globe, my meetings are often spread out throughout the day. It's hard to dive into deep work when I only have an hour between calls.

Here’s the trick I’ve started using: an old-school Pomodoro technique with a twist.

• The System: I commit to completing six 30-minute Pomodoros each day. I track my progress in a shared Google Sheet with two friends, Pasha and Dennis, to stay accountable.

• The Tools: I use a physical Cube Pomodoro Timer and record my Pomodoros in a notebook. This helps me avoid distractions from my phone or laptop. Opening messengers or emails often drags me into reactive mode, so staying offline is key.

This approach has made me far more productive. When I have 30 minutes, I turn on the timer, shut out distractions, and focus entirely on the task. Knowing I need to log my progress in Google Sheets by the end of the day keeps me accountable, and breaking work into manageable chunks makes even a fragmented schedule feel productive.

If you’re juggling roles like I am, this simple system might work for you, too.

Product Spotlight: Roam Research

It might feel a bit late to spotlight a product that peaked in popularity about four years ago, but I can’t skip this one—I'm a true fan. The product is Roam Research—a note-taking tool for networked thought— and I’m currently typing this text in its editor.

Roam was the first note-taking app I discovered with bidirectional links. The concept is simple but revolutionary: when you write a term or topic you plan to revisit, you can highlight it with double square brackets. This creates a node—a central hub that links to every mention of that topic.

Whenever you use the same term again, Roam connects it back to the original node, automatically generating backlinks showing all the places where the term is referenced.

This system makes organizing ideas feel effortless. There’s no need for folders or rigid categories. Everything connects organically, like a web, revealing how your thoughts interrelate.

For me, Roam is a game-changer. It helps me write freely without worrying about organizing my notes. At any moment, I can click on my biggest nodes—like "Startups," "Relationships," “Productivity,” or "Meditation"—and instantly see a history of all related notes.

This is the secret behind all my newsletters and posts. I can quickly pull up something I’ve already written on a topic when I write. If I’m out of inspiration, I open my note graph and browse through nodes until something catches my attention—something I want to explore further. Thanks to Roam, I never face a blank page problem.

Here’s a snapshot of my current graph:

Culture Corner: Loserthink

This week, I’d like to share Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America by Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip Dilbert. Published in 2019, the book introduces the concept of "loserthink"—unproductive ways of thinking that arise from limited exposure to diverse fields and perspectives.

I love the term "loserthink" because it acts as a broad placeholder for all the biases and flaws in our thinking. I’ve been collecting examples of these mental traps for years and working to avoid them. This book is a light, funny, and entertaining version of Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

Here are five examples of loserthink from the book:

Mind Reading. Assuming you know someone’s thoughts, motives, or intentions without clear evidence: "They didn’t reply to my email because they must hate me," when there could be countless other reasons for their lack of response.

Catastrophizing. Imagining the worst possible outcome of a situation and reacting as if it’s inevitable: "If this law passes, it will destroy the country," ignoring nuances, safeguards, or historical examples of resilience.

Binary Thinking. Seeing issues in black-and-white terms, without acknowledging complexity or middle ground: "You either agree with everything I say, or you're my enemy," instead of recognizing a spectrum of opinions.

The Historical Fallacy. Believing that past patterns always predict future outcomes without considering new variables: "This company succeeded in the past, so it will keep succeeding," ignoring market conditions or competition changes.

Spotlight Effect. Thinking everyone is closely observing and judging your mistakes when, in reality, they’re likely too focused on themselves to notice. If you stumble during a presentation, you might think, "Everyone must think I’m terrible," when most people either didn’t notice or forgot about it quickly.

I have an extensive collection of "loserthink" from different books and my experiences. Here are my two favorites:

Mixing cause and effect. When we try to solve the symptoms of a problem instead of addressing its root cause.

Overcomplicating solutions. When the most obvious and straightforward fix is overlooked in favor of something more complex or "cool."

I’ll elaborate on these in my next newsletter—stay tuned!

Speak soon,

George

December 8, 2024. Brooklyn Heights.

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