To be the best at fundraising, start by taking care of yourself.

I saved the best for last and it’s possibly the hardest. The number one thing you can do for yourself is practice self-compassion.

Lack of good deep sleep impacts your physical health, your mental health, your mental acuity, and even your reaction times. To keep your productivity high and your mental health strong, create a sleep routine and get good sleep.

While I’ve spent the last week and a half talking to you about tips and tricks for mental health, I’m not a trained professional, but I know the benefit of having one. I strongly encourage all founders to find a great therapist.

When was the last time that you gave yourself permission to spend time on yourself? It’s not enough to just spend time doing something that you want– to take a break one night and then fret all about the things that you could be doing or should be doing. This is completely counterproductive. Giving yourself permission is the critical part of this.

There are some inputs in your life that you can control such as food, drink and exercise. And there are some things that you can’t control, like your chronotype. And if you fight against this, you’re just going to make yourself tired and miserable.

Why is it so hard to ask for help?

Asking for help is important for everyone, doubly so for founders. We live in a society that values independence and self-sufficiency so many of us still struggle to ask for help, especially for our most vexing problems.

I’m here to tell you that asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.

Prioritization is knowing the destination. Relentless reprioritization is continually navigating along the way to the destination.

It’s apropos that I’m releasing this episode today because Wednesdays are my GSD days. My Get Shit Done day. Taking time boxing to its logical extreme is the GSD day. No scheduled meetings are allowed on GSD days. None.

Kicking off a focus on founder mental health, my first suggestion is Timebox. You’ll hear me say this all the time: time is our most precious asset. Maybe a corollary to that is focus. I found that I can create focus by time boxing.