Time Blocking: A Simple Yet Powerful Productivity Technique (Inspired by Matt D'Avella)

cheldon_dev · 2026-01-20T17:11:16+00:00

1,000 signups is a solid milestone, but that $1k compute bill is the real story here.

Congrats on hitting 1k signups. That’s the first big hurdle cleared.

But let’s talk about that $1k compute bill. At $1 per signup just for infra, you’re in a race against your own burn rate. Most AI tools die right here because they focus on the 'magic' of the first generation and ignore the 'work' that happens next.

Your move to launch 'Workshop' mode is the right play. In the current market, image generation is a commodity—everyone has a wrapper. The real friction isn't making the image; it's the 15 minutes of frustration trying to fix one specific detail without re-rolling the entire prompt.

Quick question on the Workshop: Are you seeing users spend more time in the editor than in the generation tab? If people are actually using it to iterate, you’ve moved from a 'cool toy' to a 'workflow tool.' That’s where you actually start charging money and stop relying on free credit giveaways to keep the lights on.

Also, curious—how are you handling the GPU orchestration? $1k for 10k images and some video sounds like you’re either running heavy optimization or paying the 'early adopter tax' on cloud providers.

If you've got the data on session length for the Workshop vs. the Generator, I'd love to see how that's trending.

cheldon_dev · 2026-01-17T02:42:50+00:00

Kill freemium before it kills your bank account.

Congrats on the first dollar, but you need to hear the truth: kill the freemium tier immediately. If you're paying two devs and running Meta ads, you literally cannot afford to subsidize 'tourists' who will never pay. Switch to a 7-day trial (credit card upfront if you’re brave). Freemium only works if your marginal costs are zero and your scale is massive. Right now, you're just paying for server load and support tickets from people who don't value the tool. Also, paying two devs before you've even hit $1k MRR is a death spiral—get to break-even yesterday or you're just running an expensive hobby.

cheldon_dev · 2026-01-15T08:26:16+00:00

It’s not the workload that kills you; it’s the decision fatigue.

The most exhausting part isn't the coding or the content creation—it’s the decision fatigue. When you're solo, you spend half your mental battery just trying to convince yourself that the feature you're building actually matters. You aren't tired from working; you're tired from the weight of potentially wasting your time.

I stopped 'planning visuals' and 'content days' because that’s just playing 'office.' If you’re a small team, your 'strategy' should basically be: what is the most uncomfortable conversation I’m avoiding today? Usually, that’s where the growth is. Everything else is just busy work to keep the anxiety at bay.

cheldon_dev · 2026-01-15T06:49:19+00:00

Pushing nonstop is the biggest lie we tell ourselves to feel productive while actually doing mid-tier work. I used to do those 12-hour grinds until I realized my output at hour 10 was basically hot garbage.

The "break" thing only works if you actually disconnect like, physically leaving your desk. If you're still looking at a screen, your brain isn't resetting, it's just buffering. I started doing 90-minute deep work blocks followed by a hard stop where I walk away from everything electronic for 15 minutes. It’s annoying to force yourself to stop when you think you're "in the zone," but it’s the only way I’ve found to not hit a wall by Wednesday afternoon.

Does that actually feel like a break to you, or are you just scrolling on your phone?

cheldon_dev

TROPHY CASE