Productivity for solo-founders

•

I maintain 10+ websites. My four tips for keeping track of it all as a solo-founder: ♻️ Re-use same architecture across all products 🔔 Set up notifications for when things break 💬 Make it easy for customers to reach me ❌ Don't rely on dashboards. I'll forget to check them

♻️ 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 For me that means Ruby on Rails. It doesn't really matter what you use, as long as you're consistent. This means any insights you get along the way (e.g. how to upgrade to new version) can be easily applied across all your apps.

♻️ 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁 I'm in process of moving all my apps to @render because they strike the right balance between flexibility and affordability. Some smaller apps were cheaper on my own VPS, but I prefer having the same architecture everywhere. render.com

🔔 𝗨𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 I use @uptimerobot to get a push notification whenever my website goes down. It's really easy to set up and requires no changes to your site. uptimerobot.com

🔔 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 When there's a problem typically it doesn't take down your whole website. It might only affect some users in some scenarios. @bugsnag notifies me when a bug occurs. I get an immediate email + weekly summary. bugsnag.com

🔔 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 Slow requests should be treated as bugs. @skylight emails me when certain pages become too slow. I also receive weekly summaries. skylight.io/r/zoIBxM84bxUI ($50 credit)

🔔 𝗦𝗤𝗟 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝘀 Blazer is a Ruby gem to quickly run SQL queries. It also lets you set up checks. It will email you when a certain SQL query returns unexpected results. I use it for monitoring sign ups don't dip below a certain number etc. github.com/ankane/blazer

🔔 𝗚𝗶𝘁𝗛𝘂𝗯 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘁 @github has a neat feature called Dependabot. It will take care of updating all your dependencies. it will notify you (via email) when it runs into any problems. github.blog/2020-06-01-keep-all-your-packages-up-to-date-with-dependabot/

🔔 𝗣𝘂𝘀𝗵 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 I use Push More (my own bot) to notify myself in Telegram of certain events happening in my websites. For example whenever someone signs up I send myself a Telegram notification. pushmore.io

💬 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝘂𝘁 I use a combination of @HelpScout and regular email. By making it easier for customers to reach you, you'll get more feedback and notified when stuff breaks 😅 helpscout.com

❌ 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 Every time I set up a dashboard of some sort I get really excited for a few days and then never check them again. So I've decided not to rely on them for anything important.

Thanks to @frankdilo for this thread idea! Hit reply if you have any topics I should write about. twitter.com/frankdilo/status/1408047064609603589