Building a company solo with AI is supposed to be energizing not exhausting. To avoid burn out and ensure I properly leverage AI, I’ve adopted 5 new habits into my daily workflow. Before I share them, let’s back up and talk about how I got here.
Context First
Since I quit my dream job, life has been expectedly uncertain and prolonged uncertainty can be exhausting.
In fact, it’s often the uncertainty about what’s next that’s most challenging about unemployment. Combine this anxiety provoking sentiment with an absolutely brutal hiring landscape and rising inflation and it’s easy to see why I and many others are taking a different path forward.
A path that replaces the uncertainty of unemployment with the uncertainty of entrepreneurship.
However, unlike passively waiting to get that email from Jessica at HR, building your own company actively shifts the uncertainty of waiting on that email about “next steps” to the simple certainty that whether I sink or swim is up to me.
With the context set, let me share why AI has been kicking my butt and the 5 new habits I now incorporate into my daily workflow to fight off AI mental exhaustion.
Feeling Limitless
In the last 5 weeks, I’ve spent countless hours ideating, experimenting, building and iterating on a handful of ideas and small projects that have led to the creation of CHUMP and GetJarrett.
In that small amount of time, I’ve been able to ship more stuff than I could’ve ever thought possible thanks, in a large part, to AI – specifically Anthropic’s Claude.
Between CHUMP and GetJarrett, I've launched websites, filed an LLC, set up multiple social channels, designed a content strategy and shipped it, started a newsletter and a weekly YouTube video journal, built out workflow automations for myself, and wired together some other tools for family. Specifically, I built a calendar reminder bot for my father that I’ll write more about in the future.
Sidenote: While I ideate the content direction of this newsletter with Claude, I write and edit every article. In an AI world, real human creativity is the only currency for builders sharing their message.
Needless to say, I’ve done a lot and learned even more in a short amount of time.
It’s been both creatively energizing and mentally draining.
The energizing part is obvious, as AI can compress weeks of work into a Sunday afternoon. I've built things I didn't technically know how to build. I’m not a coder nor will I ever pretend to be one, and yet I've moved faster from idea to prototype with Claude in a couple hours than I would’ve in 2019 with an unlimited budget and a full-time developer.
But here's the part I didn’t foresee on my road to building a company solo with AI.
Every single day, there is something new I have to learn. A new workflow. A new way of prompting. A new tool I might have to trial for an hour before I can even decide if I need it. These days, Claude has around 2 updates a week on average, so keeping up with those alone could be a full time job.
Building, however, doesn’t tire me out. In fact, I love it. I’ve always wanted to build more things on the internet but felt technically handicapped, as I’m not a coder, and financially hamstrung, as I don’t have unlimited resources to throw at devs to take ideas to prototypes. However, with a $100/month Claude Max plan I can seemingly create whatever I have the energy to create.
And, this is the real challenge of building solo with AI – can you keep up with it? Do you have the energy?
This mental exhaustion from having to learn so many new things reminds me of an important lesson I learned while in the Peace Corps.
Naps In The Peace Corps
On January 6th, 2010, I flew from Washington, D.C. to Guatemala with 45 other U.S. citizens to serve in the Peace Corps, and one of the biggest lessons I learned from the 3 month language and cultural training was what they said about naps.
In short, naps are completely normal for adults WHEN adults find themselves out of auto-pilot and thrown into new challenging environments where they’re constantly learning new things all day, everyday. I remember the trainer specifically equating this desire to nap to regulate one’s mental health and overall well-being being similar to babies, since everyday they have to learn hundreds of new things.
Back To Building A Company Solo With AI In 2026
In the last 5 weeks, I’ve likely learned more new things than I did in the entirety of 2025. This is not to say that I didn’t grow or seek out new learning opportunities in the 12 months of 2025, it’s just to try and communicate how much I think I’ve been exposed to and have had to learn over the last 5 weeks to get CHUMP and GetJarrett where they are today with the support of AI.
As I said earlier, everyday there’s something new I have to learn.
Claude doesn’t care about my mental exhaustion when we’re working together. I just ask Claude to help me do XYZ and it’ll lay out the steps to do it. Steps that often take me way outside of my technical comfort zones and to parts of the internet I’m just learning about today as a 39 year old Millennial. Everyday AI humbles me like I’m Arya Stark training with the Faceless Man at The House Of Black and White. There’s no room for ego. Just Action.
And, because of this, I’ve recently adopted some new workflows to protect my own energy, so I can get the most out of Claude and properly build CHUMP and GetJarrett, as well as explore other projects without burning out.
5 New Workflow Habits
Here's what I now incorporate into every day:
Movement first. I'm in the gym every morning before work starts. I used to be more of a mid-afternoon gym goer, but not anymore. I also switched to a standing desk during the day, which I find helps to keep me alert. On days off from the gym, I‘ve now take a 30 minute walk outside, which leads to the next new workflow habit.
Get outside. Even on days where I could technically stay at my desk from morning to night and grind — I don't. A walk, some actual sunlight, something that isn't a screen is intentional when you’re knee deep in AI. The internet meme of “touch grass” is a real thing for a reason.
20 minute afternoon nap. Per what I said above about naps being a real thing for people who are in new challenging environments with a lot of mental stimulation, I take a mid afternoon, 20 minute power nap. I simply lay down, close my eyes, often with an eye-mask and ear plugs to just zone out all the literal and figurative noise, and then slow my heat rate by focusing on my breathing. This 20 minute reset allows me to finish the day strong.
55/5. While China has its 996 work schedule where people work from 9AM to 9PM 6 days a week, I opt for a 55 minute on followed by a 5 minute off workflow. I set a timer and work without interruptions – no texts, calls, social media, etc – for 55 mins and then get off screens for 5 minutes, get water, go to the bathroom, go outside quickly, have a snack, etc. It isn’t always exactly 55/5, but you get the idea. This has been a real gamechanger.
Systems so I don't repeat myself. This might be the most important one for anyone else building daily with AI. Every time Claude and I figure out something about how I work — my voice, my process, my preferences — I make sure it's captured somewhere I can use again. The goal is to save my energy for new problems, not old ones I've already solved. The more I systematize, the more capacity I have. In my opinion, memory is the real BIG recent breakthrough with AI.
None of these are revolutionary on their own, but doing all five consistently has made a real difference in how I feel at the end of the day. And honestly, building something from 0 at 39 with no salary, no team, and a tool that updates regularly demands that I take my recovery just as seriously as I take my work.
En Resumen
Building with AI can still be exhausting, but these new workflow habits balance things out and I’d opt for the mental exhaustion of learning too much to build a company solo any day over the anxiety provoking uncertainty of trying to get a job in 2026.
I didn’t necessarily know where I’d land after I quit my dream job, but I knew I’d land, so because of that I took the leap.
As always — nothing replaces action.
Thanks for reading and see you next Tuesday.
If you end up adopting some of these workflow habits into your daily routine - please leave a comment below on how they've helped or how you’ve augmented them to fit your working style.
I read every comment and will promptly reply!
To learn more about me, check out this article.
To get in touch with me, please reach out here.
To learn more about CHUMP, check out the website here and sign up for the launch waitlist.
To check out my weekly video journal of this journey, visit my new youtube channel.