While the AI is working, you drop out of your flow state and your attention scatters, and that drives burnout up
Let me tell you how it was for me. I went through these stages:
• FROM a huge number of very different tasks/projects that lead to burnout (I had up to 6 projects at once)
• TO the optimal number I can work on at the same time, stay in flow and not burn out (now it's 1-2 projects at once)
I made a decision for myself: not to chase doing a lot and fast, but to do one project (two max) as well as I possibly can from start to finish and only then take the next one. That's how the burnout went away, and it keeps me in flow all the time 🔥
These days the work is mostly split into stages:
Architecture - 70-80%
1. Idea - no screen at all, just pure thinking in my head about how it should be built in the final version as I imagine it
2. The deepest research possible - launching a swarm of agents on the questions: how to solve this problem, are there competitors, are there ready-made solutions, what ready tools and combos exist, what has to be built from scratch
3. Prototyping and working through the idea - what makes a good MVP and what makes a finished product
4. Planning the implementation, security and testing - how everything will be done
5. Audit - I have an automated process of 8 reviewers with independent checks, with 3 models inside: Claude + Codex + GLM
6. Weak spots - meticulously working through every flaw the audit found
Development - 20-30%
7. Development - through GSD: research again, answering the researchers' questions, planning and so on through the GSD process
8. Testing - after every stage, fixing bugs right away
9. Live mode - the project running for real with built-in analytics at key points
10. Debugging + evolution - improving the product, building new features
Bottom line - in 95% of cases I get a finished product on the first try and don't burn out 🎯 Working in GSD frees up more time to do something else in parallel, but I still keep an eye on the screen and sometimes catch bugs on the fly if development heads the wrong way. I never leave everything fully on autopilot - the cost of a mistake is way too high and it's a shame to lose the time ⏳