Do not index
Do not index
I’ve been a Notion enthusiast for a while now. It powers much of my business—SOPs, this blog, summaries, and any long-lived documentation. But when it comes to short-term, day-to-day task management, I started feeling the need for something more purpose-built. That’s when I decided to give Linear a shot.
Even though Linear is primarily designed for teams, I’ve really enjoyed using it as a solo founder. Here’s how I’m keeping my one-person product studio on track.
Initiatives for Each Part of the Business
I start by setting up initiatives. For me, this is straightforward. Lunch Pail Labs has two main streams: Advisory/Client Work for the service-based side of the business, and Add-Ons, which are products that I build and manage directly. I also have a more general initiative for business-related tasks that don’t fit neatly into the other two.
Put Projects in Their Initiatives
Each initiative in Linear is broken down into projects. For example, under the Add-Ons initiative, every plugin I'm working on gets its own project. Similarly, in the Advisory/Client Work initiative, I create a project for each client to manage tasks and deliverables.
For meta work—tasks focused on the business itself rather than client deliverables, like testing a new automated process or trialing a new discovery approach—I set up projects under the relevant initiative. This ensures even experimental efforts are tracked and refined over time.
Create Issues for Each Task Within a Project
When I have a specific goal within a project—like refining credential validation for a plugin, adding more API calls, or upgrading a feature—I create an issue in Linear. This issue represents a focused task, with all the sub-tasks and details needed to accomplish that goal nested within it.
Planning the Week
When planning my week, I move issues from the backlog to the "In Progress" section, selecting a few to focus on. Once completed, they’re moved to the "Completed" section. This setup makes it easy to review what I’ve accomplished and see how my week unfolded.
And that’s my setup! Any other Linear fans out there? I’d love to hear how you’re using it—feel free to send me a note!
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