Heyy,

The 404 Archives exists for founders, creatives, girlies, and anyone building something they are confident in and actually want to be proud of. I'm Kanza, I run a web design studio, and honestly? Some days I feel like I'm crushing it. Other days not so much.

It’s a rollercoaster. And if you’re on one too, you’re in the right place.

I love the idea of the soft girl entrepreneur and the slow mornings. You know the coffee, journaling, not checking emails until 10am.

But can I be honest for a minute?

I literally wake up every day with anxiety if I don’t check Slack or emails in the first hour of the morning. My brain spirals until i just do a ‘quick skim’ through the apps.

I’m doing better now though (because I wait until my tea is finished to open my laptop). It’s a win. Baby steps, right?

I remember this one time I was going to chill at my friend’s house and I brought my laptop with me, just in case. She looked at me and said, “Honey, I think you have separation anxiety from your laptop.”

And omg. So true. Called out.

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately: how this attitude has a ripple effect on my team.

We launched our website last week. Huge success, btw. Like, genuinely proud of what we built.

And literally 24 hours after the launch, my team was up and moving on to the next thing.

We never really got a chance to clap for ourselves. A chance to take in everything we did. It was just... onto the next goals for the quarter. Immediate pivot. Next deadline. What’s due this week.

They do say your team is a reflection of you.

So I took a step back this weekend and thought we need a minute of appreciation. A space to allow us to be proud of our work. Celebrate it, even. And then take that energy into the next thing.

Because constantly running from one thing to the next without stopping to breathe? That’s not sustainable. And I’m realizing that the hard way.

I’ve started doing this with myself too.

I realized how I enter my work in the morning with not a lot of clarity. It’s mostly just urgency to complete the to-dos and get as much done as possible. Stack stack stack. Productive but also... kind of frantic?

But here’s an addition to my routine that’s given me more clarity before I actually start my work day:

I created a simple digital journal in Notion.

Every morning now, I wake up, get ready for the day, and make my cup of chai. And after 3 deep breathes, I sit at my desk and before checking anything, I go straight to my digital journal and just... write.

Sometimes it lasts 10 minutes. Sometimes 25 minutes. Whatever needs to come out.

And in the last two weeks I’ve done this, I want to tell you that it’s given me calm. Mind clarity. An actual slow morning.

Initially, I was building these barriers in my head that I’m such an analog-only girly that journaling in a digital space felt almost illegal. Like I was betraying my aesthetic or something.

But it feels more accessible this way. Because my laptop is naturally the first thing I like to check every morning.

I think I want to test out this digital journal thing for the next few weeks and see where it goes.

So that’s where I’m at. Building a studio and trying not to burn out in the process.

If you’re reading this and you’re also the person who checks their email before their eyes are fully open or moves immediately to the next thing without celebrating the wins.

You’re not alone.

We’re all just figuring this out as we go.

Hit reply and tell me: What’s one thing you’re trying to do differently this month? I genuinely want to know.

See you next week,
Kanza