Meet the founder
Last updated 22 Sep 2026.
Goeie dei! I’m Jan Sytze Heegstra, the chieftain over at heegstra.io, where I help people make sense of a million ideas by simplifying them. Daily Captain is the simplest of those systems, and the one I use every single day.
My passion: the simple things. My struggle: overthinking the complicated things. I know “What now?”, “Where do I start?” and plain “Why?” a little too well. For a young, chaotic overthinker it’s easy to get lost in the million thoughts running through my head every day. So I started building systems that keep me on course.
Why a daily goal sheet
I worked in sales. We had one goal, a thousand sales, and I was busy every single day. The question I asked far too late was: how is what I am doing right now actually getting me to that number? Most of it was activity. Very little of it was aimed.
So I made a sheet. Every morning I write down what today is for, at most seven lines. At midday I check once: is what I am doing moving me toward what is left? At night I count honestly and write tomorrow’s first goal. That sheet started as a free PDF. Daily Captain is the same sheet, made dynamic, with the one thing paper cannot give you: someone who sees it.
Why someone sees your week
Everyone says never build alone. I build alone. What I found is that I do not need a partner for the work, I need to be seen doing it, the way people work harder in a library than at their kitchen table. So in Daily Captain one buddy sees your week and answers, and your public page shows the goals you choose to show. Not a feed, not a score. One person who knows what you set out to do.
Why it takes a minute
Planning tools ask when you will do something. I do not think most things need a time slot; they need a yes or a no. If it is important, it goes on the sheet. If it is not, it does not. That is why the whole thing takes a minute in the morning and a couple at night, and why I have actually kept doing it, every day, which is more than I can say for any planner I bought.
Things I’ve done
- Jack of all trades at Heegstra Yachtcharter (yes, everyone in my family uses their last name to start a business)
- Worked in a beer brewery at Grolsch
- Worked in restaurants
- Shipbuilding and roofing at Talsma
- Ran 2 marathons (1 untrained and 1 trained)
- Studied at the University of Twente
- Failed multiple times as a wantrepreneur
- Digital jack of all trades at CazVid, a recruitment SaaS
- Web design
- Door-to-door sales
- And many other interesting things
What I like
- Guayaberas
- Travelling
- Guinness
- The Wim Hof Method
- Friends (and making new ones)
- Writing about pages about myself
- Cola (I consider myself a connoisseur)
- Bluegrass music
Say hi
My own sheet is public at dailycaptain.app/jansytze; follow it if you like. If you want to say hi, email hello@dailycaptain.app. I reply personally. If you know me personally and you’re thinking “that’s not the guy I know”, that’s the proof the system works.
