Hours spent, Hours wasted.

[Uhfgood]

Well I have sort of a problem here. It has to do with motivation (in a way) but before you think this is another "oh he can't find the motivation" thread let me tell you the situation. I've been developing here at home for several years. I did manage to get a few games completed and released, no biggie. I did a contract job which took a fair amount of my time. Now that that contract job is getting close to done, i'm finding I have more of my time back. So at times I feel like I can work for hours, and I do. Other times I wake up late, and my whole day gets thrown off, and I don't feel like doing anything. I keep trying to schedule time to do certain things, but I have a hard time following. Sometimes it's work on 1 thing don't worry about anything else, sometimes it's split my time equally, sometimes it's make a to-do list for the day. My last one involved 9 hours of work (i know alot, but it had to do with dividing up time equally with some of my projects) I can't seem to stick with that either. The other side of this is Dad is letting me stay home and do this, so when he gets home from work, I should be done with work for the day too.

Okay so my new idea is to work 6 hours a day, and let two hours be for anything I want. (The reason i've been wanting the time is because I want to start playing games again, as a way to keep me sharp, more than just mere entertainment, Plus with an extra hour to spare I can do things like account for going to the library or a little extra cleanup work on my room, etc.)

I'm kind of curious if you guys think that 6 hours a day is spending too little of time working, and how you like to maximize your time. Also if any of you have a messed up day (timewise) and what you do about it. Okay so basically evenings and weekends I can't do anything about, I can work pretty much any other time of the week, aside from sleeping, eating, and showering.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks
Keith

[serg3d]

I had the similar problem while I had the day job. I had a "motivation" but had difficalties to concentrate on the my project after the dayly job. So I set a fixed "after job hours". That helped. However as soon as I left day job and start to work on contract concentration problems seems disappeared. So I suppose the sharp change of enviroment help....

[mkovacic]

So at times I feel like I can work for hours, and I do. Other times I wake up late, and my whole day gets thrown off, and I don't feel like doing anything.
People usually use alarm clocks to prevent that. ;) Seriously, I know that for a lot of people sleeping late when you want is a part of the appeal of being indie, but sleeping late just does not work for some people. I know that I certanly can't function that way - getting up late == non-productive day for me.

I'm kind of curious if you guys think that 6 hours a day is spending too little of time working, and how you like to maximize your time.
6 hours is plenty if you have the discipline to spend that time working and not procrastinating by doing side stuff that you can rationalize as being work (reading forums, "checking" the docs, checking the flipcode, etc.)

I don't, so I work longer.

Also if any of you have a messed up day (timewise) and what you do about it. .
Suck it up and try not to repeat it again, what could I do?

Just try to make note of how a particular work regime works for you, eventually you'll find something that works well, then it's "simply" a matter of sticking to it.

[Rainer Deyke]

I've found that after my day job, I can work two hours a day, 356 days a year. If I haven't worked my two hours at the end of the day, I just don't go to bed until I've finished my two hours of work. I'll remember to focus on my work the next day. On a good day I can work a lot more than two hours, but I've found that more than two hours per day isn't sustainable for me through the slower and less pleasant phases of development. If you can manage six hours, you're way ahead of me.

[tonyedgecombe]

6 hours is all I can do in a day, after that I start getting tired and making silly mistakes.

[mahlzeit]

Working 6 hours (or 5, or 4, or 3, etc.) is better than spending all your time wondering how much you should work. :) In the end, only you can decide whether 6 hours was enough for this particular job. If you cut out all the distractions and actually work 6 effective hours, you'll be more productive than most people on 9-to-5 jobs.

[Mentat]

Since I have a dayjob, a wife and 2 kids, I can relate to this thread.

During the day I work 8-4, then come home to watch the kids while my wife works evenings.

Generally, once the kids are in bed I am already starting to feel drained. There have been numerous times when I've sat down with the intention of working on my game, only to "veg out" in front of the monitor staring at my work, or feeling the urge to play a game rather than work on one.

But whenever that happens, I become more and more disappointed with myself. So I began keeping a list of all of the tasks that I have to complete. I find it easier to knock out the small things first, because then I close the night with a sense of (at least minor) accomplishment.

This does wonders for my morale. There are still times when I am not as disciplined as I'd like to be, but I'm finding that it is getting easier and easier to slip into the work mode by "forcing" myself to put at least some amount of quality time in a night.

Now, since making games is only a hobby for me, this is acceptable. I can only imagine the difficulty involved when relying totally on income from game development.

[tolik]

Yeah, Mentat has a great advice.
Install Mozilla Sunbird or use Microsoft Outlook to track all your tasks. Even minor ones, so you'll not forget. Plan your day. That'll really keep you obliged to something.
That helps alot until you become too lazy to open subird or outlook... It happened to me lately.

[Bluecat]

There's a technique for writers that I use to get work done when I'm not feeling motivated. It's "write one sentence or paragraph a day".

Translated to programming, it's "do one thing on my todo list today." I purposely keep tiny things on my todo list for this reason. Instead of "write 3d engine", it's, "implement this little function", or "work on this graphic."

I find that when I get started I keep going and build on what I did before. So that by the time I finish, instead of one sentence, I've completed a page.

[carl]

Okay so my new idea is to work 6 hours a day, and let two hours be for anything I want. (The reason i've been wanting the time is because I want to start playing games again, as a way to keep me sharp, more than just mere entertainment, Plus with an extra hour to spare I can do things like account for going to the library or a little extra cleanup work on my room, etc.)

I'm kind of curious if you guys think that 6 hours a day is spending too little of time working, and how you like to maximize your time. Also if any of you have a messed up day (timewise) and what you do about it. Okay so basically evenings and weekends I can't do anything about, I can work pretty much any other time of the week, aside from sleeping, eating, and showering.

Any thoughts on this?


Steve Pavlina wrote an article that touched on this topic:

Overcoming Procrastination (http://www.dexterity.com/articles/overcoming-procrastination.htm)

In summary, when you limit the amount of time you are allowed to work, you begin to feel deprived, and therefore make better use of your time.

Carl

[GBGames]

There's a technique for writers that I use to get work done when I'm not feeling motivated. It's "write one sentence or paragraph a day".

Translated to programming, it's "do one thing on my todo list today." I purposely keep tiny things on my todo list for this reason. Instead of "write 3d engine", it's, "implement this little function", or "work on this graphic."

I find that when I get started I keep going and build on what I did before. So that by the time I finish, instead of one sentence, I've completed a page.

And even in the unlikely case you don't capture the fire at that point, you've at least made some progress in knocking off one todo item.

[Dan MacDonald]

Just as a metric, at the last Day Job (tm) I worked the goal was to have 5 hrs of ACTUAL WORK done a day. I think we rarely achieved that goal, yet we were still a failry productive profitable company.

[Bluecat]

And even in the unlikely case you don't capture the fire at that point, you've at least made some progress in knocking off one todo item.

Exactly right. And as you say, it's pretty rare to just get one item done. I generally find that this only happens when I get interrupted by the phone, or if I just wanted to get something done before I left for work, had dinner, or went to bed. (The other case occurs when the item is tougher to complete than I expected.)

[Bluecat]

Just as a metric, at the last Day Job (tm) I worked the goal was to have 5 hrs of ACTUAL WORK done a day. I think we rarely achieved that goal, yet we were still a failry productive profitable company.

This seems about normal for most white collar businesses. In an eight hour day there is quite a lot of time spent getting coffee, going to the toilet, chatting by the water cooler, and conducting personal business. Five hours is quite good. Look at how much time people spend on this forum! ;)

[Kai Backman]

I tend to start early myself (7am-9am) with the exceptional 10am now and then. I have a separate office to work at, so the trip works as a great way to orient myself into work. I've experimented with a ton of techniques and here are my basic conclusions:

1. Keep improving all the time. When you find something that works, stick to it and refine further. Everything changes over time.
2. Starting early is good. Starting with the most difficult and biggest task is good. Postpone everything else until you have your big stuff done. (I'm writing this a late 11pm as I had a few extra minutes before going to sleep.. :))
3. Timeboxing is good for repetitive and sometimes boring tasks. I have a goal of including one timeboxed hour of "office work" (accounting, replying to administrative email, sorting inbox, paying bills etc). I use a digital timer to make it 60 minuts sharp.
4. If you are inspired, work it out, but crawl home before 8pm .. :)

And the most important for last:
5. Have clear goals.

[Chaster]

Lately I have been thinking about doing something somewhat unorthodox: removing internet access from my workstation and setting up another workstation as my "internet" station... on the other side of the room.

I suspect I will get (a lot?) more work done if I am not constantly keeping an eye on e-mail and surfing the web on impulse... However, I still need to do these things fairly regularly, hence the idea to put the "internet station" across the room so it is still accessible, but not "in my face" all the time...

What do you folks think?

Chaster

[GBGames]

Lately I have been thinking about doing something somewhat unorthodox: removing internet access from my workstation and setting up another workstation as my "internet" station... on the other side of the room.

I suspect I will get (a lot?) more work done if I am not constantly keeping an eye on e-mail and surfing the web on impulse... However, I still need to do these things fairly regularly, hence the idea to put the "internet station" across the room so it is still accessible, but not "in my face" all the time...

What do you folks think?

Chaster

Something like this is one reason why some companies are deploying Linux instead of Windows for desktop solutions. If you have secretaries or accountants, they only need the software they need. Windows requires you to have a web browser, whereas with Linux it is an optional software package.

Not that this applies here. You need Internet access...but not when you don't. B-) I think timeboxing would work for you. Give yourself 30 minutes, 60 minutes, whatever, to do something. Then schedule time for you to do things with the Internet. Five minutes, 10 minutes. An alarm to make sure you stop when you're supposed to is a good idea.

In "No B.S. Time Management for Entrepeneurs", Kennedy makes mention of distractions of your time like phones and email. Value your time, and you'll be able to prioritize distractions. You get an alert from your software that you have a new email? Not now. The point of email is to be able to check it when you want. If you have such alerts, turn them off. Phone call? Unless you have a reason to believe that it will be very important, let the answering machine or voice mail pick it up. Schedule a time to check email and phone messages. Your time should be guarded like the precious resource it is.

If time boxing won't work for you, then hopefully you'll be disciplined enough to stay away from the Internet station when you know you should be at the workstation.

[moonpxi]

Great!! This was just the thread I needed!!! Very interesting concepts to pick up.

Nevertheless, have you all thought how the internet can be such a wonderfull and terrible thing at the same time? When you have a problem, be it in a strange method call or devlish engine problem, you can always search and find a slew of interesting information. On the other hand, most of the time it's hard to actually get off a forum and start working.

Oh my..I am here again... :D

[Uhfgood]

Thanks for the replies, good stuff. But what is "timeboxing" ?

Keith

[george]

Thanks for the replies, good stuff. But what is "timeboxing" ?

Keith

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/index.php?p=13

[20thCenturyBoy]

Lately I have been thinking about doing something somewhat unorthodox: removing internet access from my workstation and setting up another workstation as my "internet" station... on the other side of the room.

What do you folks think?

I totally sympathise, in fact my wife is threatening to remove my broadband router in the evenings because I spend so much time on the web. "But it's work related!" I proclaim. The problem with the Internet is that there's too much damn interesting stuff on it. I've just spent about an hour at the Anti-Grain Geometry site, plus the links that lead off it. Is that hour wasted? Well, I know more about AGG but it hasn't helped my programming move on.

20thCB

[Martoon]

I suspect I will get (a lot?) more work done if I am not constantly ... surfing the web on impulse...

Here's one tip for not wasting time surfing: For the love of God, don't install this (http://www.stumbleupon.com/) in your browser! (And you thought websurfing by itself was digital crack). ;)