Motivation?

[Teq]

Not one to spam threads, but I didn't really want to place this under the code documentation one - how do some of you guys (more aimed at those that code during the day) motivate yourselves into coding when you get home? I mean after a long day (like today when I'm fixing UAT "issues"), how do you efficiently make use of your time for development?

I guess, to break up the day, I could do some modelling work, just to liven things up a little, but there will come a time when I still have code to do in my free time at home and currently this is a bit of a sticking point (girlfriend, online gaming and socialising take their toll as well).

[Anthony Flack]

How about wife, toddler, second job and no socialising? I don't worry too much about motivation. If I can manage to squeeze out a bit of dev work at the end of a long day, then I will. If I can't, well that's too bad. I'm not going to kill myself for a stupid game.

I may be prepared to hospitalise myself for a stupid game, but that's absolutely my limit. Speaking of which, here comes an hour of programming before I lose conciousnesegra r fdj,mzn mbxz/

[Savant]

(girlfriend, online gaming and socialising take their toll as well).
Well, of those, at least 2 are expendable. The girlfriend probably shouldn't be sacrificed (as long as she's supportive and you want to be in the relationship) but if you really want to get the project done (I mean, REALLY want it) then you could easily play less games online and socialize less. Sacrifices will need to be made, especially if this is your first project.

[Teq]

I've already self impossed a ban for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, should help a little, just wish I could do without sleep, would free up so much more time! :D

Oh and the girlfriends out of the country til the end of next month, so a great opportunity to code hard!

[kevglass]

Recently I've found:

Turn off IM
Turn off IRC
Close Webbrowser
Close Email

works a treat for me to get useful development out of the small time I guess these days.

Kev

[DangerCode]

Recently I've found:

Turn off IM
Turn off IRC
Close Webbrowser
Close Email



And cancel your cable.

[Glen Pawley]

Edit: If I've had a bad day at work, the motivation comes naturally.

[PeterM]

I think it's very very easy to waste a lot of time just surfing for crap on the web. If you don't use RSS, you're checking your regular reads for updates. If you do use RSS (e.g. Bloglines like me) it pops up every few minutes saying there's something new to read.

And if you're like me, clicking on the shiny tray icon is very very tempting. As a result, the notifier really has to be closed to keep me in the zone.

I also find that a lot of the news which I subscribe to in RSS ends up being pretty useless. I employ a strict 'three strikes' policy. If a site sends me 3 pointless distractions, I unsubscribe. This means my RSS notifications are usually relevant and interesting, instead of just being distracting.

I work (as in 'work' work) from home too, so my bosses like me to keep my IM client running when I'm at the PC for virtual chats. Unfortunately this leads to other people trying to chat with me when I'm trying to do work. I use Invisible mode to combat that problem. But keep that shhh and don't tell my old online gaming buddies...

Pete

[Gilzu]

Stay away from RPG's if you know whats good for you.

You simply sucked into them, realizing only when you (finally) finished them, that youre awake for 5 days, sleeping polyphasically, where you take naps in each act's loading time.

Happened to me with Knights Of the Old Republic I & II, Dungeon Siege I & II, Diablo I & II & LOD expansion, NeverWinter Nights and the list goes on.

the pure joy... ahh...

there's goes my prodoctivity. (http://www.atari.com/nwn2/)

[electronicStar]

There is only a limited numbers of things you can do in your day/life.
So you should really drop the online gaming, that's what I've done anyway.

Then once in a while (maybe once every 2 weeks), you take one or two days to play online, and you do nothing else.
But forget MMORPGS, you should choose a game that doesn't oblige you to level up and take care of your avatar (Unreal Tournament,quake,etc...)

[Coyote]

I simply schedule that into my life, same as everything else. But I'm fortunate in that I play with a group of friends, and we all agree to meet online at 9PM and play for 2 hours on Monday night.

[spellcaster]

What helps best (for me) is to set me actual goals. "I should work on my game" doesn't do the trick. I'd try a few things, but I won't get any work done.

But, if I have something like "Create the Main Menu and Option Screen" I will get something done. So, if I am in no real coding mood, I'll try to come up with some lists of things I need to get done.

One important thing is: Use a flipchart or something for the next couple of goals. Being able to check them on the flipchart is a very good feeling and gives you a motivation boost.

[terin]

I stopped reading this thread at the post where someone said 'two of those are expendable.'

What are you talking about!? You're right but you named the wrong ones!

Socializing and Girlfriends- give em das boot. Everything you need you can find in online gaming and you can find it at a lower price.

Girlfriends and socializing are needless expenses. I was downright RICH before I got married! Now I got kids to support a wife to support (and she's going back to college) and we MUST go out socializing thanks to her need for human contact. Pssht.

If only I'd of become a hermit I could save money and retire....

[Savant]

Right ... With advice like that, I can't wait to read your book!

Also: Birth control. Look into it. :)

[Anthony Flack]

Then once in a while (maybe once every 2 weeks), you take one or two days to play online, and you do nothing else.

Anyone who says something like this already has lots of free time. One or two days? Every couple of weeks? Man! Don't know yer born, I tells ya.

[Laser Lou]

One word:
Deadlines

[Artinum]

One word:
Deadlines

Douglas Adams
I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go past.

That man was a genius.

[Laser Lou]

Yeah, that happpens quite easily, but deadlines can help you get focused, so that you won't spend all of your time dabbling in other things.

[Mark_Tempe]

Stop watching TV
Unplug your computer from internet (works wonders [personal experience])
Play only games of the gender you are making

If you will keep it up for a while you will finish your game.
Drawback to this is all the people around you will think you are weird.
(Again personal experience)
Than again if you already told them that you would love to make games for a living…
You really do not have to wary about that drawback.


Hunique Games (http://huniquegames.com)
Huge and unique science fiction and fantasy games

[MrPhil]

This is a list in progress, but here what I’ve got so far:
Remind yourself why you are doing this, what you dream is. For me it is the freedom and independence to do thing my way and the vision of the game I want to make.
Keep your life simple and focused. I ditched everything that wasn’t important to my dream, sanity or health. Basically I started saying, “No!” a lot.
Give your self room to deal with your inner demons. I'm learning to accept that putting in more elbow grease isn’t going to make success hurry up, you can only live one day at a time and you only have power over the effort you put into each day. I also struggle with my perfectionist tendencies
I use quotes to remind me of my traps, pitfalls and past mistakes. Currently the two quotes I review regularly are:

"Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow." – Aesop
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill

The key is to create a lifestyle for yourself in which each day is enjoyable and headed towards your dream. For me I have to accept that some days I needed to just be lazy and recharge.

[Teq]

This is a list in progress, but here what I’ve got so far:
Remind yourself why you are doing this, what you dream is. For me it is the freedom and independence to do thing my way and the vision of the game I want to make.
Keep your life simple and focused. I ditched everything that wasn’t important to my dream, sanity or health. Basically I started saying, “No!” a lot.
Give your self room to deal with your inner demons. I'm learning to accept that putting in more elbow grease isn’t going to make success hurry up, you can only live one day at a time and you only have power over the effort you put into each day. I also struggle with my perfectionist tendencies
I use quotes to remind me of my traps, pitfalls and past mistakes. Currently the two quotes I review regularly are:

"Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow." – Aesop
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill

The key is to create a lifestyle for yourself in which each day is enjoyable and headed towards your dream. For me I have to accept that some days I needed to just be lazy and recharge.


All sounds good to me, think a few of us have these perfectionist problems, I also have a tendency to want to take shortcuts that end up being a waste of time :P

[dmikesell]

but there will come a time when I still have code to do in my free time at home and currently this is a bit of a sticking point (girlfriend, online gaming and socialising take their toll as well).

This is a joke, right?

[Anthony Flack]

Remind yourself why you are doing this, what you dream is. For me it is the freedom and independence to do thing my way and the vision of the game I want to make.

And for me, the dream is not to have this stupid game hanging over my head any more!

[Sharpfish]

And for me, the dream is not to have this stupid game hanging over my head any more!

Perfection takes time, at least we know you are not making shovelware ;)

[MrPhil]

I also have a tendency to want to take shortcuts that end up being a waste of time :P

Yeah, I do that too. Always playing with the new cutting edge language or game engine release instead of plowing ahead with what I've got.

[dmikesell]

Best shortcut I took was deciding to write my game in Python. I love C++, but don't miss a lot of the tedium. Python programming is sheer bliss.

[gatti]

As an artist, I pop on my head phones, push play on itunes, and close any apps that ding, bing, or blop with sound effects when messages are received. Or I put on a movie (e.g. Lord of the Rings) and have the movie minimized so that it's like listening to a radio play. It keeps my eyes focused to where it should be.

Other times, instead of listening to movies, I listen to the production people/director talk about the movie as the movie progresses. That definitely keeps me inspired.

[Anthony Flack]

Listening to people speaking (like the articles from BBC radio 4 I sometimes stream off their website), I can do graphic work forever.

I wish I could program while listening to people speak, but I just can't concentrate.

[Artinum]

I wish I could program while listening to people speak, but I just can't concentrate.

I hear this a lot (*) but I find it strange. I hate working in complete silence - memories of school exams, perhaps? - and I always want background noise. Sometimes I listen to music, something not too distracting like Tubular Bells or Lighthouse Family works well, or I'll put the television on. I don't actually watch the television, I just like hearing something there.

Maybe I'm just weird. I can get very caught up in what I'm doing and not hear people talking to me. Worse, I answer people talking to me and then have no idea that they even said anything!

(Edit)
(*) - Not necessarily programming... all sorts of things...

Perhaps this is something to do with sensory input? We can work with input from a different sense - for instance, music or speech with graphics work or reading - but not when they conflict. Why programming involves your ears though, I'm not at all sure...

[Sharpfish]

Absolutely can not concentrate on programming with someone in the room/talking/TV. Music however is great - I can listen to a hundred songs in one day of coding and up my productivity. Works best with some comfy headphones :)

I can also (and often do) code in complete silence when I need to think straight about a new problem.

Everything else (modeling, texture and webwork) can be done with T.V on or people in the room.

all of this is besides the point of the topic though so.. motivation? Just do it! (and accept you will have downtime and exhausted times).

[Anthony Flack]

It's not quite beside the point - if you can work while listening to things, it can be a fantastic tool to keep you going. Even the fact that you want to finish listening to whatever it is will keep you working until the album/article/whatever is finished.

Unfortunately, it is a brain conflict thing, and it seems to affect some people more than others. I can't listen and code; I lose my train of thought and can't remember a variable name from one second to the next. Other people don't have that problem and they're probably more productive coders for it.

I don't like working in silence either.

[Savant]

I like music when doing anything art related but it's hard to handle anything with vocals in it if I'm trying to code. It's weird. I know some people can do it - I can't. Classical, jazz, etc. are great but vocals totally distract me.

It's the same reason, I think, why I can't leave IRC running in the background. It drives me crazy. I have to see what's happening in the channel and I can't work.

[Huge]

It's not quite beside the point - if you can work while listening to things, it can be a fantastic tool to keep you going. ... I don't like working in silence either.

I don't like the silence either - I code with the tv on in the background (with my back to it, so I mostly "listen" to tv these days). I don't think I pay to much attention to what is actually on, but a strange thing happens sometimes when I get in a bit of a coding groove - when I come back to the code in the next week or two, I can recall most of the details about what I was listening to at the time !
This make me think I would be quite susceptable to hypnosis.