Task Switching
One hindrance to my productivity that I've found is task-switching. When one task (usually programming, since that's both the day job and the side-job) is complete, I find myself either lingering overlong to "gold-plate" it, or seeking distractions, rather than moving on to the next job.

Am I spending too much time just patting myself on the back, or rewarding myself with distractions? Quite likely. I've noticed that with Frayed Knights, that between the Torque Game Engine / Torque Game Builder "Frankenengine" and the groundwork I've already laid in the game's architecture, a lot of the tasks I've set for myself actually take less time than I expect. When I get on a roll, I can cross off a lot of jobs off my list, and see enormous progress on the game.

Having that written list (which I've begun maintaining a lot more meticulously over the last week or so) is one of the keys to maintaining that productivity. I have found that I stall out a lot on "deciding what to do next." Being able to consult the list - particularly if it has already been prioritized - really helps remove this one mental block.

A trick I used during Void War's development - which I haven't yet implemented in Frayed Knights (though I may be fast approaching that stage) was to arrange the tasks in "triples" - a task I was really looking forward to doing, a task that really needed to be done to keep progress moving forward, and a major bug-fix that I really felt like putting off. The trick was that I couldn't do any other tasks (usually) until I finished all three of the "triplet." This meant I had to finish some annoying tasks before I could move back to a fun one.

Once I get going on a task, if I can get "in the zone," I do pretty well. It's just those naughty little transitions --- getting started on the next task --- that keeps tripping me up. Any ideas for how I could do to fix this?


(Vaguely) related yammering:
* Productivity Tip: The List
* Fighting Procrastination: The "Local Maxima" Problem
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Labels: productivity

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:42 AM (Permalink)