Monday, September 29, 2008
What to do when you are overtasked
Once upon a time, I wanted to learn how to juggle. I had a book on juggling, and got to the point where I could juggle the usual three bean-bags in the air pretty well without any fancy stuff. I was working on four, but kinda got bored at that point, and quit.
But one part of the book on juggling stood out to me. They talked about entertaining people, and mentioned that people didn't really want to know how many objects you can juggle, but how many you can't. They want to see your point of failure. Their advice was not to give in to the pressure. And that it was better to let a single object drop than to let everything get out of control.
Sometimes, life is like that. And it's usually my own dang fault for letting myself get overloaded with things in life I have to juggle. The cool thing is that I've been there before, and it takes a bit more to overload me now than it used to. I'm getting better with practice.
What has worked for me in the past - and which I need to implement now - include some of these tools:
* Keep a written 'to do' list handy, to make sure things don't drop through the cracks.
* Remember that it is better to let a lower-priority task just drop from time to time rather than letting everything fall to pieces.
* Assign tasks to specific times. I usually hate doing this, but at times it is psychologically helpful to be able to say, "This is my two-hour block I'm spending on Frayed Knights. I can ignore everything else."
* Learn to say, "No." I still suck at this. And when it's my wife doing the asking, saying "no" is really not an option.
One of the biggest tricks for being a part-time indie game developer is trying to manage an overload of tasks that inevitably arise when you are effectively working two jobs. For those who have no clue where to find the time to actually get your game done, I hope this has proven at least slightly valuable.
Labels: productivity
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:50 AM (Permalink)
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I've found ToDoList (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/applications/todolist2.aspx to be extremely helpful. It's an awesome tool, very well implemented, with some great features. Everyone should use it! =D
Every six months to a year I reread Getting Things Done. At the very least my ToDo lists are much more useful because I know the difference between a Next Action and a Project (you can DO next actions, but you don't DO a project).
I'm impressed that you can still get time in to work on Frayed Knights and play Wizardry AND deal with crunch at your previous job. These days, I've been dealing with crunch and maybe I can squeeze in something here or there in a week. It's pretty demoralizing.
I'm impressed that you can still get time in to work on Frayed Knights and play Wizardry AND deal with crunch at your previous job. These days, I've been dealing with crunch and maybe I can squeeze in something here or there in a week. It's pretty demoralizing.
>> And when it's my wife doing the asking, saying "no" is really not an option.
:-)
I learned juggling from my last job. I had so many tasks and deadlines to get done in a single week while working several weeks ahead that juggling became second nature. Stress is the biggest enemy in these situations. Stay calm, especially at times when you shouldn't be calm. Just like in Happy Gilmoor, my mind goes to my happy place while my fingers are smoothly chipping away at the problem.
:-)
I learned juggling from my last job. I had so many tasks and deadlines to get done in a single week while working several weeks ahead that juggling became second nature. Stress is the biggest enemy in these situations. Stay calm, especially at times when you shouldn't be calm. Just like in Happy Gilmoor, my mind goes to my happy place while my fingers are smoothly chipping away at the problem.
Modern childhood is often "overtasked" also.
Back then, about thirty years ago, when I was a kid I had one pre-planned activity per week (a karate club).
The other time after school was essentially mine after doing homework.
Today kid's calendars are filled to the brim with X different activities - and their parents have to drive them all the time (at least until a certain age is reached).
If you learn to do all those things you may get used to it as an adult but for myself I like to decelerate life - or as a "spare-time programmer": I like to optimize things OUT.
For example, I though about including lenght of time for the development of game elements (every bit of information, actually) in my design papers (two Excel spreadsheets).
I dismissed that idea because it leads to nothing and would only *cost* time.
Maybe a bad example but you'll surely get the point ;-)
Back then, about thirty years ago, when I was a kid I had one pre-planned activity per week (a karate club).
The other time after school was essentially mine after doing homework.
Today kid's calendars are filled to the brim with X different activities - and their parents have to drive them all the time (at least until a certain age is reached).
If you learn to do all those things you may get used to it as an adult but for myself I like to decelerate life - or as a "spare-time programmer": I like to optimize things OUT.
For example, I though about including lenght of time for the development of game elements (every bit of information, actually) in my design papers (two Excel spreadsheets).
I dismissed that idea because it leads to nothing and would only *cost* time.
Maybe a bad example but you'll surely get the point ;-)
# posted by 
: September 29, 2008 9:25 PM
: September 29, 2008 9:25 PM
"* Learn to say, 'No.' I still suck at this. And when it's my wife doing the asking, saying 'no' is really not an option."
Oh, lord, I know how this is. I'm working on my game, I'm in the zone, stuff's getting done, and then...
"Come rub my feet!"
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Oh, lord, I know how this is. I'm working on my game, I'm in the zone, stuff's getting done, and then...
"Come rub my feet!"
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