Discussion
nekolucifer
neom: "Rule 1: Work every day. No skipping days.Rule 2: Begin working immediately, as soon as I wake up.Rule 3: Internet and Phone stays off for the first hour. "You have DigitalOcean because myself and a few other folks did this consistently for 5 years straight.They're good rules for accomplishing something.
andai: Hi HN! This is probably the most important thing I ever learned, so I'll repeat it here for the people who only read the comments :)I found a way to work on my project every day, without willpower.I just eliminated all the failure modes.1. Skipping days breaks momentum: I can't skip days. (So I made it easy to win: I only need to show up for an hour.)2. Delaying the work leads to missed days. I get tired, I get distracted, I forget. So I decided I need to work as soon as I wake up. Then I guarantee it gets done.3. Distracted by stupid BS. Noticed that all my distraction came from the internet, and getting distracted would tank productivity for the remainder of the day. So I just unplug the router before bed.That's my whole system, and I'm using it right now. (I used it to write this post!)The deeper idea here is ... just find out what's making you fail, and see if you can't design around that. Just design it so those things do not happen. Then you will win by default.Hope this helps! :)---P.S. the astute reader may observe that this describes the Q2 category in the Eisenhower Matrix... the stuff we want to get done "someday", but which will never get done unless we make time it. For this reason, I very strongly recommend dedicating the first hour to Q2. Q1 "handles itself", by definition. Q2 is the one that needs love!(That probably should have been the main thesis. Oh well!)
bob1029: > Skipping days breaks momentum: I can't skip daysThis is my most important rule. I do not believe in "rest days" anymore. They are catastrophic for my ability to stay focused on a big project. This isn't to say I advocate for a 997 working hour system. I do believe in taking it easy and sometimes putting in the bare minimum, but a day with absolutely zero progress I cannot permit anymore.24 hours is a long time. If I can't add a tiny amount of value each day, the project is probably dead. Especially a project like a game. The workflows for things like creating 3d models and scenes are generally so complicated that if you don't exercise them ~daily they will rot quickly. I open blender after not using it for a few months and it almost feels like I've never used it before. Not because I don't know how to use it (although I am far from an expert), but because the specific workflow that adds value to my project is not a straight line through space. It's a lot of steps and menu options to click through. Good luck remembering which UV unwrap presets you prefer for UV0 vs UV1 after a week of working on something unrelated.Just keeping the tool chain open & alive on my machine feels like 80% of the battle. If it's sitting there and in a good state to iterate with, I find myself automatically pulled toward it. If that battlefield 6 queue takes longer than 10 seconds, I will inevitably be alt-tabbed into Visual Studio or Unity.
zahlman: > Q2 category in the Eisenhower MatrixI thought I was in the target audience for this post, but now I'm entirely confused.
andai: If you like not having terrible regrets, you are the target audience! I'm still getting the hang of explaining things, sorry ;)The Eisenhower Matrix[0] is a system for deciding how to spend your time. There are two booleans, which combine into four quadrants.Q1: Important and UrgentQ2: Important, not UrgentQ3: Not important, but UrgentQ4: Neither important nor UrgentI realized a while back that when people talk about their "dreams" in life, they're actually talking about Q2. They're talking about the category of things they want to do "someday", but which, unless they actively make time for, will never happen.Because, by definition, there is always something more urgent pressing for your attention. Q1 and Q3 "do themselves", in the sense that life will pressure you into dealing with them. There is no real pressure for Q2, except for the occasional "oh my god another year has passed and I have made no progress."So I strongly urge everyone to figure out what your Q2 is, and to schedule it first thing every morning.[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management#Eisenhower_met...It had its own page, but nothing good lasts on Wikipedia!
andai: The discipline of practice every day is essential. When I skip a day, I notice a difference in my playing. After two days, the critics notice, and after three days, so does the audience. —Jascha Heifetz
