That was someone’s way to get work done and avoid all the distractions.
But … plugging the pull errr pulling the plug … no way! I can’t do that simply because i need to research a lot, browse documentation, ask questions in a forum, google …
But what has helped me in the week i’ve used it (this one), is:
- the Pomodoro Technique
- splitting Opera into seperate windows
Now the latter i did not know was possible or even reasonable to work with. On Windows you can have several Opera windows but when you close one of them all the tabs of that window are gone. You probably have to force yourself to use Opera’s menu: File -> Quit so that the next time all windows are opened again but for a Windows user that is a rather unusual way to close an application, right? On Mac it’s a bit more intuitive i think, as the (x) doesn’t close the whole app so it trained me not to use that button but instead rightclicking the App icon and selecting “Quit”.
Now, how do several Opera windows help me? Well, i tend to have lots of tabs open. And i mean: LOTS! Like at least 30, more towards 50 really. I don’t know how people can live – let alone work – with a browser with which you have to start all over after every restart/reboot. I can’t. Now that i’ve learned that Opera supports multiple windows each with its own Tabs, i simply organized my tabs into these windows:
- my blogs/websites, Twitter, Facebook, other forums (aka: potential time sinks but not needed for work, use before or after work or during long pauses)
- my tasklists (Acunote) and my documentation (Confluence Wiki)
- my scratchpad, mostly coding-related pages and temporary research results
- Gamasutra articles (i “collect” them … i just can’t close them if the article sounds interesting … sometimes months pass by without me reading any of them, still it’s nice to have them available when i got nothing else on my mind)
Now that i said that … where’s all the private and fun stuff?
I realize that i use only one gaming news site and everything else happens on my server. I connect to it via VNC and it also has Opera running with gaming related stuff, etc. … a lot of distractions are on there but due to the physical distance and the fact that it’s used by other people as well i just tend to browse them very infrequently (but not without annoying said other people while doing so).
I do watch funny videos, use Wikipedia for all kinds of things, or research movies on IMDB or check out the latest episode air dates, or look up sports on my computer. But i make a point in closing those sites once i’m done with them. That way they don’t lure me back in. And by splitting my Opera windows i also greatly reduce the chance of running into Facebook by accident and spending an hour on that. 
Plus the Pomodoros really keep me in line. I have 25 minutes. I want to use that time. Unless someone is at the door or i have to go to the toilet i can easily resist distractions because it makes me more aware – the simple fact that i’m on a timer helps me stay focused!
Among all the time and/or task management techniques i’ve tried this is the one that works for me.
January 18th, 2010 – i’m officially allowed to do business. Today was also my first day working on a 4 week contract for a famous german board game company. It’s an iPhone App the idea for which came from the 51 Japanese Characters App and so is basically a lot of rework for me to put it back together in a new way for a different audience.
I also started implementing the Pomodoro Technique. Today i completed 7 pomodoros. It felt good to completely focus on my work for 25 minutes at a time.
I’m not following it by the book though. I have my task list set up in Acunote and the time estimates are in Pomodoros (25-minute blocks of uninterrupted work). I just do a pomodoro, and then as an exercise to actually pause after a pomodoro, i update the task i was working on and reduce the remaining estimate.
From that i learned today that the tasks i had created were in many cases:
- ambiguous (even though i created them!)
- contained more than one task because i thought they go together but should have been seperated (lazy project planning)
- recorded twice (one task was just a subtask of another, bigger task)
- not recorded at all (but subsequently added)
But i also realized that working on a single task wasn’t really possible, at least not today. I was working on many different smaller things to get towards the goal. I make a point of noting everything down and keeping an eye on the overall Pomodoro counter in the project plan. I get paid for so many hours so i intend to not overshoot and work more hours. I still have my own idea to ponder about for which i want to reserve some free time every day.
The Pomodoros had one great effect: when the timer was nearing the end i consciously thought about what i can still do and what i need to do to make the most of the remaining time. It turned out that instead of spending way too much tweaking the position of dummy art i turned to something more productive instead. This is absolutely great to catch yourself not wasting time on!
As a side note: today the registration for Juuso’s Gameproducer.net Insiders forum opened up again and i immediately took the chance and registered for it. What better way to start my first business day than being the first of the new bunch of insiders at Gameproducer.net!
And i came across a great presentation called “Evangelizing Yourself” that has some very important advice in it. It starts out a little slow at first but keep watching through it (or skip some slides).
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