Not just a business and a form of art.... A Lifestyle!

On January 18th I mentioned that I got an aim set... I thought I'm going to manage to make my first simple game in a month... Today is 3rd of April and I'm pretty far from that. Maybe it's all not that simple as it seemed to be.


Not only I didn't post anything in the blog, which was supposed to keep me motivated, I wasn't also paying enough attention to the project. I can tell you a lot about how much tired I get after my full-time job, about the feeling of need to rest at least a little spend time with your girlfriend and friends, but... What I'm starting to understand is: My quest is not only about learning software and game design. It's also about changing my lifestyle,the way I am and the main part - staying motivated most of the time. Few of the thought I had after all this time.


Hit the break to see what I think we can do about that!



People

People around you affect you badly. If you're surrounded by people who stopped evolving, you can be sure you will also stop if you already didn't. Well it's kind of a true, actually. Although you might think you're doing much more then your friends/workmates/neighbours/relatives it still doesn't mean that you do enough. The problem is exactly that one thinks that better then someone is good. Good is far better and more then others.


But don't look at it as if it's a bad thing! If people who don't try to succeed make you do nothing, then there is a big chance that successful people will affect you in the opposite way! If you have a millionaire in your contact list, go ahead call him! Otherwise there are plenty of ways to meet people these days. It's not necessary to drink coffee with the person (although it's definitely good) a light e-mail conversation will also have an effect.


One of other ways is just watching and listening to successful people online. For example, Pat Flynn  from smartpassiveincome.com made me start thinking a lot. He also made me act. I can only imagine what would happen to me if he was a pal of mine so I could have a cup of coffee with him once in a while. I guess I would've already had a good passive income system set up. 


Body

"What does body have to do with that!?" - you might ask! May be you're the smartest person ever, perfect coder, gifted artist and have the greatest self motivating skill, but your body shape and health might not let you use your whole potential.


I'm actually not the person who can tell you about that. I don't sleep enough, my nutrition consists of junk food, I'm mostly in a sitting position and got some unhealthy habits. Actually the facts made me understand how strongly it affects the way I'm able to work. I get tired fast, I often lose my nerve and can't concentrate from time to time. Although after I get a good sleep, take a walk and/or eat well, I feel dramatic improvement in my performance.


With the great help of Timothy Feriss' The 4-Hour Body I'm slowly getting rid of all of the factors that interfere with my current main aim. It's not like I'm crazy about being healthy, I'm crazy about starting the indie game development studio, so it's my duty to keep my mind clear and my body clean.


Time

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” 

CharlesDarwin

The "time" thing is not just about time. It's about getting things done. For example 48 hour rule claims that if you didn't do anything about the idea you came up with, in 48 hours since you decided it has to be done, you will most probably not do it at all. (bunch of "do"s, huh?)

Staying organised and trying not to waste your time is very important in the situation I'm in. . One hour of gaming, 22 minutes of a sitcom and 30 minutes of senseless browsing might not seem like a big waste of time. But as you know I have a day job which I just can't leave yet. So I need to try and manage to fit the game development tasks in the 8 hours a day that are left from sleep+work. Every hour counts. The same good old Timothy Feriss' other book called  The 4-Hour Workweek says a lot of important things about time management. It actually changed my whole vision of how things work in this world and work time. The book is actually also one more factor that made me start the quest.

It might seem like I'm trying to get rid of all the fun in this world, but... For me personally seeing that I'm moving forward with the game development is much great pleasure then hearing Barney's joke, capturing the flag and learning the latest macrumors ;) The problem is - sometimes I forget about that.

Organizing

When you don't have the ability to work on a project all the time, your brain still keeps thinking about the unsolved tasks and comes up with new ideas. Also when you're a one man band you have too much things to do and remember.

Instantly writing down and keeping track of done and to-do things is critical in that situation. It might be just a notebook and a calendar on your wall. Some people say it's even better to use these instead of apps. There is some psychological trick behind that, but I still prefer digital way of doing that. I also always use apps that sync with the cloud. There is nothing worse then not being able to get to your info just because you're not on your machine/handset.

I currently use

Google Calendar - for planning things out for the whole project. It has really comfortable interface and almost everything similar can sync with it.

Wunderlist - for to-do lists. I was using Remember The Milk, but Wunderlist's aesthetic look and nice lists system made me to do the switch. 

Evernote - for quickly writing down ideas and notes. I really love the option of making voice notes. Sometimes when I manage to solve some problem during the development I feel like I need to write down, how I did it because it's most likely that in time I will forget some details. Typing down the whole process into my iPod would take 5-10 minutes... Saying is much faster and easier. 




Summing Up


What I want to do and what I believe you want to do, if you're reading this, is to set up the most fun business ever that will also bring us money. Let's not let anything stand in our way. Even the little things we talked about today might have a dramatic effect on the speed of our journey :)


Cheers.