[RyanThunder]

Hey all! RyanThunder here.

Today I came across this interesting article that has a theory of "productivity-triggering environments." Basically it suggests that we can be more productive and motivated in certain environments than others because of emotional and mental attachments to those environments.

http://lifehacker.co...ng-environments

For me personally I'm not sure what kind of environment I'm more productive in because I seem to be equally productive in any setting (too busy, too lazy), but I haven't really thought about it that much. How about you?

[CJA]

This might be a problem for me. My room has become a "oh man i'm finally off work" place instead of a "lets do something!1" place

[Dr Lancer-X]

CJA, on 10 December 2011 - 10:37 AM, said:

This might be a problem for me. My room has become a "oh man i'm finally off work" place instead of a "lets do something!1" place

You could shift your sleeping schedule so that you start work at the end of your day instead of at the beginning.

[Lachesis]

Then you wouldn't get anything done at work

[Zappman]

Lachesis, on 09 December 2011 - 07:37 PM, said:

Then you wouldn't get anything done at work

O_o Oh dear

If I don't work often enough on the game, I will forget about it. This is how it is for me and the possible reason I do not finish games. It has nothing to do with my environment really. I might work a little better in a tidier environment, but not by much.

I find I can work better if I listen to some music for a while, do something else, then set a timer to get back to what I'm doing. I don't set the timer often enough. But yeah, I listen to music, maybe play an old strategy game like Civ I or Master of Orion (better than Civ IMO) and by the time the timer goes off, I'm usually ready to move back to what I was working on with the game. I have to do this because I have ADD. Haven't been doing it lately though, because this sudden cold weather this week is making me really tired. - Yawn. I do have an idea of what I'm going to do when I get the enthusiasm and focus, however. I just don't like to create things very much when I'm tired because I feel my ideas aren't as sharp.

[BrainySmurfsArchives]

That's a clear reason why we should all use schedules indeed!

[CJA]

Lancer-X, on 09 December 2011 - 08:12 PM, said:

You could shift your sleeping schedule so that you start work at the end of your day instead of at the beginning.

I've been doing that, pretty much. Lately it's been cold as fuck so I've been sleeping for 10-12 hours anyway, so I basically work at the beginning and end of my day.

The main reason I "can't finish my game" is because... I feel I cannot give enough people enough enjoyment per hour of work/practice that I put in. That would be OK, if I still enjoyed the process of making the games themselves, or made money off of it. Nowadays I just feel a dull urge to "do something" and then I can work on a game for four hours or so before starting to feel misguided and overwhelmed by what I'd have to go through to make the game a competent one.

I can't tell whether or not I've gone through this cycle of creating game husks enough times to actually get beneficial practice. Either way, I'm not getting an emotional stimulus for my effort. Maybe I need to make game programming into a career to get better at it. Or maybe I'm not cut out for it. Either way, I feel that my time is better spent in other pursuits. Like a couple weeks ago, I just decided "I want to make this" and made a Web application. I had no problem learning MySQL, learning about SESSION data, about hashes, and AJAX, each one of those being a rather hefty lesson. But I pulled it all together into a semi-functioning tool. I just can't seem to do that with games anymore. Jumping through hoops to get something done just aggravates me a lot more when it's a game that I'm making.

on the bright side, here's a song i made

[BrainySmurfsArchives]

CJA, you sound like you are quite confident with programming on MegaZeux. I am probably not as confident and active as you when it comes to programming, as when I get bored I feel like I want to get lazy (which is very stupid of me, I should level it down...thank god it is starting to). However CJA we seem to be similar on this, I tend to want to do other things too for a slightly longer time that programming. CJA, I know it is hard to completely get used to programming every day, it happens to me too.

And as for your suggestion Lancer-X to everyone about starting work at the end of the day, I absolutely do respect your opinion though like I respect everybody else's but I personally disagree a little bit on it as that would sound kind of rough in my opinion as during the middle of the shift before sleep, there is a fair possibility of getting overwhelmed and tired, leading to utter frustration if it is something mandatory. If it is something that's not due the next day, you can save the time another day to work on it and you could immediately go to sleep. Plus, there is a very rare chance of only 5%-10% that someone would want to work at the end of the day. =P That happened to me once when I had to do an assignment due by the next day, and I got a splitting headache and I learned tomorrow afternoon from my mind to just start work at the middle of the day.

Now for my own opinions about working in the middle of the day and the beginning of the day. It is personally best to work during the middle of the day for more confidence, thoughts, ideas and calmness and there is a much higher chance than end of the day. The beginning of the day is in the same level as the end of the day. Why? Another fair chance you may get cranky very quickly and feel agitated, and tired even before breakfast if it is something that has to be done today. However, it is less of a chance than to do work at the end of the day because usually work due the same day would be at the middle and plus nothing is worth wasting your time for a morning exercise or stretch by doing something else so it is very rare this happens to someone, probably 3 times less than someone working at the end of the day when it comes to my logic.

Anyways all comments I made about working either the beginning, middle or end of the day came from my knowledge and my experiences. if you think my logic or knowledge is a little imperfect, please correct me if I am wrong about those facts. I am very interested to learn more as I am still kind of new, and a little nervous for some reason. Thank you. =)