Finding energy to work

[Nysuatro]

Hey all,

I wanted to know where you all find your energy to put in your work. I know from myself I can get these adrenaline moments that I am totally focussed and I can work form some houres straight.

But they are most of the time relative to the amount of Nalu or coffee that I have drank. I am still looking for a better way to get some energy. I do a lot of sport, don't eat to bad, so what else?

Greetz

[Warby]

i look at work from people who are ridiculously better than me

than i say(think) FUCK YOU FOR BEING SO GOOD ... ILL SHOW YOU !!!

and get cracking !

seriously nothing motivates like a healthy blend of anger and envy

[Thrik]

Has to be something I'm really passionate about if I want to do it at home. There's no point me getting home and saying "OK I really need to work on my personal design skills, this weekend I'll do it I promise!". I need an actual project that'll be turned into something people will see/use rather than something just for experience.

So get yourself involved with something, like a mod or a personal indie project or something. You may think you don't have the time, but by committing yourself to something you should find yourself motivated.

[-HP-]

Yep, agree with the previous posts.

Also, there's this method of work that goes like this.

You work for an hour, tottaly into it and focused (turn off MSN, and all that bullshit, put on your favourite playlist and boost up your headphones) and then you rest for 10/15 minuts, and the cicle begins again. I tried this without sucess... but maybe you can do it.

Mostly, I get to work at the morning browse e-mail, forums, bitch about the build bugs, and when you look at the clock it's already noon. Afternoons on the other hand are a lot more productive for me, I mostly work for 3 hours straight, eat something and get back into it. (With very small pauses, like the one i'm doing atm, to browse mapcore and PC)

I can't find the energy to work at home so much atm, maybe because I've been staying at work very very late, sometimes I leave crytek at 11pm, or more. So yeah, for me energy comes from passion. If your working on something you really fucking love, you'll keep on doing it. And the motivation to go on, comes from various things but one of the biggest and most important is the one that Warby mentioned, and there's enough talent here at crytek to keep me on going for a few years!

I think I gotta stop this tho, I've been working way too much. I gotta start going home at 7pm again, go to the gym, have a nice meal, watch a movie and work on my personal stuff / training. Like, I wanna learn ZB, and I'm slowly getting into it, but Im rarely at home now.

[2d-chris]

cocaine.

[Nysuatro]

cocaine.

Is it that what they are giving there artist at Crytec?

Thx for the replyes everybody. We are now talking about the work we like to do. But what about the work we have to do, but don't like.

Someone has the magic trick?

@HP: That trick of working 1 houre and then taking a little break didn't work for me eather. Still havent found someone that worked the trick for.

[Minos]

Has to be something I'm really passionate about if I want to do it at home. There's no point me getting home and saying "OK I really need to work on my personal design skills, this weekend I'll do it I promise!". I need an actual project that'll be turned into something people will see/use rather than something just for experience.

So get yourself involved with something, like a mod or a personal indie project or something. You may think you don't have the time, but by committing yourself to something you should find yourself motivated.

Exactly. I've been having a hard time finishing my personal stuff since I left Insurgency. It was so easier to focus and know exactly what to do when I was working in a team.

[dux]

i look at work from people who are ridiculously better than me

than i say(think) FUCK YOU FOR BEING SO GOOD ... ILL SHOW YOU !!!

and get cracking !

seriously nothing motivates like a healthy blend of anger and envy

This.

At the moment I've been working for up to 3 - 4 hours straight with a small break after then going straight back to it. Or last weekend for example where I worked for 10 hours straight.

[Corwin]

For me, it's a question of habit, of routine. If I leave for a vacation for 3 weeks like I did this summer, I come back and I really can't be asked to work on my personal projects. But if I set myself a few hours a day to really block the rest and work hard, I catch the rythme and soon time flies by again, and I find myself doing even more than I had set myself because I get caught in the flow.

I also find it helpful to have a notepad next to my desk and put stuff I need to do in order to complete my current project, in no particular order. That way, it's easier even when I'm tired or would rather do something unconstructive, to force myself to work by simply opening my notepad: it puts me back into the needed mindset by allowing me to catch up with my thoughts of the day before, and I can tell myself "Ok, if I can tick off 3 of these points, I can call it a day". Eventually, I usually tick more than I had set myself because I just needed that inpulse.

It's like sports: the first moments are hard, boring, unpleasant and you really have to be willing to exercise and find motivation in yourself, but after that cap is passed, it's a piece of cake and you can go for hours. To me, the more you do, the more you'll be doing and the more you'll enjoy it, because results are what really pays off, and the more results you get the more involved/passionate you become. Though I have to agree with HP: you have to draw a line somewhere, my girlfriend is quick to remind me of that.

Of course, as the others mentioned, inspiration is a great source of motivation aswell. Sometimes just browsing through some of Mapcore's portfolios gives me a urge to go back to work

[-HP-]

cocaine.

Actually It's caffeine... Loads and loads of it!

[FrieChamp]

I've made similar experiences as Corwin. A "to do" list helps, or just noted comments. With big projects you can get discouraged easily simply due to the enormous scope of the task and you don't know where to start. Break it down. Define exactly what needs to be done, it is easiest to get "in the flow" to start with the easiest tasks, because getting stuff done, no matter how small, is encouraging and prepares you for the bigger ones. At least that's how I know it should be done. Matter of fact is I get distracted easily, especially when I work at home (which is most of the time the case because I study). Then I come to realize that the most effective motivator is time pressure. When you know something needs to be done until that certain date and it can't be moved. It depends on how big the task is, the pressure can kick in 2-3 weeks before, or as late as a few days. I feel bad now, I should do more stuff for uni Oh well time for some more MW2 multiplayer...

[KoKo5oVaR]

"Not being fired" is a pretty good motivation, but that works only if you are hired first !! (and also 4 coffee daily; one to wake up, one in the morning, one at the start of the afternoon and one when you get back home)

Otherwise i don't have any good advices

oh yes : not getting a job !!!

[Section_Ei8ht]

For me it's all about getting into the zone; where time pretty much has no meaning and my entire world just becomes me and whatever I'm working on. All of my best work has been done while in the zone, but lately it's been difficult to get into that mindset. When I'm in a position where I'm about to work on something I'm passionate about, I have at least four hours of uninterruptable time, and a steady supply of snacks/drinks, I crack open a Red Bull (seriously, I think I've conditioned myself to the point where the act of cracking open a Red Bull triggers me into alright-it's-time-to-get-shit-done mode), and go to town. [i think I developed this work method during college when I was pulling 4-10 hour all-night coding marathons... damn I miss those]

If I'm in a situation where I don't know what's going to happen in the next 30 minutes, or how much uniterruptable time I have, or I'm not motivated to work on whatever I have to work on (like my current job ever since my job of programmer was altered to include both general PC help desk support and sysadmining), I have to do what Frie suggested and break it down into smaller tasks and start working on a small part of a project that can be done in 15 minutes and let the work snowball from there.

I think I'm weird in the fact that I can't get into the zone if I know I'm going to be interrupted within the next hour, because when I'm in the zone and get train-wrecked out, it's tough to get back in unless I do the smaller-part-snowball method. Seriously, when I get train-wrecked out of the zone, it's physically exhausting for me.

[Corwin]

I think I'm weird in the fact that I can't get into the zone if I know I'm going to be interrupted within the next hour, because when I'm in the zone and get train-wrecked out, it's tough to get back in unless I do the smaller-part-snowball method. Seriously, when I get train-wrecked out of the zone, it's physically exhausting for me.

I definitely see what you mean. Usually the laziest hours for me are around the time when my girlfriend is supposed to get off work. She's a nurse so it can vary of around 1 hour, so for these 2 hours when she might just enter the appartment, I can't really get anything done because I'm too afraid of being interrupted when she arrives. It's really annoying to break the flow when you worked so hard to build it.

[Defrag]

Small, incremental goals help. They help me focus and break up the day.

"I want to complete task x before I take a break"

I always used to find it really easy to get overly excited at the beginning of a project, then find myself exhausted and somewhat aimless after the initial, giddy design phase had passed. Structure is your friend