Planning fatigue, how do you knuckle down and actually plan

[Youme]

I'm in the planning stage of a project larger than I've ever attempted before, a project on a scale that requires a hefty amount of planning. The thing is I've never done anywhere near as much planning for a previous project as this one needs, not even one tenth and probably closer to one hundredth.

My problem at the moment seems to be fatigue: I can get on and do up to an hour of good planning but then that's me basically spent for the rest of the day, no more productivity coming out of me. It's really annoying me how slow going it is. There is also a growing feeling of not doing anything and I've noticed that at times in the past when I'm not doing anything for weeks I get very down.

How do you combat planning fatigue, and what are your techniques for getting lots of planning done in a day?

[Puddy]

What are you planning? Life? Work? School? Game? Mod? Map?

[Campaignjunkie]

Don't make detailed plans too far ahead, because you'll just end up changing those plans when it comes time. Write a list of tasks, think about how long it'll take you to do it / how important it is, and throw it away if it's not feasible. Also, try the pomodoro method for productivity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

[Youme]

What are you planning? Life? Work? School? Game? Mod? Map?

Sorry should have clarified that a little: Game, maybe 18 months of development time (probably more)

[RedYager]

Hi, A really neat program that might help you is 'MindJet'

http://www.mindjet.com/

I used this for my last large scale project, I was sceptical at first as it had been suggested by someone who didn't really know what I was doing. However after I started fleshing out my MindJet plan I started to really enjoy using it, and planning became more fun than it should have. I used it throughout the 4 months of my project and I can say it really did help, everything from basic description of what I wanted to achieve to final nit pick details was listed, and marking them as 'Done' felt great. You can set yourself deadlines for individual tasks, and it helpfully creates a gantt chart for you. However its not free

I sound like a sales man.

Some pics of my last project plan:

[Puddy]

Even for that kind of a project, it sounds like you are planning on doing an awful lot of planning? Campaignjunkie has got some good ideas anyhow!

I'm curious; are you planning the game itself, your work or for a team?

[Nysuatro]

- Keep it as simple as possible

- Ask people to review your work = positive pressure

- Constrain yourself, too much freedom will make you loose time and energy

- plan your failure to get to success. You do not know, what you do not know

- Do not spend time on details in the beginning (a mistake I tend to make a lot)

- Not much goes good the first time so make mistakes fast and learn from them

...

[Evert]

I'm getting anxiety attacks from looking at that

It's good to plan out stuff and all, but with so many sub-categories and phases you'll probably spend more time keeping track of stuff than actually producing a fun awesome level.

[marks]

Don't make detailed plans too far ahead, because you'll just end up changing those plans when it comes time. Write a list of tasks, think about how long it'll take you to do it / how important it is, and throw it away if it's not feasible. Also, try the pomodoro method for productivity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

Pomodoro is actually really good. The only reason I struggle to use it at work is because I get constantly pestered by other people about stuff, as tends to happen in bigger studios I guess.

[Psy]

I can vouch for the Pomodoro techinque as well as it's given me many days where I've been ridiculously productive.

Don't get too worked up about planning because you'll probably end up discarding most of it anyway. So as long as you have a rough idea of what you want to do then I'd personally start working on it ASAP.

[mjens]

When your know that you have to work/plan but you just can't, you should have a vacations, think about something different, be lazy for a while Don't let burn yourself when you think you have to work but there's no ideas, look for inspiration!

Then go back to work with some Red Bulls and good plan! I'm also using some medicines with piracetam - it refreshed my mind somehow. Works awesome - it's scarry but true

[mjens]

Don't make detailed plans too far ahead, because you'll just end up changing those plans when it comes time. Write a list of tasks, think about how long it'll take you to do it / how important it is, and throw it away if it's not feasible. Also, try the pomodoro method for productivity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

Pomodoro is actually really good. The only reason I struggle to use it at work is because I get constantly pestered by other people about stuff, as tends to happen in bigger studios I guess.

What should I do at the break? Just stare on the ceiling or can I read Mapcore?