Personal Surge in Productivity Testimony

"I have taken breaks between jobs to work on projects before, but I have never worked like this, and I have never seen things so clearly."-Me, later in this post
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There have been many discussions in the past about motivation and productivity and how to tackle the monumental task of completing even a simple game.
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I recently had an epiphany. I was in a state of being really stressed out with my job. I had this big argument with my supervisor. I finished my contract here and I turned down working another year, the argument had to do with my severance, or lack thereof.
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Naturally, I was feeling a lot of anxiety and I had all these thoughts firing off in my head out of control. I couldn't even make myself sit down and play a video game, let alone work on making one. My productivity was at an all-time low. I even took a few weeks off between finishing here and my next job to focus on my game development, and I wasn't using any of my free time. I was more productive with developing a game in my spare time when I was working a full time job.
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Realizing that I wasn't going to achieve anything pacing around in my apartment, I decided to take a walk. It was late at night. I decided to walk a direction I had never gone before. I just stopped thinking about everything. It must have been a few hours of just walking. Everything was quiet and peaceful.
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All of a sudden, I just started to notice all the creations of mankind around me. There was this cross walk bridge with elevators on it, a bus stop with an interactive map where you could plug in where you want to go and it tells you what to do, even just the trees planted along the side of the street. I thought about the ascent of technology and progress.
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I had always known about this stuff, but I had never appreciated that I am the creature that makes this kind of stuff. Sure, there are different types of people, with different skills, and no one person invented it all, but still; I could have been a frog or a turkey. I am a human, I have incredible potential. It seems obvious, but I never realized it so clearly before. I was thinking outside myself, I had this broader awareness of my existence and my place in this world. It's hard to describe how profound it is, it's as if I had been in a state of being half asleep my whole life and then I just woke up.
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Since then, I have been spending 10 to 14 hours on each of my staycation days for my project, not because I'm forcing myself to work extreme hours, but because it's just easy now, nothing distracts me for a long time, I don't lose motivation or get bored (so far). In the past, I have taken breaks between jobs to work on projects before, but I have never worked like this, and I have never seen things so clearly. I don't know how long this will last, maybe it's permanent. I just have this perspective of my life goals and drive now. I hope it lasts.
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What I conclude about this is that if extreme stress causes total lack of productivity, and great levels of peace of mind yield high productivity, maybe it's everyday stress that kills our drive to achieve things. Maybe we just need to get out and take a walk away from everybody to get our mind's gears in order.
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Has anyone had a similar experience?
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yes, and you'll find that these moments of clarity can be found daily. Its' like a meditative practice, the more you practice the more profound the moment can be. "If" I were to make a recommendation, once you have found a process that works.. try to repeat it to see if you are able to reproduce it. It may not necessarily be the "act" you are performing (such as taking a long walk), but it could be a state of mind you have acquired within your own mind... at a particular point, or given time.

 

Yes, creative flow.

I feel like I'm in a video posting mode. But this post reminded me of this guy.

http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow

I work in a large creative agency. Many of my coworkers take a break and walk before coming back to tackle a problem. For me, a bike ride works does the trick. Or a nap... although some would frown upon that if they saw me snoozing at my desk.

 

Yes, I feel like I have only scratched the surface. I looked into meditation and found mostly for profit scams. I did find one secular resource however, so I'll explore it some more.

I think I can safelty say that I have isolated the productivity failure bug in my life. Now to fix it.

Great vid.

 

That's pretty awesome! Stanford did an interesting study recently about walking and creativity.

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/april/walking-vs-sitting-042414.html

 

That's interesting and very in line with my personal experinces. I have been doing nightly walks and later fixing problems in my projects that I thought were really difficult before.

I'm curious about the effects of showering/bathing on creativity also. It's very different than walking, but it leads to relaxation. Maybe it's anything that allows one to put their mind out of their everyday normal mode. I belive creativity is the core propertty to problem solving. That makes it the most important asset for any game devopler, artist, programmer, designer.. anything.

Taking all of this into account, consider that pretty much all thinking jobs are down at desks sitting.

 

I often take a walk when I become stuck on a problem - sometimes when you're looking at something for so long, you start to lose focus and are unable to see what the real issue is. It definitely helps.

My biggest issue is that I am trying to manage multiple projects at once - I often spend too much time on one project and neglect others, get sidetracked by unimportant/irrelevant features/issues.

I've been thinking I might starting to treat my time like a budget. Every hour is allocated up front, and if I need extra time on one task I have to figure out where to take it from.
Anyone have any time/task management tools they can recommend?

 

For me, a "moment of clarity" is where I see the path forward. I used to rush things, but now I know I do better if I let things sit for a few days. Those moments of clarity can't be forced, I just have to give myself time to see if my brain figures out new stuff in the background.

A lot of this happens as I'm trying to sleep. That used to stress me out (which in turn made it harder to sleep...) but now I just roll with it. Some of my best stuff comes out of that.

One thing I'm working on now is the setting for my next game project. I've had a few ideas, and it's changed a few times. I was planning to get my game to a trade show that's in a few weeks, but aiming for that was making me want to rush decisions, and that doesn't result in the best outcomes. So I decided screw it... getting to the trade show is a target of opportunity, I can't let it derail me from my real goals - that's one moment of clarity. That was followed by another a couple of days later about a setting that fit better with my design, my tech, and my goals - another moment of clarity. Neither of those came while I was actively thinking about the game.

Learning outcomes?
1. Give yourself breaks. Breaks are not unproductive time.
2. Keep some variety in your life. Don't keep your brain spinning on the same thing ad infinitum, stimulate it in different ways.
3. Don't rush decisions. You can't force certain types of thinking, so sometimes it's more productive to go with the flow.

 

Yeah some days I can do an insane amount of hours and other days i dont feel like doing any, sporadic. Eventually you will hit a wall, its like if you get high off energy drinks you are going to feel under you start to come down -- though im not sure how long your natural high will last a few days, a few weeks, a few months hard to say.

 

I got this from a book about OmniFocus by a psychiatrist called Kourosh Dini. He also plays the piano and in the book he mentioned how his teacher told him to at least touch the keys on days he doesn't feel like playing, has no inspiration or no time. Take a few minutes, sit down and touch the keys. But make do it consciously so, and not just to tick off the box. That way this creative part of his life stays present and real in those times where we'd otherwise fall off and break the momentum.

I translated this to game development by opening up my tools at least once a day and by starting journals about my games to go to when I avoid the PC altogether.

 

Sometimes I find that not actively working on a project can lead to breakthroughs and epiphanies that I never would have had otherwise. I think it comes from taking yourself away from your desk, away from the technical details, and just thinking about things without the burden of needing to convert thoughts into productivity. Big-picture problems are best solved as far away from your desk as possible. Sometimes!

 

I do that with my tools also. I will keep a dev journal and sometimes just have an entry like:

 

It's fantastic to see so much spirituality mixing with such a practical pursuit such as game development! I think its easy to forget that what we do is an art form and all art thrives from inspiration, not sitting at a desk

 

sleep works for me too... generally when I can get a deep sleep and dream. it seems to clear out my subconscious and allows me to open the doors to new ideas (or can even be a source for them).

another cognitive thing I do (or at least try when I have time), is to have my morning coffee in my backyard where only nature surrounds me. It allows me to reflect and plan.

 

Yesterday, my daughter dressed up, put on her makeup, and got ready for the evening. With her frail body, and limited motion, these simple activities took longer than you'd expect. Then, she spent much of the day preparing her breathing, and feeding, and interactions with the nurse. And yet, at 8 PM, my daughter, rolled into the auditorium, in her canary blue gown and golden honors sash, right next to her 427 peers who were preparing to graduate high school. And when they called her name, she rolled across the stage, slowly, and carefully, and reached for her diploma. The principal leaned in, gave her a big hug, and suddenly all of her peers were on their feet! Cheering and clapping, in a shared celebration of this momentous occasion.

On any given day, dopamine drives me toward more, bigger, better - the eternal quest to build a new product, improve myself, and achieve excellence - the same basic cravings that helped my ancestors thrive in the harshness of the world. And yet, my brain also releases serotonin, and oxytocin, and endorphins, that provide equally powerful feelings of happiness, calmness, and love that on nights like last night, are almost too much to bear.

Life is truly complex. Until sometimes, when it's not.

Gigi

PS - This is the essence of Gigi Games - "Using Game Techs to Live Better"

 

That's a beautiful story Gigi.

Yes, brain chemicals seem to be primary in what regulates our behavior, but there are these seeded variables stored in our brains that are associated with them, both in cause and effect.

Sometimes the chaos or randomness in life alters our chemicals, like l when I got angry with my manager. It seem to drive my ability to do anything. However, I countered it by walking and found a way to guide my volatile mind.

We can't always control our mental scape, but we can find little ways to focus it more often than not. I imagine you derive joy from your family and that helps you focus your path in life. As for loners like me, I need to seek out other sources of balance or positivity.

 

I've also found that taking regular walks, even short ones, is an excellent way to relieve stress and get a sense of clarity