There was a time when I enjoyed working on the computer late into the night. When I was coding, fueled by green tea (which didn't always help a tired programmer - sometimes I just fell asleep in my chair), I was trying to achieve something. I don't recall any significant successes from that period. Coincidence?
Times have changed, mainly because of having a child. I can no longer stay up late at night. There are still moments when I can get into a flow and work "until I drop", but I understand why it wasn't and isn't a good idea.
I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in myself. When I do everything I can and exhaust my task list, I often end up running my project and motivation on fumes.
A long time ago, I encountered an interesting approach to work. It was completely different from mine, so different that I treated it as eccentric. It was proposed by the writer Cory Doctorow, and it involved working until he completed his daily plan, and then that was it. Even if he was just getting into it, he would stop. Back then, I thought it was an unnatural approach.
But while reading "Atomic Habits" by James Clear, I learned that one of the conditions for creating a habit is making it simple. And not expecting more from oneself.
It's not about doing everything as quickly as possible. It's about creating a process.
Now that I've broken down my project into subtasks and made sure they are atomic (😉), I assign myself no more than one task per day.
If I can't complete it (which is not uncommon), I reschedule it for the next day (in Todoist, I don't have to; the task will simply be listed as overdue).
If I do complete it, I set the next task for tomorrow.
These intervals between tasks paradoxically benefit all projects because, in the meantime, whether I'm playing with my child, spending time with my wife, or working, my brain is still working on it.
This won't change the fact that we can't extend the day, which remains the main ongoing problem. We all have only 24 hours. Every inspiring genius had them, whether it was Albert Einstein or Hideo Kojima. Johann Sebastian Bach had the same number of hours in a day, although he allegedly had 20 children. How did he do it?
Recommendations
The Steamworld games are little gems in design, therefore there some game design gems to mine in this clip:
And here’s the most inspiring clip I encountered recently! For graphically talentless people like me - GOLD!