{"id":537,"date":"2011-02-04T00:55:15","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T00:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/?p=537"},"modified":"2011-02-04T00:55:15","modified_gmt":"2011-02-04T00:55:15","slug":"working-from-home-as-an-indie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/working-from-home-as-an-indie\/","title":{"rendered":"Working From Home As An Indie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Now that I\u2019m officially a full-time indie game developer<\/a>, for the first time in my life I am working from home full-time on games. Many of my game developer friends have also started working full-time from home in the past few months, partly because of all the game studios shutting down in our city recently. Working from home has its own set of unique challenges that aren\u2019t initially obvious. Today\u2019s entry is a list of tips I use to be as productive as I can while striking a good work-life balance.<\/p>\n

The biggest complaint I hear (and face) from working full-time at home is the fact your \u201calways on\u201d. Unlike trudging off to work for 8-12 hours per day where there is a definite line between work and home, the line is blurred. This list is mainly ways I go about emulating that distinct line between working and relaxing.<\/p>\n

Kill Switch<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best way I can shift my mind from work to relaxation is what I call a \u201ckill switch\u201d. Some activity that completely resets your brain, clears out everything you\u2019ve been thinking about and lets you get into the relaxation zone (rather than the work \u201czone\u201d). For me this kill switch is Company of Heroes (CoH). As soon as I finish for the day, I have a game of CoH and everything I was thinking about is blocked out. I put 100% of my concentration into playing the game and come out the other end with a clear head ready to relax for the evening. For other people this kill switch comes in the form of WoW. After a hard day they sit and relax, focussing their mind on Azeroth to help forget the stresses of the day.<\/p>\n

Whatever the game or activity the important purpose is to put a barrier between work and \u201cnot work\u201d. Many people already have this activity they perform, but don\u2019t consciously do it at the end of the day to form a barrier. It becomes a routine and lets your brain form the habit of switching off after the activity is complete.<\/p>\n

As game developers, the bonus of this kill switch being a game is that it forces me to actually play a game (even if it\u2019s just one). One of the most noticeable differences in my life since becoming a game developer is that I play a lot less games. I believe it\u2019s vital for game developers to play games to keep a view on the gaming landscape as it changes from year to year. It\u2019s also important to see our craft from the other side, as a gamer.<\/p>\n

Working Area<\/strong><\/p>\n

The second important way of differentiating my time is having a separate area that is used only for work. In the current age, this can be quite difficult as often the computer is the centre of both work and entertainment. By keeping my working area separate from everything else at home there is a definitive area that is my work station. I pretend like I\u2019m \u201cheading to the office\u201d when I walk over to my desk and when I\u2019m here, it\u2019s all business.<\/p>\n

I find my iPad is a great way for me to be connected while not \u201cworking\u201d. Rather than sitting at my computer surfing the web or sending personal emails, I\u2019ll sit on the couch with my iPad on my lap.<\/p>\n

Laptops are also perfect ways of physically relocating to be outside of my work area. If I need a computer for something personal, I\u2019ll take my laptop and sit on the couch. It may seem silly, but this small difference is enough for me to not feel like I\u2019m working.<\/p>\n

Set Standard Hours<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is an easy one. I\u2019ve found a lot of Indie friends begin working sporadic hours when they start working from home. While its great fun to stay up until 3am getting that last task finished I\u2019ve found it has a detrimental effect in the long run. I like to get 10 hours of work into a day and so I set myself a start and end time. I begin work around 6am and finish at 4pm. I\u2019ll set my status to \u201cdo not disturb\u201d and I\u2019ll work through as solidly as I can. One important key is that if something comes up that interrupts me, I don\u2019t count that time towards my day. So if something takes my attention for an hour, then I at it to the end of the day and finish at 5pm. After a few days of working 6am-7pm I quickly realised the importance of cutting out interruptions.<\/p>\n

Whether you want to be as strict as that or not, the key is keeping consistent working hours that are sustainable for a long period. Software development is a marathon, not a sprint and it\u2019s important to schedule your day to fit this. If you find you\u2019re burning out after a few days or weeks then look at adjusting your work hours to better fit the long-haul.<\/p>\n

Write Everything Down<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGetting Things Done<\/a>\u201d is a great book that I\u2019ve spoken about countless times in the past. I recommend it for everyone, particularly those working from home. It helps you to become more productive and sort your life out. The main key I get from this is that I make lists for everything. As soon as I think of something, particularly if it\u2019s outside of \u201cwork hours\u201d I write it down, set a reminder in outlook for the next day and don\u2019t think about it again. If I am laying in bed and something pops into my head I\u2019ll add it to my to-do list and then forget about it.<\/p>\n

Email Separation<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is another easy one. I like to make sure I can\u2019t get work emails during non-work time. This is easy when working in an office as when you\u2019re away from your desk you usually can\u2019t access your email. It\u2019s important to set up a similar barrier when working from home, much like the physical workspace. I set up different rules on my iPhone so I don\u2019t get push notifications for work emails. If I\u2019m at my desk working it\u2019ll arrive in my inbox but if I\u2019m out for the evening I won\u2019t be distracted by it. There\u2019s nothing worse than getting an email you need to act upon, or that has bad news in it when you\u2019ve finished working for the day. This is particularly important when working with overseas publishers or customers with emails coming in at all hours.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have any other tips for working from home on indie games? Whether working full-time or part-time at home, how do you go about keeping a good work-life balance?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that I\u2019m officially a full-time indie game developer, for the first time in my life I am working from home full-time on games. Many of my game developer friends have also started working full-time from home in the past few months, partly because of all the game studios shutting down in our city recently. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-development","category-games","category-personal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgEc5-8F","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}