Motivation, Inspiration and Focus

This page is intended as a quick guide & overview to topics, such as: motivation, inspiration & focus. It is however far from perfect, so take what's written here with a pinch of salt...

Focus

Trying to focus on the task at hand can often be quite hard & daunting; especially when you aren't in the right frame of mind. It's easy to fall into a routine of sitting around doing nothing, or vegetating in front of the TV, & once you numb your mind & your body starts to relax, it's very hard to break away & begin working on something productive. Long lunch breaks - or long breaks, in general - are real focus killers, as you have given your body & mind time to relax, which makes it all that harder, again, to resume working on something productive. Large dinners, may also leave you feeling tired & sap the energy & enthusiasm straight out of you, so it's better to eat light or just snack small portions in general, while you are working.

Social media, IM chat windows & the internet in general is a large focus killer, because it's a hard habit to break, when you are constantly checking your emails, facebook status or replying to chat messages. Unplug.

I've found out from experience that I'm often more productive when I disable my wifi connection or it goes off for whatever reason. As a quick example: a few years back when I was actively producing music, I hardly ever managed to finish a song, as I found it easy to be distracted by one thing, or another. One particular week my internet got disconnected for about a week or so, & in that time I managed to produce & finish 3 whole songs. Even though, they weren't particularly that good, it felt great to finally finish something.

Another focus killer is: having too much on ones plate. By this I mean, it's never a good idea to have too many things on the go at the same time, as you will find it really hard to concentrate, especially if you aren't sure on which task you should be attacking first.

What I've written probably only covers a small portion of focus related issues, but instead of talking about others, I figured I would tell you about a method that will & should help you focus a little better. The method is called...

The Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is actually relatively straight forward, & all you need is a timer. It could be an egg-timer, a digital timer, a watch with a timer function or even an app on your phone or computer.

What you need to do is create a task list somewhere; a GDD or online task service, such as Wunderlist or Asana, or even a notepad & pencil, will do just fine.

Next you decide on the amount of time (in chunks) that you want to work for, before taking a short break, or carrying on & then you set the timer going for that amount of time, let's say 30 minutes. Once that 30 minutes is up, you set the timer for 5 minutes & take a break or grab a bite to eat, then you set the timer back to 30 minutes again & continue working. In reference to the TV series: The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, "Do you think you can make it through the next 10 seconds? It will be over very soon, & then you can start on the next 10 seconds".

Inspiration

Anything, & I do mean anything should & could be used as inspiration. A loose thought that pops into your head. A conversation you had with your friends, or overheard. Something you saw, heard, read or was told about. A favorite book, movie, TV show or song. Hell! it could even be a mish-mash of various things.

Remember that stealing isn't exactly stealing, if you don't blatantly copy everything word for word, or line for line. It's all in the details. Almost everything in this day & age is based on something else, regardless of how original, the creators claim it to be. This method of inspiration should really be called borrowing, as that's just what it is.

Motivation

Motivation is one of the biggest issues, when it comes to getting those creative juices flowing. It's also directly related to focus, as focus & motivation go hand in hand, when it comes to getting things done. Here are some of the common motivation killers...

• Lack of interest in project - if it's not your project & you don't really care for the idea behind it, then how can you possibly feel motivated to work on it?
• Incentives - money & other incentives such as gifted hardware, software & so on can go a long way to making people feel motivated. At least it's one reason for them to continue working on a project, even if they don't really care about said project.
• Long distance work relationships - are often doomed to fail, before they even begin. Why? Because it's hard to keep long distance team members focused on the task at hand, without being in the same room to drive their motivation; especially if incentives are not involved. No, a promise of profits / royalties shared once the project is complete, is not an incentive as anything can happen between now & then.
• Lack of proper planning - lack of a game design document (gdd) or task lisk to help provide focus, can be disastrous, as a messy, unorganized work environment, can lead to a lack of focus, which will inevitably lead to a lack of motivation.