| RavenBlog |
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| Comments on Friday 21 July 2006: |
| I have discovered a cunning new motivational technique for persuading myself to get work done on my projects. I had tried 'rewards' before, and the effectiveness tends to tail off a bit, as well as reducing the potential development time by the duration of the reward. My main problem with getting things done is that I enjoy the early part of new projects while I still think they're a great idea, but when I get anywhere close to finishing a large project I'm invariably sick of it, not helped by the fact that finishing touches are always more draining than the early development where progress is rapid and visible. So what usually happens is I come up with a new project that I'd rather do, and I start doing that, and the old one falls away and is forgotten, left forever nearly-finished. The new trick is a reward system that takes that into account - I have my new project that I want to work on, and my old project that's nearly finished and I'm sick of. The rule is I'm not allowed to work on the new project unless I've done significant work on the old project that day. Brilliantly, this trick accelerates development on both projects. The old one that I'm sick of goes from not getting anything done to getting something significant done each day, and the new project gets boosted through the boring parts by the fact that I've earned the right to work on it, so if I don't do it then I've wasted the effort of working on the other project that I already did that day. I've done more work this last two weeks than in all of the six months or so before that. If this rate keeps up, the old project might be up for a beta release in a mere week or two. [11:44] |
| Meroveus |
| *Off topic. Re: The Gathering.* Hi Raven, Glad you found us, we are definately worth a look in, if for no other reason than the socials we have - Picnics, nights out to the local alternative clubs (most recently, Batfink, Synthetic and Corporation, all Based in Sheffield) and the day trips we have - the next is to Whitby on the 29th. As for it sounding like the Assassins guild that "James" mentioned - we do have some of the old members from that society, but the game is totally different. Another great site to have a look at is out photo gallery: http://thegatheringuk.fotopic.net/ It will let you get a feel of the stuff we get up to in Socials. Next game starts in October, all you have to do is register on the Forum and introduce yourself, Hope to see you around. Meroveus, President, The Gathering. |
| Kryse |
| Would that be Robot-Game, Solipsism, or Snowstorm? Or are you working on something completely different? I guess it really wouldn’t matter if it was, since I’ve pretty much forgotten what those three were anyway. But it would be nice to see an updated progress bar every once in awhile. |
| RavenBlack |
| That thing I mentioned about abandoning mostly-done projects? Yes, it sometimes applies to projects barely-started, too. So mm, it's none of them. The nearly done one is Robobeasts. The other one I'll withhold the title of since I haven't registered the domain name yet. |
| Nameless |
| I wonder if this form of motivation actually will work long term or if one would begin to cheat one's self with it by begining to lower standards for time spent on the old project to spending more time on the new one with the rationalization of.... "I am working after all and acomplishing something that needs done." There by slowly reestablishing the previous status que of old projects with the significant work done and the time consuming repetative detail work left unfinished. Anyways thats what happens to me when I try this form of motivation but I'm good at self delusion. Wow run on sentances. |
| RavenBlack |
| I haven't cheated yet, though I have had a couple of days where I've just decided not to work at all. Though those are only proportional to weekends in a normal work week, so not bad really. |