Being a Part-Time Indie: Finding the Rhythm

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 7, 2016

One of the reasons I really enjoy the Day Job is that … for the most part… it doesn’t depend much on employee heroics or people working 50-60 hour workweeks to survive. Given my senior status here, I work hard to make sure that’s NOT the case.

Usually.

However, sometimes the craziness happens. That’s pretty much a given anywhere. When you have to finally get off the plateau to make progress but don’t have the luxury of tons of money and tons of employees to make that leap… things get crunchy. I don’t enjoy it, but it’s necessary.

And that’s where I am right now. It’s still not as bad as the worst times of my full-time game dev career, so at least there’s that. And I was still able to take time off to work Comic Con (NOT a break) and to go visit my daughter and her husband down in Cedar City. But the contractual deadlines don’t move, the trade shows won’t reschedule, and so my time is still a bit at a premium. Working towards, I hope, a steady and sustainable future in my department in the not-too-distant future.

It does sap the hell out of my ability to work on other things in the evenings.  So progress on my wonderful side-jobs has slowed. Definitely not stopped… I’m still cranking out what I can, but my 15-20 hours a week has dropped down to something like 6-8. On top of that, working in smaller blocks of time is less efficient than larger blocks.

So… there’s that.

What I really need to do is to find the right rhythm. My work schedule is heavier for a few months, but there’s still time to do other things. I think a big part of the whole motivation / energy thing may simply be to find a good rhythm that works with my (temporary) schedule. I’ve found that my body (and brain) adapt pretty well once I get settled into a schedule and pattern of activity.

 

Filed Under: Game Development, Geek Life, Writing - Comments: Read the First Comment



top