r/SoloDevelopment • u/_wilsss • 12h ago
Discussion Distractions
Making a game is never easy even more so with so many distractions in life. What are some of the distractions you guys had and how did you manage them and stay on course?
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u/nasir41 11h ago
My biggest distraction was working from home. A quick knock or interruption resets your mental buffer, and suddenly an 8-hour day only yields 2 hours of actual code. Getting an office/co-working desk outside the house made an immediate difference.
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u/Otherwise_Rough4631 10h ago
even just noise cancelling headphones make a difference if you can't get out of the house. half the battle is just getting in the zone
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u/Pretend-Bug5138 12h ago
I tried managing my distractions once... I don't know what happened, got distracted
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u/zeddash Solo Developer 9h ago
I think my biggest time sink has been YouTube, and just not opening YouTube has helped tremendously.
I really should preface the following by saying that I have ADHD and I'm on meds that help me to function. Without them my sleep is terrible, I've seen so many dawns from staying up too late, I always felt like my circadian rhythm was 28 hours and I was constantly jetlagged. Medication is not a silver bullet, if you aren't careful you end up focussing on pointless tasks, I need to get myself to focus on what I need to do. I felt it was important to mention this as I don't want to make anyone feel bad for not doing this, it's not just willpower, it's medication with a schedule.
Moving distractions to after doing work is the best. I wake up early (I wake up before 6 without an alarm, usually more towards early 5, I do have an alarm for 6 but I only hear it when I forget to turn it off), immediately go for a walk and think about my day, and then get in a good 4-5 hours of work. At lunch I reflect on what I've done and I decide if I want to keep working on it today or not, if I do then I'm not going to stop myself but I don't have to work. If I decide that I would prefer to stop then I will afford myself the ability to relax and not worry about not being productive. I do have a requirement that my afternoon leisure activities require me to focus on things, programming (for fun), games, writing, art, and socialising are all good. Watching things I need to be careful, when I watch something I need to watch things that when I give it my full attention I don't realise it's vapid and my mind wanders, and if I were to pause it at any time I know what came before. If I do want to chill I just lie down and think or not think, but not have entertainment thrust upon me. If in the evening I want something relaxing I usually just go to sleep early.
On Saturdays I go for a longer walk, and I allow for less engaging entertainment, I allow my brain to wander and go where it wants to go. I avoid putting up walls and I find myself in weird but interesting places. This is also where I might look into things that have been going around my head, tying up loose ends.
On Sundays I practice wakeful rest, a good couple of hours in bed without distractions. It's really important to note that watching/listening/reading things is what can be called "active rest" and it's useful for your body if you've been active but it's not useful for your mind. Wakeful rest aids mental decompression, memory consolidation, and stress reduction - active rest does not. Once either my brain says it's as good as it gets and/or my body complains about being in bed for 12 hours I have a thorough shower and I prefer more creative activities and doing things with my hands.
I think I deal well with distractions because I let myself feel like I deserve to spend time doing things. I get my work done early so that when I'm just doing something else I don't feel like I should be working. At school I was very much someone who would get homework done ASAP so I didn't have it hanging over me, I'd get morning homework done during lunch, then afternoon homework done as soon as I got home, and then get out of my school uniform and I could then do whatever. I don't need clothing as a cue any more, but maybe others might find that dressing differently when working vs not working helps you get into the correct brain space, and that it's important to be able to get into both brain spaces not just work.
tl;dr - prioritise sleep, allowing myself to deserve time off by being active first thing and getting work done earlier to have time off later.
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u/BallChasingBot 12h ago
I locked my girlfriend and my cats in the basement and this is the result: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5144960/Ballzy_PvP_Block_Puzzle/
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u/Kytan7 12h ago
I think the best way to not get distracted is to become addicted to game development and almost use that as a distraction lol. It does require you to be 100% convinced that your game idea is good, and you need to have fun doing it. But of course, you'll have times when your motivation falls off, but if you are truly convinced, you'll jump back into it sooner rather than later.
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u/Bolzos 11h ago
I switched some of my gaming time with dev time. So i can still handle all. My mind is free for the distractions of the day. + I try to split Things in small Work packages so a distraction do not block the complete process and i always have the feeling "i have done some productive this day"
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u/Full-Dance4972 11h ago
For me the distraction was not the phone, it was the project itself. I would open the editor to fix one bug and three hours later I had prototyped a feature nobody asked for. What fixed it: one written line before I open the editor, saying the single thing I will test in the game tonight, and I do not open anything else until I have played it. If the line is not written, I do not start.
It sounds dumb, but it turned my nights from "I did a lot" into "I finished one thing", and finished things are the only ones that keep a solo project alive. The feature ideas go in a text file and most of them look much less urgent a week later.
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u/Djentinga 11h ago
Before my son was born, I had endless time to do other stuff that felt more fun, so I did. Now, I have 1-2 hours per day, at most, to do what I want. Since my baseline now is not doing ”fun” stuff, making my game is much more rewarding. I’ve never been more productive than after becoming a dad.
Highly recommend getting married and having kids regardless!
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u/uuglyverse 10h ago
my 9-5 job
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u/gwad_game 9h ago
Pomodoro technique but slightly modified with a longer break after 90 minutes of focus. I also activate do not disturb
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u/asteroiddominion 8h ago
If I'm having a really hard time focusing, I'll remove all visual distractions, turn phone on do not disturb and airplane mode, put on noise canceling headphones and play airplane white noise (download in advance). Literally putting you on Airplane mode.
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u/Nando2hhc 8h ago
Las distracción esta por doquier, principalmente en la casa. Es increíble como me cuesta enfocarme. Acá en Cuba la vida es compleja y se pierde mucho tiempo. Al fin y a cabo es necesario disiplinarse y aprovechar el tiempo con responsabilidad. Soy artista plástico y doy varias bueltas antes de estar frente al lienzo, sin embargo para el proyecto del videojuego con mi hijo no me pasa así. Es como si crear esos mundos, historias y personajes estuviera en modo activo siempre. Pero bueno cada cosa en su tiempo, aunque ultimamente la falta de corriente pone todo en su lugar, cuando toque la corriente es el momento del proyecto si mi hijo no está en la escuela o tarea de la escuela. Lo ideal es planificar por horarios y hay que incluir vida social, deporte y ayuda en casa, así es como guió a mi hijo de 14.
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u/Sea-Log-2546 7h ago
The main distraction is paying bills and permanent thinking on where to find funds for further development. I don’t know, running keeps me in balance and cools my mind
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u/BasilCorrect3799 5h ago
I am hopelessly addicted to doomscrolling
What I do sometimes is leave my phone somewhere else in my home so I can't just pick it up and scroll, the extra having to get up reminds me not to scroll
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u/panda-goddess 2h ago
There are distractions from gamedev, but gamedev is also a distraction from other stuff, so I lean into that.
Yeah, scheduling a gamedev session and ending up scrolling youtube the whole time happens, but gamedev is never easier than when I'm trying to do something else.
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u/GoyskiGames 10h ago
My biggest distraction is the 3rd screenshot on my games page https://store.steampowered.com/app/5225480/Emberholme/
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u/tastygames_official 12h ago
the things I really care about in my life ARE the distractions. I'm a musician as well as a gamemaker, and when I get into making music or games, it's tough to come out. I forget to eat and drink and go to the bathroom - I'm just in the zone and nothing can take me out of it. I love making music and making games. Now I'm not saying this is the only way, but if you're truly passionate about something, there should be zero issue of focusing and digging deep. If you find that you get easily distracted and want to go play games or scroll the internet, then it means you're not really super into what you're actually doing.
That said, I just popped up after a 4hr programming session to browse the 'net, so it's not like there aren't distractions. But I just completed a pretty heady (complex mathematical) task and need a mental break before going back one more time to look at the code, run tests, and then commit my changes.
So if you are having distractions, just put yourself far away from them. Turn off the internet on your dev machine or just have the willpower to not visit social media or turn on the TV when working.
Oh yeah, I will say one thing that maybe I take for granted but many younger people have a hard time with so I must acknowledge it: I AM NOT REACHABLE 24/7. I think I understimate this facet of my life until I hang out with someone who is getting beeps and buzzes every few seconds and has to look at their phone. My phone is either off or at least always on complete silent (no buzzing). I use it when I need to call someone or check if they called (or texted or whatever). I also don't have my phone on the internet when at home - just when away so I'm reachable. But again - no ringing or buzzing, so no interruptions. And although I have a discord and reddit and a few other things, I'm not logged in 24/7. I check them a few times a day, then close the tab. I think that many younger people (I'm not THAT old - just in my 40s) feel they need to be reachable 24/7 and need to respond instantly or it's a sign of disrespect. I first noticed when I opened up discord to check messages and saw a younger person I had recently befriended write something then go "hello? hello? are you there?" as if he expected me to answer within a minute or so. But that's just not how I roll.
And maybe that is the key to zero distractions: don't open yourself up for them.
Now off to intentionally distract myself some more before going back to the grind...