Maintaining The Focus And The Ambition

[Marx Chaotix]

As we all know simply planting your ass in front of your moniter typing lines upon lines of code hours upon hours can sometimes become a tantalizing as well as daunting task. (This may or may not apply to some of you know who I know have no problem performing such a task, so this does not apply to you) But, bottom line with my question is. "How do you maintain the focus and train yourself to keeping your focus as well as staying ambitious to your task?" I know of a great many people out there who begin to work on a big-time project with their code only to stop midway through and just give up, lose focus, or simply lose the motivation to continue their progress.

[Ginto8]

As we all know simply planting your ass in front of your moniter typing lines upon lines of code hours upon hours can sometimes become a tantalizing as well as daunting task. (This may or may not apply to some of you know who I know have no problem performing such a task, so this does not apply to you) But, bottom line with my question is. "How do you maintain the focus and train yourself to keeping your focus as well as staying ambitious to your task?" I know of a great many people out there who begin to work on a big-time project with their code only to stop midway through and just give up, lose focus, or simply lose the motivation to continue their progress.

Now although I haven't done any major projects, I find that if I get bored coding, I have one of two choices: keep going or allow myself a temporary distraction (it must be TEMPORARY though; no tvtropes wiki ). If I choose the former I'll eventually end up in the latter, but if I just choose the latter I come back better-motivated. That's my method at least.

[Scoody]

Try setting yourself small goals within your "big-time" project, so you have something that makes you feel like it's progressing when you reach them.

[eatcomics]

What I do is, I pick a night, usually on the weekend, all week I get real stoked about it, and I work a little bit, then that night/weekend I just buy some energy drinks and use the momentum of my pumping to keep me going, and I love to listen to the ES team's videos while I code... it probably helps that I've memorized them and can concentrate on things other than their voices ( is that sad? ) but the videos are still really motivating :D

I've also found that with the moosader competition thing going on, having my team on working at the same time also really keeps me motivated.

You're doing great guys :D

[Marx Chaotix]

Thanks guys! That really helped out a lot.

[programmerinprogress]

Keep focused on the end goal, if you're doing something a little mundane in your project, take time to think about the stuff you can achieve once you are finished with the mundane task, it empowers you as it gives your work a purpose and motivates you to finish the mundane work. (so, for example, I'm using my potential for new games/editors to get my GUI library working, or on a smaller scale, I'm using the thought of getting the library out to the public to motivate me to type into write classes i.e. turning my data models into code )

I also like to keep track of things other people are working on, if you can allow yourself to 'egg yourself on' a little, saying "if someone else can do it, why can't I do it!", without doing the flipside by going too far and saying "you're terrible, and you'll never do something as well as they did".

I've also started drinking copius amounts of tea again and started writing parodies of things in life when I get bored, it allows me to have downtime, whilst keeping my mind active (I'm also getting something which I could potentially develop into something for my channel), you're using all of your senses at the same time, and this helps to stimulate your mind, or is that just me

[Bullet Pulse]

Sometimes all it takes for me is to look back at what I've accomplished in the past.
Don't lose sight of where you started at, and you'll be fine.

[rolland]

Get some sweet hardware to program for. Speaking of, my DS is calling me.

Sometimes all it takes for me is to look back at what I've accomplished in the past.

Also helps with creative writing.

What I do is, I pick a night, usually on the weekend, all week I get real stoked about it, and I work a little bit, then that night/weekend I just buy some energy drinks and use the momentum of my pumping to keep me going

I should try that sometime; maybe this/next weekend.

and I love to listen to the ES team's videos while I code... it probably helps that I've memorized them and can concentrate on things other than their voices ( is that sad? ) but the videos are still really motivating :D

It's okay, you're not the only one

[eatcomics]

Lol good to hear :D

[X Abstract X]

For me it's all about the environment. A good environment makes coding really fun and relaxing in my opinion.

I set up in my basement on the sofa (a lot nicer than sitting at a desk in a hard chair) with my laptop, mouse, a nice beverage, the TV on, and some music! Coding at night is a lot easier too because there aren't any distractions like parents asking me to do chores or the phone ringing. I find that the hardest part sometimes is just getting the motivation to write the first few lines of code of the day. Once I start coding though, I'm hooked for the day. If I can't get motivated to start I'll just watch a dev video on YouTube or open up my project and just look it over for a bit.

[epicasian]

I usually do everything on the weekends. I make sure I have some type of sugared drink to keep me from getting tired from sitting in the same place for hours. I then put on the Chrono Cross OST, loud enough to hear it, but not too loud that it distracts me. Any time that I start yawning or something, I stop, and do little stretch (lol). If I lose motivation, I watch AiGD or ESR to get me hyped.

Hope it helps :D,
EpicAsian