Elysian Shadows

Hey, just curious as to what all of you do when you go to sit down and get some work done. What works for you? What puts you in the zone and enables you to do your most productive work?

Say what kind of work you do or what it applies to (programming, artwork, etc). Do you normally eat beforehand? Go for a run? Have a coffee? Watch youtube videos on the Gyrovorbis channel? Whatever is a part of what it takes to get you geared up and in the zone to work - that's what I'm curious about.

And if you have different kinds of routines for doing different kinds of work then feel free to mention that as well. Maybe you do something different when you go to work on programming an engine versus brainstorming design ideas. Feel free to share so long as you feel it's relevant.

Do:

Good music. Lots of it.
Caffeine.
Food is nice. mmm food.

Do not:

Play xyz game for "half an hour"
Watch something on youtube.

The "5-step ritual" haha.

Live-Dimension wrote:Do:

Good music. Lots of it.
Caffeine.
Food is nice. mmm food.

Do not:

Play xyz game for "half an hour"
Watch something on youtube.

The "5-step ritual" haha.

that's exactly what I was gonna say :D

It really depends what "getting to work" means. There are two distinct kinds of "getting to work" for me. One of them is sitting down and actually hammering code, while the other is sitting with my head cradled in my arms, completely "in the zone," and thinking through different design patters. To me, both steps are completely necessary and take varying amounts of time.

What my routine is also depends on how I happen to be feeling that day, and what the weather is outside, and how late it is...and where I'm at (yeah, seriously..)

If I'm at home working from my room, my routine is something like this:
1) Exercise of any-kind (abs, quick jog, gym, whatever)
2) shower, then hygiene stuff (teeth brush, contacts, etc).
3) "removing distractions"--clean my workspace, make my bed...so now I feel accomplished and like I'm having a "good, ready day."
4) Get a beverage (large glass of ice water, juice, etc)
5) Play some familiar music (cannot focus if I'm not already veerrry familiar with lyrics and such).
6) Open windows if it's either 1) Rainy or 2) Very nice/breezy outside.

So, I guess the main thing is with me...In order for me to focus on devving, I like to make myself already feel like I'm having a productive day and I've already done everything I want to. So now lets "relax and dev."

If I'm doing "design" stuff rather than actual code, then I typically cut the music and prefer quiet...And I like my area to be cleaner, as I tend to pace. Also, I like having a bunch of pens, blank paper, whiteboards, or whatever nearby...Regardless of whether I actually use them or not. =)

Then I guess it all changes if I'm working at, say, Gyro's house.

If I'm there...In order for me to actually "get in the zone" and get serious work done...I need alot of caffeine, and I have to be secluded somewhat from others. Also, I tend to like using recliner/rocking type chairs...As I'm assessing some kind of bug/problem, I tend to rock or jitter (due to caffeine?) usually along to music. If I'm not somewhat off on my own and I'm around people...I won't actually get shit done, but instead "talk" the entire time about design stuff or clever solutions to things...Rather than actually doing them. Wastes both my time and theirs...So probably not the best approach. =)

Regardless of the type of work, I clean, hardcore. I can't get anything done until my work area is spotless. And I have to close down pretty much every other program on my computer to minimize distractions.

For programming, I'll put some low music on. For audio work, this is obviously not ideal.

Getting to work at work, ironically, means putting on YouTube videos in the background (just to listen to). This is, in fact, how I found the GyroVorbis channel.

Heh. Yeah, things are entirely different if I'm actually AT work.

Usually it involves large, sound-canceling headphones. XD

aamesxdavid wrote:Regardless of the type of work, I clean, hardcore. I can't get anything done until my work area is spotless. And I have to close down pretty much every other program on my computer to minimize distractions.

For programming, I'll put some low music on. For audio work, this is obviously not ideal.

Getting to work at work, ironically, means putting on YouTube videos in the background (just to listen to). This is, in fact, how I found the GyroVorbis channel.

Amen on the cleaning, if my workspace is cluttered, I get distracted big time. Music helps when I'm working in general, music without words for when I'm programming.

Definitely cleaning my shit up. Then making some sort of pure video game music soundtrack.

Then exiting out of MSN messenger, AOL messenger, GTalk, and IRC, so none of you bastards can interrupt me.

Having lots of important shit already planned on a whiteboard is also very important for my process of actually sitting the fuck down and doing it. As time goes on, more and more of my programming time is spent at a whiteboard and less is actually coding things.

At home: Cleaning and having energy drinks around helps. Also, video game music makes me focus. If the music has lyrics, I get distracted by them. Unless they're in a language I don't understand, then it's just as good as lyric-less.

At work: It's hard to say. I do pretty much the same thing in the morning at work every day and some days I grind hard and some days I just can't get into the groove. Usually that "same thing in the morning" consists of eating breakfast, checking my email and the forums, and slowly re-acquainting myself with where I left off in my code yesterday.

What I really need to do is fill up my iPhone with music so I can have a portable dev environment, but I forget. I'm one of those people that gets distracted easily. SQUIRREL!

Messy

I def need my workspace clean, but it is usually so its not an issue. I have kinda adapted to be oblivious to it, as most of my clients hardly have organized workspaces.

For the most part I just sit down and do whatever i need to. Back in college i was bad at this, but i also had a perpetually beer filled fridge, and two rugby team mates for roommates, as well as guests over constantly. Believe it or not, in an environment like that it does not matter how clean your workspace is you're screwed.

First I clear my mind, just playing some guitar, jamming to some Dream Theater or whatever.
Then I get my beverages; Ice Water, coffe, or any energy drinks if I have some.. and of course some food that's full of energy, bananas and such.
Put on some instrumental music, most likely anything prog rock related. (Focus, Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment or such...)
Clean my desk, so that I don't have all kinds of unnecessary shit floating around.
Get my whiteboards, notepads, and then I sit the fuck down with them... I like getting things down before I start programming. Like Falco said, one may end up spending more time abstracting things than actually writing the code for it.

Luckily, I'm not very easily distracted by things, I have a good way of phasing out, just being in my own abstract world. That way, the environment doesn't really bother me too much.

But as most of you have mentioned, cleaning and opening a vent/window is also a necessity for me, fresh air has this "weird" effect on me, makes it easier to focus, calming down the mind. (Usually I may start by taking a walk outside, or even during programming, just to disconnect for a while, or to think about the problem as well.)

I put Noisia on, and its all good from there.

First things first caffeine :D. I usually make a coffee and then sit down with the book/materials I'm learning from. I tend to shut everything else out Facebook, forums etc. the only programs open tend to be iTunes (for music/podcasts), my compiler (which is currently Dev c++) and notepad for making notes as I learn. On the subject of music I tend to find it quite distracting sometimes although if I listen to something I haven't listened to in a while its alright, I listen to a lot of podcasts in general and they can be relaxing but also quite distracting (People who are looking for a resource to help them learn a bit while on the move might want to look into the Flammable Penguins/Game Programmers in Training podcast on iTunes its set up by students and I find it quite motivating .

Thanks for the responses everyone. My main reason for posting was because one of the things I have the hardest time with is actually getting in the zone to do work. Sometimes it just clicks and I will work for hours and forget that the rest of the world exists (usually that happens at night and I end up working until everyone gets up in the morning), but what I want is to be able to get myself into that zone on purpose and consistently. I can want to get stuff done, but if I can't get into that zone then I don't focus worth crap and I don't get anything done. When I'm in the zone though, as I mentioned, it's like the world ceases to exist and everything just flows.

Lately, I've been trying to get away from distractions as much as possible, but that's tough because I live with roommates. I'm buying a pair of noise cancelling headphones to help with that problem - they're not that loud, but any sort of noise (other than things like the wind or rain) makes it hard for me to focus.

I know what you all mean about the feeling of getting stuff done beforehand (and how good it feels to clear off the desk and have a clean workspace). Mine needed it and it definitely helps. What I need next is a good whiteboard since the last one I bought was a piece of crap that indented whenever you wrote on it and wouldn't erase properly. The exercise definitely helps too. The more satisfied I am with myself and the more other stuff I can get out of the way so it's not sitting in the back of my mind - the better I can concentrate.

I think working in an office environment would drive me nuts since having all of that other stuff going on around me and a lack of control over my environment would make it near impossible to focus intensely. I like the list of stuff that you brought up Marcel - it's a lot like the kind of stuff I need to do.