Developer Diary 112 - Progress Documentation

During the last month I grew increasingly sick of working on Sound FX. I finished the giant's footsteps and some additional VO for him and then went back to Unreal Engine. I updated everything and installed the drivers and when I went for my first stroll through the world I felt ... happy. Incredibly content. I suddenly understood again what it was, that pulled me into this all these years ago.

Since I was afraid, that I wouldn't invest enough hours into it or lose track, because other things in my life may interfere with my work, I decided to implement a new time management system for myself. I wanted to see my progress every day, and make sure that I would invest enough hours into the project.

I started timing myself every day while working on the engine. Bathroom breaks, browsing the internet, going out for a walk with my dog, getting coffee, opening the door for the mailman ... I turned the timer off during any activities, that could not be considered "concentrated work, dedicated to progress".

My goal was to reach a steady average of 20 hours a week. In combination with my day job, this would all amount to a weekly workload of 36 - 40 hours a week. A full time job, but still manageable.

I managed to reach that goal during my first week after implementing it, but was unable to reach it in my second week.

We usually don't recognize how much time we spend on minor activities, that have nothing to do with work. When we go and grab a fresh cup of coffee, that's at least 5 minutes gone. Browsing the net and then losing yourself on Reddit, that's another 20 minutes. Taking a break and going outside for a while .... 30 minutes ..... but then again these breaks are necessary in order to uphold concentration.

I found, that for every hour of working on LW (fixing bugs, figuring out new code segments, tracking down problems) I would need at least 30 minutes - 1 hour of breaks and distraction. I only track the time I am actually sitting in front of the engine, but the breaks and distractions in between fulfill a purpose of some sort.

This does not seem to be true for mindless tasks however. If I work on a mindless task, such as duplicating code segments or implementing variables for a large blueprint I can work much longer without needing breaks. But the smarter you work with arrays, loops and timeline nodes, the less time you will need to spend on mindless tasks. You could even say, if you find yourself spending time on ANY meaningless and repetitive task in Unreal Engine 4, then you're not doing it right.

So I'm not 100% sure where this system will get me, but I want to stay with it. At least for a while so I can analyze my own time management.