I am often asked how to best manage the time I spend on the computer. Most days I set out to accomplish, and for some it’s a battle. I often feel that I want to do more than others, so I’m always trying to find ways to make myself better. I’ve started doing a few things to help increase my productivity, but I’ve learned that a 4 hour work week is probably my best bet.
My work schedule at the moment is 4 days a week, with only a few hours of rest days. I also work 7 days a week, and during the summer months I work a very long weekend to ensure no interruptions. Ive had my work cut by about 4 hours a week, so my productivity has increased significantly.
The first time I started a new job at a company, I was so excited that I didn’t read the job description. I was so excited because I thought I had a great job, and I wanted to prove to everyone that I was a better worker than they were. After a couple weeks, I realized that the job description didn’t say what I was looking for. They didn’t give me a clue.
The first time I started a new job, my boss had told me not to expect anything more than a 40 hour week. As soon as I started working at my new company, I realized that my boss was wrong. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had only been on the job for two weeks and I wasnt expecting a 40 hour week. I thought I was doing a great job and I didnt even think about it.
I had to change my job description because there was no way in hell I could do everything that my day job was supposed to do. I was an IT consultant, not a coder. I spent much of my time in the office doing email, chat, and document management, which is the sort of thing that should not take more than 40 hours a week.
At the time I was doing this, we hadn’t just gone from a four hour work week to a 40 hour work week (at least not in a few months time). But it was a good thing to change it, because I was pretty exhausted. I didn’t even have time to take a shower, so I was a little dehydrated. I think I might have actually started getting sick a couple of days after I stopped working.
I think I was slightly under-prepared for my 4 hour work week, because I thought I would have a more satisfying day after I started working. I was also expecting the day to end early because I had to finish the paperwork. It wasnt until a week later that I realized how much longer I spent in the office than I thought.
The week before we released Deathloop, we made the decision to get rid of the paperwork in favour of a 4 hour work week. Because, well, we are a game studio, and we want to make sure we deliver a quality game at any given time. Our goal is to get a game out the door, and if we can’t do that we won’t release it.
At the end of the 4 hour work week, our team would be able to work on the game for 4 uninterrupted weeks. That’s a goal we are working towards. Our design process is a bit like a 4 hour work week. We get to spend time figuring out what we want to make, what we think players will enjoy, and then designing the game around those things. We then work with our team to figure out how to make that happen.
One of the other things I’ve noticed about the design process is that it’s just not as fun for us as it is for the developers. It’s not as fun because the design process is so hands-on. At the end of the process, its like a 4 hour work week where the developers are just trying to make something.
