Just make it hard to fail | Hacker News Reader

Just make it hard to fail

nekolucifer.substack.com

41 pointsandai25 comments

I've been working on an indie game solo for the past four years. I've had quiet periods and I've had productive periods. But I have worked on it nearly every single day for those four years, rarely for less than an hour.

One method I did have a lot of success with was a time spent spreadsheet I created. For any given date I'd enter individual times I started and stopped working on it - so it might be 10am until 11.30am, 2pm until 5pm, and so on.

For each day I'd sum the hours spent, and then I had a target hours to hit each week - 20 at first, then 30, and eventually 40. This is while also working a day job, otherwise I'd probably have tried increasing it by 1.5-2x.

A key rule I followed was this: once I hit enough hours for the day to be on track for the weekly goal, I could then do whatever I felt like with my remaining time. Ironically I'd often keep working on it as the momentum was already going, but just as often I'd go relax.

Pretty good system all in all.

Interesting. My system is that I have to-do list of things I try to do every single day to ensure my day was productive for me. The list doesn't change basically.

When I finish the list, I feel free to do whatever else I want without feeling guilty.

Nice. Yeah, my rule was "after the first hour, I can do whatever I want for the rest of the day." And I too found, it was much nicer to keep going! First of all, my work was quite enjoyable. (I'm sure that helped a lot!) But also, it just feels good to be getting things done!

"Distract myself with nonsense" has some appeal... but "keep winning" has more.

Also, I "ironically" found it easier to do something every single day. In theory, every other day should be easier, because it's less work, right? But the loss of momentum and the addition of friction (is today a rest day or not?), especially in those "sleepy moments" of the day... for me it's just too risky! So I just jump into action before there is time for my brain to protest :)

I found the 'every day' approach also works for exercise. Instead of a mon/wed/fri or other such routine, I just go every day and do something. Even when I feel a bit crap (not sick, that is the only exception), I still go and just do some light cardio or something easy. Always feel better after doing so. It also removes any decision stress.

What are you working on?

https://youtu.be/2JjCHYx3wO8

It's a passion project, no idea how it will do on release, time will tell!

Thanks for asking by the way!

"Rule 1: Work every day. No skipping days.

Rule 2: Begin working immediately, as soon as I wake up.

Rule 3: Internet and Phone stays off for the first hour. "

You have DigitalOcean because myself and a few other folks did this consistently for 5 years straight.

They're good rules for accomplishing something.

Was it worth it?

Absolutely.

The guy who figured out how to make a blue LED (which was world changing), also worked every single day.

Fascinating story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF8d72mA41M

Fascinating. Anecdata, sample size 1. If it works for OP, fantastic.

Definitely does NOT work for me.

My recipe, such as it is:

1. Be gentle with myself every morning. I may wake vaguely human, but consciousness and acuity require coffee, word games, ablutions, and point 2.

2. Dog walking, aka DW, aka Diagnostic Wandering, allows me to breathe fresh air, let my mind wander or perhaps let it focus. Most of the best code I've written in the last 4 years has been DW code. All of the weird bug discoveries have been DW discoveries. Most - and almost all - of my discoveries about how ND I am and how I really work have been DW discoveries.

3. Recognize which brain I have today, and select issues/workload based on that...

4. ...unless I really, really must, MUST, work on something specific, in which case force it, knowing there is a cost.

5. Recover from such costs as quickly as possible, but as gently as possible (cf #1, #2).

6. When off-roading with my very good friend the CTO, do NOT talk about work...

7. ...unless we both agree something needs 30-90s, after which resume #6.

8. Watch football all day Saturday, if possible, preferably Liverpool, but not necessarily. Detach. (If Saturday is impossible, e.g., family obligations, substitute Sunday.)

9. Read in bed every night before turning off the light, regardless of how tired I am. Subject is irrelevant (current bedside stack: LotR (again), two books of category theory, Ulysses). One sentence, one paragraph, one page, or as many as need be, until I start to drift off. If my GF has to collect the book from chest and turn off the light, so much the better! :-> (She's a night owl, there is no cost and there is much joy to her in this.)

10. Endeavour to start the bedtime process between 2300 and 2330 as often as possible - but see #1 re gentleness. DO teeth. EVERY night. REGARDLESS.

11. Nap occasionally. Ah, my 60s.

12. Recognize when #11 is a MUST, not just a SHOULD.

Let the brain cook and stew and bubble and backburn whilst doing other things. As effective as DWs for things that are more "R" than "d".

This is awesome. And wholesome. I feel like your recipe is the sort we’d all stand to benefit from if adopting even a part of it. Thanks for sharing,

Thanks for sharing, I love this :)

Yeah, so I only work "properly" for a few hours, and then I'd say I am gentle with myself the entire rest of the day. That's why I put all the "don't want to do, but need to get done" stuff in the first part. Then I'm chill for the rest of the day!

I got this idea from Brian Tracy's concept of "Eat That Frog" (and book of same title). "If you have to eat a live frog, it doesn't pay to sit around and look at it for very long."

I found the same principle applies in life in general. Once I've decided to do something I'm avoiding, I just have to jump into action right away, before the moment of hesitation can grow into a mountain of dread.

Hi HN! This is probably the most important thing I ever learned, so I'll repeat it here for the people who only read the comments :)

I found a way to work on my project every day, without willpower.

I just eliminated all the failure modes.

1. Skipping days breaks momentum: I can't skip days. (So I made it easy to win: I only need to show up for an hour.)

2. Delaying the work leads to missed days. I get tired, I get distracted, I forget. So I decided I need to work as soon as I wake up. Then I guarantee it gets done.

3. Distracted by stupid BS. Noticed that all my distraction came from the internet, and getting distracted would tank productivity for the remainder of the day. So I just unplug the router before bed.

That's my whole system, and I'm using it right now. (I used it to write this post!)

The deeper idea here is ... just find out what's making you fail, and see if you can't design around that. Just design it so those things do not happen. Then you will win by default.

Hope this helps! :)

---

P.S. the astute reader may observe that this describes the Q2 category in the Eisenhower Matrix[0] (Important But Not Urgent): things we want to get done "someday", but which will never get done unless we make time it.

i.e., our hopes and dreams...

For this reason, I very strongly recommend dedicating the first hour to Q2. Q1 "handles itself", by definition. Q2 is the one that needs love!

(That probably should have been the main thesis. Oh well!)

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47467854

> Q2 category in the Eisenhower Matrix

I thought I was in the target audience for this post, but now I'm entirely confused.

Q2 means important, but not urgent. these tasks need to be scheduled or they don't get done

Q1 is things that are both important and urgent

it's a system popularized by Dwight D. Eisenhower

If you like not having terrible regrets, you are the target audience! I'm still getting the hang of explaining things, sorry ;)

The Eisenhower Matrix is a system for deciding how to spend your time. There are two booleans, which combine into four quadrants.

Here, I made a graph! https://files.catbox.moe/upo2zs.png

Q1: Important and Urgent

Q2: Important, not Urgent

Q3: Not important, but Urgent

Q4: Neither important nor Urgent

I realized a while back that when people talk about their "dreams" in life, they're actually talking about Q2. They're talking about the category of things they want to do "someday", but which, unless they actively make time for, will never happen.

Because, by definition, there is always something more urgent pressing for your attention. Q1 and Q3 "do themselves", in the sense that life will pressure you into dealing with them. There is no real pressure for Q2, except for the occasional "oh my god another year has passed and I have made no progress."

So I strongly urge everyone to figure out what your Q2 is, and to schedule it first thing every morning.

It had its own page, but nothing good lasts on Wikipedia!

> Skipping days breaks momentum: I can't skip days

This is my most important rule. I do not believe in "rest days" anymore. They are catastrophic for my ability to stay focused on a big project. This isn't to say I advocate for a 997 working hour system. I do believe in taking it easy and sometimes putting in the bare minimum, but a day with absolutely zero progress I cannot permit anymore.

24 hours is a long time. If I can't add a tiny amount of value each day, the project is probably dead. Especially a project like a game. The workflows for things like creating 3d models and scenes are generally so complicated that if you don't exercise them ~daily they will rot quickly. I open blender after not using it for a few months and it almost feels like I've never used it before. Not because I don't know how to use it (although I am far from an expert), but because the specific workflow that adds value to my project is not a straight line through space. It's a lot of steps and menu options to click through. Good luck remembering which UV unwrap presets you prefer for UV0 vs UV1 after a week of working on something unrelated.

Just keeping the tool chain open & alive on my machine feels like 80% of the battle. If it's sitting there and in a good state to iterate with, I find myself automatically pulled toward it. If that battlefield 6 queue takes longer than 10 seconds, I will inevitably be alt-tabbed into Visual Studio or Unity.

The discipline of practice every day is essential. When I skip a day, I notice a difference in my playing. After two days, the critics notice, and after three days, so does the audience. —Jascha Heifetz

OK, maybe I don't have to agree with the rest of the article, but:

> Rule 2: Begin working immediately, as soon as I wake up.

> Rule 3: Internet and Phone stays off for the first hour.

This do actually work for me too.

The days that I'm the most productive is when I wake up, and almost immediately jump straight in building.

The few extra thing includes: 1) Get a mug (big one) of water a.k.a H2O, 2) Grab some saltine cracker to suppress hungry until lunch time, 3) Open SoundCloud/some music app. Wastes about three minutes total. Then, it's just me, the music and idea flowing out to the real world.

If I have to make myself a breakfast, it will ...break... my momentum very ...fast. I often just start checking phone while waiting things to heat up etc.

It's not healthy for long term, not eating breakfast, but it's fine if you do it one day for every month or so.

An interesting book looking at routines is Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey.

“ More than 150 inspired—and inspiring—novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians on how they subtly maneuver the many (self-inflicted) obstacles and (self-imposed) daily rituals to get done the work they love to do.”

“I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.”

― W. Somerset Maugham

How do you balance real life responsibilities though with every single day? I find if I don't take rest days at a regular interval I don't have the deep motivation any longer, it becomes a long series of always more to be done. I need my down time for family, friends and cooking.

I only work for the first 1-3 hours of the day.

Inspired by this guy http://plumshell.com/2016/03/10/work-for-only-3-hours-a-day-...

After the first hour, I can keep going if I'm on a roll, or I can take the rest of the day off.

Thanks for the link it's an interesting read. I'm currently doing that already, but with fitness, so the first 1-3 hours of the day are for fitness routines, things like prepping and eating food, working out, walking to get my steps. I am pretty fit right now, but my working is more sporadic. I'm prone to working from 9pm to midnight once my kids are asleep. I still have to take off weekends though.

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