next »

[Tumetsu]

I used to have music always at background but right now not so often. Reading Animator's Survival Kit where listening music while working was discouraged since in silent work amount seemed to rise I thought maybe that could affect for programming and graphic work too. Not that that is the main reason of current silentness, rather I have overconsumed my itunes library.

Podcasts would be nice except most of interesting ones are english and my listening and understanding at the same time still needs rather high concentration so it's out of option

[Dualnames]

I put a Pink Floyd record that loops endlessly. It helps me focus and write dialogues more easily. Generally I think music is the best way.

[ak]

When i'm drawing i like to play some TV show in the background, preferably something i've already seen before but i'm happy to see again. I find it efficient to have this kind of constant, minor distraction going on. It prevents me from falling into more serious distractions like taking a break on Facebook and ending up watching stupid videos for an hour.

If my work involves writing i like to listen to instrumental music, like "Tri repetae" by Autechre.

[Plattfisk]

I find it efficient to have this kind of constant, minor distraction going on. It prevents me from falling into more serious distractions like taking a break on Facebook and ending up watching stupid videos for an hour.

Yes, this is exactly how it works for me also. Well put.

[LemonScented]

I put a Pink Floyd record that loops endlessly. It helps me focus and write dialogues more easily. Generally I think music is the best way.

Any one in particular? I'm a big Floyd fan and have had a few favourite "work albums" over the years.

[Dualnames]

I put a Pink Floyd record that loops endlessly. It helps me focus and write dialogues more easily. Generally I think music is the best way.

Any one in particular? I'm a big Floyd fan and have had a few favourite "work albums" over the years.

I'd say Final Cut. Occasionally I put Animals or the Wall, but I find Final Cut to help me set the mood easier  . What's yours?

[voidSkipper]

http://www.last.fm/user/voidSkipper

I wouldn't get very much done without music.

[agersant]

@voidSkipper » http://imgur.com/q3kRN.png

[valkrin]

Cant' get anything done if some nice music is not playing. Coding is a lonesome task, and being indoors on a beautiful day tackling math/coding problems while the rest of the world mills about outside can be rather depressing. Music brings some sort of happiness to this programmer.

Life gets easier at night time, for some reason. Productivity increases.

[kinnas]

I'd say Final Cut. Occasionally I put Animals or the Wall, but I find Final Cut to help me set the mood easier  . What's yours?

Oh yeah.

[Squiggly_P]

I generally listen to any kind of music when I draw or paint, but if I'm working in 3D the only thing that does it for me is Tool's Aenima album. When it came out I was heavily involved in Quake/Doom level editing and I'd play it while working. Ever since then that album has been inexorably linked to 3D work for me. It's hard for me to work without it.

When I draw I tend to have music that fits whatever mood I'm going for in the art. Lately that means mostly happy pop-style stuff. Dukes of Windsor, Adam Lambert, The Archie Bronson Outfit, etc.

[LemonScented]

I'd say Final Cut. Occasionally I put Animals or the Wall, but I find Final Cut to help me set the mood easier  . What's yours?

Ugh, I hate The Final Cut. I'll be the first person to admit that Floyd's back catalogue varies wildly in quality (Atom Heart Mother or Ummagumma, anyone?), but The Final Cut is a step too far down the quality ladder for me. I'll listen to pretty much anything from Meddle onwards (except The Final Cut) while I'm working, but mostly I find The Wall to be bizarrely good to work to (I have no idea why - it's not exactly the sort of album that expects to be used as background music, but it works). Oddly enough, any time I feel like I might want to work to Dark Side of the Moon I usually end up putting on Dub Side of the Moon (the surprisingly good dub/reggae cover album by Easy Star All Stars) instead - seems to set me in a good mood for working.

For those with eclectic music tastes, other albums that I've found have stood the test of time for working to over the years are either Strangeitude or Become The Other by Ozric Tentacles, or La Masquerade Infernale by Arcturus. For people who aren't into space rock or melodic Norwegian post-Black-Metal they're probably a bit too busy and demanding on the ears to allow for proper focus, but for me I've heard them so many times they're like putting on a well-worn pair of shoes.

[Dualnames]

I'd say Final Cut. Occasionally I put Animals or the Wall, but I find Final Cut to help me set the mood easier  . What's yours?

Ugh, I hate The Final Cut. I'll be the first person to admit that Floyd's back catalogue varies wildly in quality (Atom Heart Mother or Ummagumma, anyone?), but The Final Cut is a step too far down the quality ladder for me. I'll listen to pretty much anything from Meddle onwards (except The Final Cut) while I'm working, but mostly I find The Wall to be bizarrely good to work to (I have no idea why - it's not exactly the sort of album that expects to be used as background music, but it works).

Ah, that was my initial reaction to it. Trust me just listen to it once more, you're missing total greatness IMHO. Those are tastes though. Weirdly enough Daft Punk also help me out.

[paste]

I find that unless I have something going on besides what I'm working on, I tend to get distracted.  I know, seems somewhat counterintuitive.  Anyway, the secondary input depends on what I'm working on:

If I'm working on art, I like to have something to sing along with, like The Beatles.
If I'm working on code or something with words, I like classical or video game music.  Basically something without words.
IF I'm working on music, that's pretty much the only time nothing else is needed or wanted.

[supershigi]

If I'm working on something less cerebral like mapping or spriting, then I'll listen to music.  If I'm doing work that requires more thinking, like writing dialogue for a cutscene or finding a bug in the script or something, then I'll try to find myself a nice drink and possibly a crunchy snack so I can take sips/bites when I'm getting frustrated or experiencing writers block, hehe. 

[Loren Schmidt]

I feel like I have a lot to learn about how to be consistently productive. Sometimes I get a lot done quickly, and other times my projects move at a snail's pace. I'd be interested to hear about things people do to stay on track and keep themselves productive.

I find that my sleep habits and how well I'm eating both have a big effect on my productivity. The internet does as well- it's a constant distraction.

I used to drink tea, but in the past six months I've been avoiding caffeine.

I frequently listen to music while making games. I don't restrict myself to particular genres- everything I like is equally likely to get played while I'm doing game development.

I've never tried playing video in the background. I think I wouldn't want to do that, because I like devoting my full attention to anything I'm watching.

[ink.inc]

I do different things with different types of work

Writing: Nothing. When I write, I can't have anything else going on.
Coding: Flight of the Valyries, by Wagner; literally the only thing I can code to.
Homework: Pandora; usually some easy listening (like regina spektor or ingrid michaelson or whatever) or some techno.
Artwork: Game soundtracks. Mostly Uematsu, some Western stuff though.
Tedious Artwork (like dithering or basic detailwork): PODCASTS! Recently, the ones Alec Holowka posted on infinite Ammo; besides that, lots of The Moth (a live storytelling series) and The Geekbox and Rebel FM.

But whenever I really want to do some work, I unplug my ethernet cable. The temptation to go on TIGsource is just too great.... Speaking of which, jesus, I've posted 50 times in the past two days...

Life gets easier at night time, for some reason. Productivity increases.

For me, this is because everyone else is dead asleep, and I have the whole dorm to myself. It's completely quiet, and I don't have to deal with other people. Sure, I guess that's somewhat antisocial behavior, but hey- it helps when you need to get shit done.

On a side note, whenever I turn on my laptop, instead of playing the windows xp theme song, I've set it up so that the first thing I hear is the intro to The Lion King. And it's a damn fine way to start any session. It's all "AAAAAAMBWENYAHHH VENANISIMABAH!!!" and I'm all "HELL YEA LETS DO THIS SHIT". And whenever I turn it off, it goes: "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that," like HAL from 2001. I love messing with those sound settings. Just a side note.

[HP Sauce]

I've just listened to Bob Bates GDC 2010 lecture: "Belly of the Whale".

And a question that came up during the Q&A at the end that seemed very relevant to this topic.

Bob stressed "DO NOT MULTI-TASK!" with regards listening to music, etc.

And it rung true with a recent one-to-one I had with my director. He was giving me a bit of a pat on the back saying how I was the kind of developer who was a "problem solver" as opposed to the glorified typist developer who just sits there tapping away at the code a problem-solver developer has told them to write.

After reflecting on Bobs lecture, especially this "multi-tasking" point I started to draw parallels between developer types and this multi-task/don't-multi-task mentality.

And even among my peers (senior developers) there are the guys with their IPods in or just endlessly demanding the office radio is switched on and there are those who disappear off to empty meeting rooms with a stack of paper and a notepad (and in my experience no on has fallen into both camps).

At the end of the day the Multi-Tasksers have cranked out a carbon copy of the same data access layers/user access management/etc, etc (I don't work as a game developer, if you couldn't tell) they implemented on their last job/project... While the guys who sought some peace and quite have actually solved the problem at hand rather than presented a cookie cutter solution you now have to hack in to your code-base.

It seems, even amongst senior developers, the guys getting distracted are just throwing out the first idea that comes into their heads (as bad as if they where, brow-beaten, juniors acting as typists for their seniors/leads) rather than thinking problems through.

I've only ever had 5 development roles, so my experience of individual developers is limited and I'm sure I'll cop as much crap for this as Bob said he had ...
But I think the best thing to do while you work is: work.
Take breaks when needed, distance your self when you need some mental-breathing-room.... but when you sit down at the keyboard/drawing-board/etc get into the "zone" and focus.

Maybe this parallel I drew between the distracted-regurgitators and focused-problem-solvers is unwarranted or just plain wrong... I mention it here only on the off chance it's not and, perhaps, someone can take something from it. 

[Tycho Brahe]

I think you're right; I can only work through complex maths problems when I have complete concentration, whereas more standard problems I can do whilst chatting to someone.

[AntiPseudonym]

Music, snacks and water. If I have all of that, I can easily drop a whole day into a project without even realising I'm not even in the same day anymore.

Can't stand having the TV or radio on, though. Whenever I hear people talking I have a compulsion to know what's going on and it breaks my concentration like a brick through glass.