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[Tuba]

So, as many of you, aside from (trying to) develop games independently, I eat and have bills to pay so I got a daily job. Right now I'm working at a local webdesign studio, programming actionscript for websites and such. I'm having problems to focus on my job knowing that I have a bunch of more interesting stuff to work at home, aside from games I'm also building a website with a friend (which is also about games) and been writing some articles for some websites (yep, gaming websites). So... I have 2 questions for those that have day jobs:

How do you keep focused and motivated at your job?
And how do you organize your time to make both things?

[Booger]

I work in a position that has no career track, but it is a relatively cushy position and pays for my lunch.  As long as I don't neglect my duties and don't call attention to myself, I can comfortably daydream about things to implement which I get to do once I get home.

However, expect to sleep at 4am everyday and sacrifice all your weekends if you actually want to be productive.

Also, having no wife and kids is a plus at this point (and I am paying people who do since I know how much time is valuable especially for them).

[bateleur]

It depends what you mean by "motivated". You can't expect your day job to be as fun as making your games. Your motivation is that it pays the bills.

Of course, it may be that failure to focus on what you're supposed to be doing at work is becoming a problem for you, but that's a mental discipline issue. If you were working full time on your games you might be surprised to find you had the same problem!

[PompiPompi]

Yea, motivation is a fickle thing.
My job is very convinient because I can work basically how many hours I want. And it's not true you can't enjoy your work like building your game.
I enjoyed my work a lot, and then I also invested more time on my work and wasn't motivated to work on my game. Because work was so interesting.
Now with the new game I am really motivated to work on my game, and a bit bored by work.
I toko a few days off to work on my game, and I hope that when I return to work, I will be able to do both things properly. Heh.

Edit: And a little help that helps me(sometimes) at work when I am bored\tired\whatever is to start with something really small and easy. After accomplishing that it's easier to get into the tougher things.

[bgogol]

So, as many of you, aside from (trying to) develop games independently, I eat and have bills to pay so I got a daily job. Right now I'm working at a local webdesign studio, programming actionscript for websites and such. I'm having problems to focus on my job knowing that I have a bunch of more interesting stuff to work at home, aside from games I'm also building a website with a friend (which is also about games) and been writing some articles for some websites (yep, gaming websites). So... I have 2 questions for those that have day jobs:

How do you keep focused and motivated at your job?
And how do you organize your time to make both things?

I've been dealing with this myself. I've been trying to balance not only a career but a large family. I regularly work about 50 - 60 hours per week, in a "professional services organization" where 40 hours per week is not acceptable... I have a mountainous workload which is very stressful and draining. I believe the only thing that saves me is that I work from home at the computer already, which allows me to work on my "hobby" in between as I get little blocks of time. But, during normal business hours, job first.

After that, it's spending time with my 5 kids and doing all the things a good dad and husband need to do. Family first. If by some miracle I get a little bit of time after work and before their bedtime, I'm glad for it. After bed, it's all me but not for crazy hours and not every single night. My wife and I need time too! I usually don't work past 11PM.

So, besides being utterly exhausted, here's a few things that I've learned:

Take good notes, have a good plan, and prioritize well. You need to be well aware of what needs to be done next, and in what order, so when you get those short blocks of time you can make the most of it. If your list gets too big and your head starts spinning, just pick something (anything!) and start plowing through it. I find that everything I write down needs to be done at some point anyway, so sometimes the order is unimportant.

Don't hold unreasonable expectations. You won't get a lot done real fast. You won't finish everything you wanted to, every time you sit down. If you realize this and just try to enjoy the process more than the results, you'll minimize the frustration which can be a project killer.

This also means don't try to shove the game dev stuff into every single free second you have. Take breaks once in a  while, enjoy your weekend (or at least one day of it). You'll be more refreshed and better for it when you come back. Burn out is bad.

That may not sound like you'd ever get enough time to finish any serious project, but I've found that if I can stay focused and a little disciplined I can get enough work done to be satisfied with progress and results. We all have high expectations and it's real hard to temper them and be realistic sometimes, but that's the key to avoiding frustration and burn-out. And above all, have fun.

[Richard Kain]

Remaining motivated in my 9-5 day job generally isn't that difficult for me. There are people who I answer to, and who regularly check in on me for status reports. A lot of the projects that I work on are urgent requests and time sensitive. That is usually more than enough impetus to keep my nose to the grindstone. I've always taken deadlines seriously, so motivation in my day job just comes with the territory.

Maintaining motivation in my indie development is considerably more difficult. There is no one holding me to a schedule, so I pretty much have to force myself to keep up with it. It helps that it is one of my favorite hobbies. But there are plenty of other things that I am interested in, and occasionally my mind wanders. It is not easy keeping myself motivated with so few tangible rewards and such a slow pace.

It's really just a matter of discipline and resolve. I keep at it because I have faith in what I'm doing, and the eventual creations that will result from it. And above all, I love the process itself. The creative aspects of what I'm accomplishing are deeply satisfying to me on a personal level. Even if I never produce a hit game, I will never look back on this as time that was wasted.

[Fallsburg]

It's really just a matter of discipline and resolve. I keep at it because I have faith in what I'm doing, and the eventual creations that will result from it. And above all, I love the process itself. The creative aspects of what I'm accomplishing are deeply satisfying to me on a personal level. Even if I never produce a hit game, I will never look back on this as time that was wasted.

This, this, a thousand times this.  I mean, sure I want to succeed and leave my job to do this full time, I imagine most of us do.  But even if I'm never able to do this, I have a lot more fun and am a lot more satisfied with my life making video games as opposed to not making games.

[Klaim]

Same here. That's why I never start a project without being really faithful in it's potential to be totally amazing (and/or mindblowing) at least to myself.

[Leroy Binks]

40 hour a week job, plus a 25 hour, plus a new baby, minus 4 hours a night for sleeping equals my recipe.

Scheduling- I have one night each week set aside to meet with the other game designer and one night a week for a web conference with my entire team.

Taking notes- I cannot stress this one enough.  This is where the idea for my game came from, long before I even knew I would be making it.  I almost make it a point to do busy work at my 40hour that gives me time to think about my game.  And I take notes.

Time off- Take a day or two away every couple of weeks for yourself.  All work and no play turns brain matter to jello.

[vdek]

It's really tough.  I don't know how some of these game developers do it!  It feels so easy to burn out, but I'm pretty determined at what I'm doing right now and trying to avoid burn out by setting aside at least 1 day of the week to spend time with my girlfriend.   

[mcc]

I'll try to respond in a limited way:

I don't look at indie games development as something I need to "balance" with my normal job. Rather I look at the indie games development as something that revitalizes and informs me and in fact allows me to do better at work.

And not only does it have to be this way, I force it to be this way. Because if it isn't this way, I will burn out very quickly.

So what I do is I structure my indie games work such that if it starts feeling like work, I am doing something wrong. There have been periods that it felt like work, and I've tried to guide myself out of those periods and not go back to them. On indie work I pick projects that feel fun and revitalizing rather than trudgey, if a project doesn't light me up and make me feel "I want to work on this every chance I can get" such that I know I can work on it a bunch without it feeling like something that is using up energy, I change the project or change the way I'm scheduling the project or try a different project altogether.

Again this is an ideal I don't always reach, but it feels like the only way I can do this on top of everything else.

[Xardov]

It's relatively easy for me.  Ever heard the saying: "Work while you work, play while you play"?  Just make games in your free time, and don't think about it at work.  That works perfectly for me.

[Lurk]

See your day job as a prison. While you're there, you're exercising your developer's muscles(like prisoners in the yard ), see in every task the training which will be useful in your personal work. Also, even if a job is pretty boring doesn't mean you should do it poorly- professional work ethics and striving for the best results possible are also qualities you might take an opportunity to develop during the work day.

[JoeManaco]

I'm working Monday - Wednesday at my main job. Yes, 3 days/week. It's enough to pay my bills. And I have a job that is fun (I'm working at a big developer/publisher of browser based games). The other days I work on my own games. I think this split is perfect for people who want to go indie.

I'm also feeling more motivated at my day job than before when I was working 40 hours / week, because besides working on my indie games I have also enough time for myself for sports, playing games, going to the cinema etc.

I found it very frustrating when I was working 5 days/week and doing some own stuff on the weekends or at night. This always worked a few days-weeks but then I was burned out and I stopped working on my own projects for serveral weeks. Later when I got back it often was hard to get into the flow again.

So if you have the possibility talk to your employer and ask if you can start working part-time. It's great!

[Tuba]

So if you have the possibility talk to your employer and ask if you can start working part-time. It's great!

I've been thinking about asking him for something like that... or if I could work from home or even get out of the company and get hired as a freelancer so I can have a better control of my time.

Anyway, thanks for all the answers, hope this thread helps more people.

One thing I learned is that there's really no easy solution here, I'm trying to organize my time better and sleep less (just 1 or 2 hours less, nothing too radical but it already helps).

[starsrift]

I am finding it very hard. My employer is furthermore calling me in for extra shifts, so far this year, every third week on average.

I'm picking myself out of the gutter so I can't afford to go part time just yet. Next year, though, I plan to.

[Klaim]

I don't work on wednesdays since July. It really helps on personal projects.

However, you have to be well paid and it's not really my case. I'm fixing this at the moment.

Also, I'm not working on games for the moment, I'm working on a tool.  I want to get to the 1.0 of my current project before getting back to games (that would be the "useful" version of the tool.