The 9-5 experiment
In a thread I started on the indiegamer forums I posted a link to a news article about a company making their employees only work from 9-5 (only an 8 hour day) and not allowing them internet or games during their work day. Supposedly they hit every milestone and no one is overworked and the work generally flows smoothly. I’ve also read other things that suggest only doing 8 hours a day (40 hour work week) is a good practice (in game development) as it’s used successfully in regular jobs.
So the experiment is this. I get to “work” from 9-5, i get 2 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch. During this time I don’t get to check email, or forums, or blogs, or play games, or anything and just “work while i’m at work”. I may even turn off my instant messengers/irc while i’m working (right now i’m using trillian but essentially not starting up trillian).
It will be tough at first to adapt to it, but I think I can get the hang of it. With that I still get to take a shower in the morning, take a 1 hour walk for exercise, and clean house 1 hour, each day. I will actually have done 7 hours of work (not specifically 8 hours because an 8 hour day includes breaks and lunch). This the challenge. To see if you can do the same.
Now you may ask just what constitutes “work”. For me it’s anything involving the computer, or maybe I shouldn’t worry about that so much as “work” is the time in the period from 9 am to 5 pm in a given work day. I’m doing this because I may do other extra game stuff afterwards. Stuff like drawing when i’m watching tv for extra art. Or getting on at night to finish studying some stuff or to scan some drawings in. However during these extra times, from when i wake up to 9 am, from when I “get off” at 5 pm till the time I go to bed, I may do anything like surf the net or play games.
So if anyone reads this maybe they can take on the challenge too. I really want to see if this keeps my productivity high. If not then i’ve lost nothing, just gained whatever I did accomplish.
By the way an 8 hour day can be flexible, in other words, the 9-5 experiment doesn’t have to be 9-5 it could be 7-3 or 12-8. (or sometimes you can do 9 hours like 8-5 so you actually get in 8 hours of work, with breaks and lunch). Point is that you do the breaks and the lunch, and you make sure nothing distracts you from the work you do at that time. And when you break actually get up and leave the computer or whatever you’re doing and then come back to it afresh after the break.
What do you think?
Keith