1KM1KT Free RPG Community

I like to rise to challenges largely set by myself. My latest is rewriting the mechanics of Icar so that they are based around a more solid core. As I recently discovered . Watching some others actually play the game has been a powerful experience.

Now that I have two kids, I seem to have a quarter of the time that I had before. As a result I've become a bit more brutal at using my time. The time hits me at random and can be fleeting. Here are some techniques that I used:


Making lists of thoughts, ideas and things you want to do gives you a sense of making progress - if ever so small. The list must be easily accessible at any time or place. I use two, a pocket book and the Trello app on my phone/computer. Not all the ideas are good but keeping lists of things to check or just random stuff allows you to make better use of the time when it crops up.

Here's for example.


I do less social media-ing now. I have a very tight set of blogs and although I'm friends with hundreds on Facebook, I only really chat with a few. When I am sitting at a computer, I don't open Facebook unless it is to do something directly associated with Icar or a hobby.


If I open Steam, I know that I will spend 20 minutes browsing it. Not opening it (it's not even on the task bar anymore) stops that. I don't have time to play the games I have let alone new ones.


I didn't really watch much before and now I'll only watch something when I am stuck underneath a sleeping baby. Even then I tend to watch YouTube.


This sounds like management BS but I have had some success with it. When I wrote version 4 of Icar, the goals I had were of the scale "finish Character Generation". That's 10 pages. That's massive. The problem with that is that I have 20 minutes here and there and if I am faced with a massive goal like "rewrite Icar" then I'll feel overwhelmed and even when I do manage to do some good writing/editing/graphics, I feel like I've got nowhere. My goals are now small. I don't write hundreds of goals all at once, just the next few as I see them.


When I sat down in this particular batch of time, I knew I wanted to write this forum post, perhaps as a precursor to a FRPGB post. Before I started, I worked out what the thing I'm going to do after this is. The reason is that my time at the computer will end abruptly when the baby wakes up or there is a chore that needs sorting out. I might be able to squeeze a few minutes to finish this off but I won't be able to prepare the next task.

The important thing about having the next task is that when I next sit down to the computer, I need to have something ready to do. I mustn't assume that I am going to be able to sit and allow a muse to fill my mind. That muse will have come and gone hours ago and productive time has to be used.

This way, I always have something ready to do.


Even if it seems like I have a good few hours of time, I will stop after 90 minutes and do something else; play some games or repair a quadcopter. Something different. I find that my creative quality dips after 90 minutes, so it's better to stop than to have to repair it all another time.

What do you do to keep progress going? Do you have any tricks and tips to share?

Now that my oldest is driving and my youngest is able to mow the lawn on his own, my time has opened up some, but not as much as you'd think.

My main thing I do to maximize my time is work on what I feel like I have a good answer to. I occasionally will pound through a brick wall that's standing in my way, but that's usually a miserable experience. I tend to get an idea in my head that feels right and working on that allows me to make the most progress quickly. It also means that problems I haven't come up with a good solution to tend to linger until they annoy me so much I'd rather beat through them than let them sit.

I vary my tasks to keep myself interested. I might write a story, or draw, or work on rules or sometimes I'll build something or do some blacksmithing. Again, it's whatever feels good to do. It's a wonder I get anything done.

I think I figured out how to keep a game or a story in my head for months or years at a time when I was a teenager, so I tend to have five to ten various projects in the mix and rotate through them. I really think it's my subconscious that does a lot of my deep processing because I'll leave something I'm stuck on and then when I come back to it, I have the solution I needed just come to me.

The other advice I can give is to keep moving. If I stop, I tend to stop for a long time. If I do a little each day, I keep making progress.