Just curious as to how other people deal with motivation issues especially
in long jobs.
Probably more from a freelancers point of view.

Apart from the monetary incentive, i find it hard to continue to focus and
remain motivated for long periods of time.
Currently I am working most days at home from about 9am to 10pm with the
odd break and maybe an hour for lunch, in order to get some contracts done
on time.

I'm worried that I'm burning out pretty fast.

So does anyone have techniques, or words of wisdom, that they use to stay
focused and motivated.
preferably something that doesn't involve large quantities of crystal meth
;)

thanks folks!!

Adam.

It's a hard one. Motivation, I find, always looses steam the longer a job drags
out. I love starting new jobs, thinking of new concepts, squeezing that last
drop of creative juice from the grey matter....but then the production kicks
in, creativity makes way for repetition or mundane tasks need to be performed
before new stages can be dealt with. Sometimes breaking the tasks into small
milestones help, especially if you give yourself a little reward for reaching
it, like a movie, or just 30min in front of the TV. Breaking things up, if only
on paper, helps you see the light at the end of the tunnel. The most damaging
thing I have noticed is the sensation that you aren't getting anywhere. The
mountain of work is still a mile high and you've been at it all day.

Perspective is another thing. Nothing is worth burning yourself out for. Any of
you who rode the startup wave in the late 90's, early 00's who were pushed to
the limit and beyond with something like "shares" dangled as a carrot before
your eyes will understand that one. Your health must come first. The other
thing is keeping aware of exhaustion. The more tired you are, the less
motivated you will be. The more tired you are, the less accurate you will be.
The more tired you are the less productive you will be. I'm sure a few of us
have done their share of all nighters, I mean ALL night, watching the sun come
up one day, watching it set, and watching it come up again in the same chair.
It's depressing. Go to bed and recharge, even if you have to get up an hour
earlier. An hour in the morning after some sleep is worth 2 or more at 2.00am
I've found.

Other suggestions, music helps keep me going, different tunes for different
moods (anything from Tool to Vivaldi)......getting up and walking the dog or
going out for a coffee just so you can remember that you're also on this planet
to live, not just work.

Doing this as a freelancer is OK for a little while as it helps build your rep
and the financial benefits of pushing yourself are funneled back to you. If you
are pushing yourself to the Nth degree for an employer you better be on a hefty
wage or I'd say you're being shafted. Is your boss tucked away in his cosy bed
while you're hallucinating from burnout? Sleep debt can't be paid back from
going to bed early the following night.

And remember people, we're not curing cancer or solving global warming. We're
just pushing pixels around a screen. Get the perspective right and you'll find
motivation and focus are something you can control.

A.
p.s my apologies to anyone on this list curing cancer or solving global warming.
____________

Hi Adam,
Firstly you may need to look at your work flow and efficiency to see if
things can't be done in less time. I don't know what you do, but there's
always ways to do things quicker.

I find the best way to work is to be totally focused on small chunks of
results. So I will say to myself - 'I'll work for an hour starting now (when
I finishing writing this DLF post) and by then I'll have this part of the
project done.' (I need to create a background for a clip I'm doing). What
this does is it stops me spending endless hours thinking, researching,
changing my mind, experimenting, and generally farting about. Of course I
may not be 100% happy with what I've done at the end of that hour, but it
will be something I can tweak later or live with if time runs out. I rarely
have deadline frenzies.

This works especially well for those parts of a project that you have been
dreading. You can do a lot in an hour.

I time my little breaks around finishing small parts of the big picture.
I'll finish modelling a character's shoe or something before I take a break.
Then the break become a reward and I'll really press out that shoe.

Hope this helps.

__________________
It depends how you look at it and what your motivations are. I know some people whose entire lives revolve around cg and others for where it is just a means of income.

Try and decide what you want to get out of it. If its for the money, then maybe working your ass off for clients is worth it. If your trying to fullfull some sort of creative drive, then that might explain why your loosing motivation on purely contractual work. Maybe a personal project on the side would help renew your interest in what your doing?

I also remember hearing this guy from disney do a talk. He said that he would deliberately fall behind on deadlines because he did his best work when he were rushed. He didn't have time to procrastinate or make the wrong descision and his worked had a fast natural flow to it.

Although, its probably not a practical way to work, I think there's some truth in that if you are glued to your PC for 12 hours a day, then your productivity level is going to drop and your not going to be doing your best work regardless..

Anyway, hope you sort it out. Being burned out sucks =)

__________________

Well you might try setting youself daily goals/deadlines. I know at home if
im not working toward something (the completion of a specific task), it can
drag on forever. Pretend you have to explin to your boss (you) why you
havent met the dead line and you will work overtime to do it. At the END of
every day, spend 1 hour playing CS or NFS or DOD or RA or some game, you
will never get the urges out of your head if you obstain completely (never
start your day with games). Set your self a time of say 4 hours before you
take your first coffee break of the day (the first stint is your most
powerful). I know that i use coffee as an excuse to have a break at home so
i end up making myself coffee all day and not getting anything done.

Never have the tv on in the background.

the biggest thing is still the deadlines though, the closer together these
are the better eg. a daily deadline is more likely to be achieved then a
monthly one.

dont just accept it if you havent reached a deadline... stick at it till it
is reached, even if its a legit reason like max is giving you trouble (maya
in your case i know).

also i find if i havent reached a deadline and it boils over into the next
day, what was left of the previous days task ends up taking up almost the
whole day. So start with a clean slate every day by completing everything
the night before.

hopefully when you see your own progress, moral itself will motivate you ;)

ps, tell other people your going to get something done by a certain date,
then you will feel like a tool if they ask and you havent done it. You
might be able to let yourself down but depending on your personality, you
will probably find it hard to let other people down.

geez, somebody stop me

Troy

_________________________

Amen Brother...

9am-10pm is deffinately too much (me thinks) to be working everyday...
Somedays maybe, but you need your rest dude.

I know what you're going through very well... my record is 3 days without
sleeping followed by a collapse in front of the head of my department, but
that's a different story. :P

I love 3d, it's my life, but working like you are currently would kill it
out of me no matter how much I loved it. I know coz I've worked
9am-12midnight days before and I was a walking zombie with no life. I only
did those hours for like 1 month to get some money before deciding I will
never sacrifice my life like that again because it's not worth it.

SOunds like you're not living man... IMO I would suggest you only do this
for a very short time and then find a comfortable level to work at... learn
to say "NO" to jobs even though its hard and learn new ways of doing things
more efficient. You'll find that going out to movies or cafes (or whatever
makes you happy) will make you better at your work in the end and
experiencing life will help you express it in your work too. Unless you
really felt these jobs will get you somewhere far in the longrun, don't kill
yourself.

What's money without a life... what's my snowboard without time to use it?
you see what I'm saying

hth
Jose

pS: Spray-Paint fumes + Guarana Bars + lots of Coffee + no sleep = Bad
(mmmkay)

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