In my younger years of secondary school, I struggled with procrastination, often waiting until the last day or so to write a paper or study for a test. My responsibilities at Stonemaier Games no longer give me the luxury of procrastination, but sometimes I’ve found myself dreading tasks that require hours upon hours of time. I like my days to be nimble and full of variety, particularly since every day my inbox is filled with surprises.
Over time I’ve leaned into a system of getting more done every day and making more progress on long-term projects every week. It’s a two-part system:
- Big projects: I break every project into a series of small tasks, chronologically sorted based on the project timeline.
- Ongoing responsibilities: I separate preparation and execution into separate days (and sometimes execution into multiple days).
You probably already have some form of what I described for the big projects category, so I won’t spend much time on that. I use a spreadsheet for my checklist, but there’s also Trello, Basecamp, and other project management methods of making steady progress.
It’s the method for consistently completing ongoing responsibilities that has provided more of a revelation for me over the last year or so. These may not seem like much, but I would contend that there is a pretty big difference between a 30-45 minute task and a 60-90 minute task–that extra time might be the difference between you doing something you’re passionate about every week versus every month (or burning out and not doing it at all).
I’ll share some examples below:
Long-Form Videos
Tuesday is my filming day for various YouTube videos. In the past, on Tuesday morning I would select the topic (typically a top 10 list) for my long-form video, research games in that category, sort through ambassador survey responses (if available), compile the list, assemble a pile of games from my collection, then film the video. Even with the way I film–press record and talk for 20-30 minutes into a single camera–the entire process would take around 90-120 minutes. As much as I enjoyed it, sometimes it felt like half my day was over and all I had to show for it was a video or two.
So I experimented with a small change, and it’s made a huge difference: I prepare for the video on Monday, and I film the video on Tuesday. It’s the same list of tasks as detailed above, just broken down between two days. I now get excited about both parts instead of dreading the time commitment to do everything together.
Printing/Assembling Prototypes
I print, cut, and assemble the vast majority of prototypes for games I design and games from designers I’m working with, and then I also run playtests with the prototype. Depending on the number of components, even just assembling the prototype can take a few hours, not to mention the hours spent playing and processing the results.
Below break down these tasks into multiple steps, day by day:
-
- print the prototype
- cut/assemble the prototype
- playtest the prototype
- compile feedback and either revise the prototype (if I’m the designer) or send the feedback to the designer (if I’m just the developer)
Sometimes there’s an overlap between these steps. However, by breaking them down day by day, I find myself internally processing each element of the prototype in between the steps, leading to improvements that may not have emerged as clearly if the entire process was condensed into a single session.
Rolling Realms Liveplays:
The “prepare” step of my bi-weekly Rolling Realms liveplays isn’t substantial (I randomly select realms and create images for each round in Indesign). However, a few years ago when I decided to regularly play Rolling Realms live on Facebook, I thought I would play an entire game–3 rounds–in a row on the same day. That’s around 45 minutes total. I quickly realized that was too much, particularly for a game that has no persistent elements between rounds (other than your cumulative score).
So I quickly pivoted to dividing liveplays into three consecutive days, one round per day. Each round only takes around 12 minutes, which is manageable both for me and anyone who wants to play along (live or in the future). We’re now on game 48, and I look forward to it every few weeks. I’m positive that the liveplays wouldn’t have lasted this long if it were a solid 45-minute commitment (given the nature of the task–it’s a nice way to connect with people, but ultimately it is just playing a game).
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Have you tried this agile method of breaking regular tasks into separate segments for preparation and execution? I’d love to hear your examples and/or other methods for getting things done in the comments.
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20 Comments on “Getting More Done Every Day (Slowly and Happily)”
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Jamie, I’m so eager to hear any of your thoughts, already or possible applications in your world of personal productivity, game design and entrepreneurship as it relates to the ground-breaking technology of generative AI. I’m looking up to you as an entrepreneur as someone who aspires to be one one day and find your thought leadership on these cross-cutting topics incredibly valuable. I can’t wait to hear about it and would also appreciate any pointers you have. Keep up the inspiring work and thank you for your community contributions that’s second to none!
Thanks Stefan! I’m focused on using good, old-fashioned HI (human intelligence). :)
I’m a list person – if it is on a list, it will get done. I’m very goal/target orientated and so knowing I have a task to complete means that it very rarely gets to remain outstanding. I think lists help with and form part of my ND – writing a list and completing the jobs on is part of the routine that helps me manage my day. I have been told that for some folks lists can be counterproductive in that not achieving what is on the list can be demoralising and will negatively affect productivity. But lists work well for me in terms of efficiency and productivity.
I’m retired now but recognise these challenges and the techniques you have worked out. I also learned to recognise when I would be energised and when I would probably feel jaded, and allocate my tasks appropriately – don’t use your high energy on the easiest tasks, don’t put off the tough tasks until you are jaded. Similarly, I would reward myself with a task I enjoyed once I had completed one that I found less interesting or appealing. I would also triage my inbox – 1) answer immediately (yes, sounds good, do it), 2) this email requires diary time – put it in the diary now and move on – 3) this email needs a bit of thought but not a diary entry. 1 gets a response instantly, 2 gets dragged into a diary appointment, 3 gets dropped in a folder for batch management during a diaries email session. Emails can otherwise feed procrastination and derail your day.
I like a lot of what you shared here, Gary, including balancing more tedious and rewarding tasks and deciding where to spend your energy. Thank you!
Thanks for this,
As my workload grew and I didn’t make any changes I often felt overwhelmed. I want a 0 inbox and a 0 Trello task list at the end of my day.
I then decided to assign the work per company/project to specific days. So Trello would not have everything on Monday, but it would be more evenly spread through the week.
I watched a lot of productivity content on YouTube, Matt D’Avella being one of my favorites back then.
Some things I picked up from there is:
Batch your tasks.
(So now for example it is emails first, but even there I tackle those per project)
Make a to do list the night before.
And I do not always do that, but when I do I feel way more accomplished.
And on that to do list I batch other things too like household chores that need to be done that day.
Because it is not all work.
If I feel that the day is going to be very full I even plan a sports/outdoor activity for myself on it too. It is great for my physical and mental health, and there is always time for that too. I just need to remind myself of it some times :-)
It is funny how it is the same amount of work, but by structuring it it feels easier.
Putting things in Trello seems a bit more time consuming, but it isn’t in the end.
And also these lists and planning things makes me less stressed about forgetting things.
All this headspace that is being freed up is being used in a more creative way.
Thank you again for these questions you post. I do not always have time to read them all, but it is nice to think about it, read what you do and read what other people do. It is inspiring.
Thank you for sharing this! I like the concept of batching tasks and writing the next day’s list on the previous evening. I’m a 0-inbox person like you.
Oh I totally work best breaking everything into chunks!! I’m currently homeschooling my kindergartner (so it’s not super intense work level & often open-and-go with the curriculums). However ~ it all runs MUCH smoother during his lessons if I set activities up for him the night before, or if I plan ahead the next days lessons while he’s working next to me. His attention span is short so I try not to stall, and I strive to fill pockets of time with tiny tasks. I feel so powerful when overwhelm cannot pin me down due to steady progress :) !
That’s awesome! I’m glad the separate preparation and execution technique is working for you and your youngster. :)
I am a business analyst who works with project managers to implement technology changes within my company. The struggle I’ve always had with project management is the focus on the major milestones and larger subtasks of those milestones, while to be successful I need to break those chunks down into smaller bite size pieces, so I totally agree with your comments. It’s so much more satisfying after a day’s work to be able to mark a dozen things complete versus saying this one task went from 10% complete to 20% complete!
I completely agree, Scott! I do the same thing with my daily checklists. :)
Thanks for another very interesting article, Jamey.
I’ve used Asana in the past, which worked well and is free, but I use Jira in my day job so I started using the free version of that for Pull the Pin Games work about a year ago because I’m more familiar with it. I’d recommend Asana though for anyone who isn’t a Jira power user because it’s more straight-forward.
In Jira, I put each game into its own project (and I have an Overhead project too) and then I have a dashboard that spans all projects so I can get a view of everything at once. I then use a Backlog that also spans all projects where I can prioritize my running list of tasks so the most important/time-sensitive ones are at the top. Then some tasks that I’d like to do never make it up to the top and I never do them — and that’s OK. There’s only so much time in the day, especially when doing this as a hobby business.
Splitting each game into its own project allows me to give certain people, like an artist or a game designer, access to only that particular project. They don’t need to see anything else in there.
Tasks are in one of these states: Backlog, Do Today, or Closed. Each morning, I throw all the tasks I plan to complete that day into Do Today and the rest stay in Backlog. Then when they’re done, I close them.
I used to be a zero-inbox guy, but I haven’t been able to keep up with that after I stopped commuting on a train where I could do that on the way to work. But ideally, I’d get back to that so I can put all my tasks that come in through email into the Backlog too.
I do try to break down tasks as much as possible. I could do better with that though. It’s very key. I didn’t think of it as making it easier to make progress on less desirable tasks as you point out, but you’re right about that.
Thanks for sharing this! I’m glad Jira is working well for you. We use it too, though just for replacement parts requests.
You’re planning like a teacher! I admit that I also have been prone to procrastination at times and agree that breaking things down into manageable chunks I can check off each day was a major help. This pretty much describes the way I worked for 15 years in public education. I would (1) read or research what I needed to on one day and makes notes, (2) create (or revise) the lesson and accompanying handouts on the next day, and (3) deliver the lesson on another day. Bigger units might require more days in one stage or another, but as you can see, I broke what could seem like a monumental task into smaller phases. Step (4) — grading — was always the one I struggled the most to stay on top of, so I would break that down as well. Instead of 75 essays to read, I had 8-10 to read per day.
As I got further into my teaching career and had more resources I’d already made to draw from, I would be able to do steps 1 and 2 over and over again before a unit even started so that I would have all of my handouts, notes, rubrics, etc. figured out before the unit began. Then, I would just have to adjust things as needed while I was running the unit over the next few weeks. This gave me more time for grading and planning for the next unit while I was teaching kids the current one. I could also adapt the skills/focus of the next unit I was planning based on how kids were doing in the current one.
Eventually, I started co-planning with other teachers, and that made things easier, too, because we could each work on part of a big unit we agreed to do together, reconvene and share what we did, makes tweaks to fit our own teaching delivery style, teach, and then share how things went. I really enjoyed having those colleagues act as a sounding board for ideas because their input made each step of planning and teaching better. I also didn’t feel like I had to do the whole process alone for every lesson when we were working on common curricular goals. We were all better for it.
Julie: It’s great to hear that the step-by-step approach works for you too! I like the collaborative twist you added to it (and how you learned and honed your techniques over time).
This is super helpful! Thanks for sharing!
My pleasure!
I’m a procrastinator and this is one of my favorite TED Talks – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arj7oStGLkU
Thanks Kevin! I’ll check it out now.
this is great, I am going to share this. I still haven’t finished watching it though… ;-) I had some time to kill before a meeting. But so far, very fun!