Sluggish mind

Developing a game is a hard work, especially if it’s an indie game where a few people need to do everything. To get things done you need to hold on path and that means thinking about same things, day after day, til your mind get sluggish. And although you still do plenty of work, the way you do it becomes not efficient. You lack energy and become tired of the whole thing.

This situation is a natural and healthy reaction. Many people at this point give up their work and do something less destructive. Because it’s how our body works. Our brain is like a muscle. It needs training to perform good.

So, as for today it was this post that helped me to get over blackout, but next time the enemy strikes I’m gonna try these:

1. Get more sleep. Eight hours a night is a must. Sometimes more if you need it.
2. Exercise. Low energy triggers brain fog. As for me, it’s yoga or biking. Although jogging helps very much indeed (don’t like it though). Remember, physical rest is not mental rest.
3. Discuss your work or the task you are stuck with with somebody. Although the coworker may be better as they can give some valuable advice.
4. Make your own work schedule. Our brain is much alike little children. It performs better if it knows beforehand what waits for it. As for me, I need to code a small task or something before I can even check my mail. It works really good as you are fresh when you start working.
5. Analyze. Write down each time you feel your brain is out of shape and try to find a pattern. Then break the pattern. It maybe as easy as the tasks you are trying to solve are too big. Break them in smaller peaces, sort and place in a priority queue.
6. Do something different??? Although many give this advice, I think you need to be careful here. It’s so easy to do something that is not so boring/hard/tricky and so on and give up on your goals at the end.

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