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September Q&A 2/3: "How I Manage My Time" (Patreon)

Published:
2026-09-11 08:00:07
Imported:
2026-09

Content

This is 1/3 of this month's Q&A. Folks in the 🔵 and 🟣 tiers will get the opportunity to ask new questions in the last week of the month

Files

September Q&A 2/3: Time Management

Comments

Daniel Mclaughlan

Thanks for your thoughts on this. I found this very helpful, particularly the ideas of place and purpose. I’m fortunate to have a dedicated space for projects, but the reality is I have a family and caring responsibilities so disappearing into the garden studio with any regularity isn’t practical. Being available to other people is often more of a priority. I’m currently trying to balance my progress by taking advantage of the times or spaces where I can be missed for a hour, here and there. Just this week I purchased an iPad, after being without one for several years, and I plan to use it for art in exactly the way you describe: being a part of the conversation while still being able to work on my projects. I’ve personally always struggled with time-boxing, but as someone who survives with anxiety and low self esteem, I find that when I do attempt it, it helps me to not only avoid forgetting things but also to recognise just how much I’ve actually achieved. In terms of organisation, in recent months I started using Tiago Forte’s PARA framework and it worked great.. until I got so overwhelmed I didn’t maintain it. There’s a useful system in there somewhere for me but, like all these approaches, they need constant tweaking to meet the needs of different seasons.

Shen

If it helps - I don't have kids but I've got a pretty chaotic day job and have had my hands in like 7 things at once for many years, with some of them being high-stakes things that suddenly will consume all my waking hours for 2 weeks straight and it's just gotta be done - if I had to distill "how I do it" into very short advice, it would be 1) knowing myself very well, 2) always having a very strong handle of where everything is on the priority list (so you know what can be dropped, postponed, or half-assed but sufficient), 3) communicating or trying to delegate/get help immediately as soon as I know I'm not gonna make it in time so that even if I don't do the task, *somebody* does or can at least work around it, 4) patience with yourself as you learn about yourself, make mistakes, and develop the habits, toolkit, and stamina (physical and mental) to do more of the things you want to do. I relate a lot to the "Borg" problem and my day to day is also wildly chaotic even though I try to keep a loose routine, but I know I have the Borg problem so I account for it into my scheduling.

Shen

oops early send. It's also about knowing what things you can do when you're half-asleep and what you have to do fully focused and awake. I've got a stupid stack of things to do at all times but when my brain doesn't want to think straight, I do something on the list that doesn't require that. And lastly, you can do a lot in 10 minutes - 10 mins waiting in line, or 10 mins on the bus, or 10 mins on the phone with somebody. Take the random 10 mins to spend some brainpower on something you're stuck on, or a quick email you had to send, or scribble ideas on your phone or on a napkin. That little bit of time adds up and lets you stew on difficult problems in your brain subconsciously.

Shen

Last last thing - underrated skill is knowing when to take a break, and actually taking a restful break. you have to rest to keep working!

Gabriel Maldonado

Glad you found compartmentalization useful, this is something I struggled with in the past when most of my work and game dev overlapped, it helped immensely not only have different devices for different things, but also use different tools (visual studio vs rider, obisidian vs notion, etc, ... ) to help keep things separate.

SporeBloom

dang, there is some super solid, practical advice here for a lot of situations. Good on you for having the ability to sort it out and explain it while admitting that it's also hard :)

Sofie Zwiebel

I found that so many apps try to solve a organization problem that has been solved a long time ago: The computers file system. For me, it's the only system that doesn't fall apart at some point. I try to keep the folder structure as flat and simple as possible.

Indie Game Clinic

Yeah this is all solid advice. I had this yesterday; I told myself I would work on my game in the morning and my book in the evening, then realised that coding and animation are “tired/late/relax” things for me, whereas expressing myself in words is a wakeful thing