Use what you like to work better
Those very few of you who have been following me for a while now probably already know that I love video games. I’ve been playing since I was a little kid and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. There’s just something about games that makes me happy, especially those that can tell a really good story, like The Witcher 3.
However, now that I’m an adult, and I’m supposed to be responsible, I don’t have too much time at my disposal to play, and when I do, I never feel like it’s enough.
Nowadays, there are a lot of things I have to do, especially related to my passion. I always wanted to be a freelancer, and while that desire isn’t as strong these days, I still want to do the things that a freelancer would do, more or less. I still want to write and publish, I still want to work with Photoshop, I still want to learn 3D modelling, and, recently, I decided I want to relearn how to create websites.
In order to be able to do all those things, I decided I needed to change my strategy from “work for as long as you can”, to “make sure you do this and this and this and you make this amount of progress every day”.
That means that instead of writing “write for 8 hours” on my to-do list, I just write “write 2 articles today”. After I finish writing those two articles, I move to the next task. If that’s my final task, then I try to not work on anything else for the rest of the day.
However, since all my work involves creativity, I sometimes have days when I just can’t come up with something good enough to work on. All the ideas I have to write about aren’t good enough, I don’t get the results I want in Photoshop, I cannot understand how to create a 3D model in Blender, or I find bugs that I cannot yet solve in my code.
When that happens, there are only two things you can do: either give up, and focus on something else, like playing something or watching videos on YouTube until you feel better about failing, or trying harder until you solve your problem.
The first option is horrible and you shouldn’t take it into consideration, except when giving up and doing something better, just as productive, could solve your problem. But the second option is usually what most people should choose.
Thing is, even when we try really hard to work, sometimes we don’t get the ideas we need. That’s when using what you like to work better could help you. Instead of wasting your time thinking about how great it would be if you’d finish work faster so you can do the things you like, you could use the things you like as a way to both motivate yourself and get ideas for work.
For example, I would like to play something right now. I still have to write 4 more articles and then code, but I’d also like to play. Instead of complaining about not wanting to write, I change my mentality a little and I tell myself that the more I work and the better I do it, the faster I can be done and I can play.
That motivates me hard enough to start thinking about all kind of things I could write about, so I can finish work and play a lot faster. Plus, since video games nowadays have more complex stories, it’s easy to look into something as The Witcher, or Dark Souls, or Resident Evil and try to see the meaning behind each story.
Doing that can easily help you get inspiration for your work. Questions like “Why does Geralt feel things, while other Witchers don’t? What makes him special?” or “What does prolonging the Age of Fire does? Is that the good or the bad option?” could really help you come up with something to write about yourself, something original.
So, look at the things you like to do, and use them as motivation to work better. While progress is important, that’s not the only things that matters in this world, and doing things that bring you joy is an important part of living as well. Why ignore it, hoping it will help you work more and make more progress, when you can use that aspect of your life to improve what you do?
