Had similar issues to you and also did similar things.
However I eventually got through it and my suggestion below is what ended up working for me.
For a fortnight, do the following:
- Go to bed at 10pm, no music, no movies, etc.
Get up at 6am without exception, even if super tired.
- Moderate exercise at 630am for 1 hour. Ride to work, do some weights, go for a run. Whatever works for you.
- No caffeine after midday. I've got friends that can have it at 8pm, and still sleep at 10pm. I cannot if I have it at 1pm
- Alcohol free. It disrupts your sleep and makes you eat more junk food.
- More vegetables. Because I don't know how to cook, I just went with steamed veges with a different sauce (bbq, sriracha, butter, etc)
Regarding hyperactivity, the best thing you could do is setup a TODO board (e.g. Trello, whiteboard with sticky notes) to visualize everything going on in your life.
Taxes to do, bills to pay, emails to reply to, people to see, presents to buy, tutorials to watch, books you are reading. Everything.
When I did this, I had a terrible amount of work in progress that I just couldn't keep up with and my mind was constantly on.
See what you can do to reduce this. Take a day off work for taxes, admit you won't read that book, unsubscribe from emails, say no to social obligations if you're feeling overwhelmed, etc.
The only comment at this level which is constructive and thoughtful gets the downvote?
My thoughts were there is nothing wrong with saying mobile-first and cloud-first. They are complementary to each other. i.e. You build your mobile apps using a cloud backend.
With no backing data, my reasoning would be it's the ideal time to jump into the industry.
Before the iPhone, I can only imagine how hard it'd be for developers to handle the business side of building a game, e.g. purchasing, delivery, website hosting, etc.
Now a days you have multiple mobile app stores, Kickstarter, Greenlight, Humble Bundle, etc.
My current plan is to move towards contracting work. Therefore, if there is time between contracts, instead of dwelling on loss of income, it essentially gives you time to work on your hobbies.
In your situation you'd need to ensure you are well ahead of your mortgage.
Thanks for the links. Tried a few out and they were quite interesting.
IMO, the two most exciting things that is happening right now is the Occulus Rift and independent developers.
I've had a bunch of games in my head that I'd love to build and it turns out there are plenty of indie developers who have had the same idea but are actually building them.
I've only just started on the "aspiring indie" path the past 6 months [1] and it's a great feeling when I've got a spare weekend to toy around with an idea.
One thing that I found useful was joining up with a indie game dev group in my city. It's always great to hear other peoples stories.
I've been playing around with MonoGame and it's not too bad. Considering Microsoft has stopped developing for XNA, it might be time to look into it.
I've been using a component based approach to building my game from scratch and it's been an excellent development experience. Too often I feel like I'm in the deep end and unsure if I'll sink or swim. So I try, sometimes an idea works, sometimes it fails but it's all fun.
I made a recent trip to NYC and visited several museums and Five Points. I was more impressed by the artwork by the graffiti artists than the majority of items at say MoMA PS1.
Unfortunately, I think graffiti art will be accepted one funeral at a time.
Similar to other comments, my father (68), rides to and from work which is 30km+, then for fun, will also include another 2-3 hour ride after work. My understanding is eventually you get into the zone, 100km is easy work.
If we were talking 90, then I could see why 100km a day might seem hard. However for some, 70 can still be considered youthful.
I don't agree that'd be a disaster, I personally like the idea or at least something similar.
Essentially it's about basing promotions & pay based off meritocracy. There could be concerns about the Peter Principle [0] but at a high level, it appeals to me to work in an environment where people can "prove" they have the skills, instead of talking the talk or simply being the oldest employee.
If anything, it seems similar to Terraria. I'm not going to call it a clone because I personally find the term derogatory. I'd rather call it a 2D platform sandbox game that has similarities to Terraria but still unique.
A clone of Minecraft in my books is more FortressCraft / UberBlox / Manic_Digger.
Congratulations to the OP though. Overall looks pretty good.
However I eventually got through it and my suggestion below is what ended up working for me.
For a fortnight, do the following:
- Go to bed at 10pm, no music, no movies, etc. Get up at 6am without exception, even if super tired.
- Moderate exercise at 630am for 1 hour. Ride to work, do some weights, go for a run. Whatever works for you.
- No caffeine after midday. I've got friends that can have it at 8pm, and still sleep at 10pm. I cannot if I have it at 1pm
- Alcohol free. It disrupts your sleep and makes you eat more junk food.
- More vegetables. Because I don't know how to cook, I just went with steamed veges with a different sauce (bbq, sriracha, butter, etc)
Regarding hyperactivity, the best thing you could do is setup a TODO board (e.g. Trello, whiteboard with sticky notes) to visualize everything going on in your life.
Taxes to do, bills to pay, emails to reply to, people to see, presents to buy, tutorials to watch, books you are reading. Everything.
When I did this, I had a terrible amount of work in progress that I just couldn't keep up with and my mind was constantly on.
See what you can do to reduce this. Take a day off work for taxes, admit you won't read that book, unsubscribe from emails, say no to social obligations if you're feeling overwhelmed, etc.
Hope this helps.