作者：Alistair Doulin

现在，我是个正式的的全职独立游戏开发者，生平首次全职在家开发游戏。在过去数个月的时间里，我的许多游戏开发者好友也都开始全职在家工作，部分原因是最近我们城市中的所有游戏工作室都关闭了。在家工作会面临之前并不显得很明显的挑战。今天我将列举些许自己的建议，以便诸位在保持工作与生活平衡的同时尽量多产。

我听过和遇到的最大的抱怨是，全职在家工作时感觉总是在工作状态。如果每天外出工作8到12个小时，工作和生活的界限非常明显，但是在家工作时这两者的界限显得很模糊。这篇文章主要阐述的是我区分工作和娱乐的方法。

work at home(from americanprogress.org)

Kill Switch

我能够将注意力从工作转移到娱乐的最佳方法是所谓的“kill switch”。这个行为可以完全重置你的大脑，清除所有你正在思考的东西，让你进入放松的状态（游戏邦注：而不是停留在工作状态）。对于我来说，这个kill switch是《英雄连》（游戏邦注：下文简称CoH）。只要我完成了当天的工作，我就可以畅玩CoH，清除掉所有我之前思考的有关工作的问题。我将100%的精力投入到游戏中，最后让头脑完全清醒，以保证晚上的睡眠。对其他人来说，这个kill switch可能是《魔兽世界》。经过一整天的艰苦工作之后，他们坐下来轻松片刻，将他们的注意力集中在艾泽拉斯大陆，忘却工作时的压力。

无论使用何种游戏或行为，重要的目标是让工作和休闲划清界线。许多人已经养成了这种行为，但是没有有意在每天工作之后用其来充当界线。应该让这种行为成为日常习惯，让你的大脑养成工作行为结束之后就关闭的习惯。

作为游戏开发者，这种kill switch是游戏带来的额外好处是会强迫我去玩游戏。自从成为游戏开发者后，我的生活发生的最为显著的改变是我玩游戏的时间少了很多。我认为游戏开发者玩游戏至关重要，这样才能跟得上游戏每年改变的步伐。而且从玩家这个角度来审视我们的作品也很重要。

工作区域

分清工作和休闲的第二个重要方法是拥有某个只用于工作的独立区域。在当前年代里，这可能很难实现，因为通常电脑同时充当工作和娱乐的核心角色。为实现这个目标，我设定了自己的工作台。当我走向工作台时，就像是前去上班一样。当我坐在工作台边上时，就把注意力集中在工作上。

我发现iPad是个休闲的绝妙方法。我在休闲时不会坐在电脑旁浏览网页或发送个人邮件，我会坐在沙发上玩iPad。

笔记本电脑也是将你移出工作区域的好方法。如果我需要电脑来处理某些个人事务，我会拿着笔记本电脑坐在沙发上。这或许看起来很愚蠢，但是这种细微的差别就足够让我感觉自己不是在工作了。

设定标准时间

这个方法很简单。我发现许多独立游戏开发者在家开始工作的时间并不固定。尽管熬夜到凌晨3点来完成最后的任务看起来很有趣，但是我发现长此以往会产生不良的后果。我更喜欢每天工作10个小时，所以我为自己设定了工作的开始和结束时间。我从早上6点左右开始工作，下午4点左右结束。我尽量不改变这个时间标准。重点在于，如果有其他事情打扰了我的工作，我就不把这段时间计算入当天的工作时间中。所以，如果其他的事情让我分神了1个小时的时间，那么当天我的工作结束时间就是下午5点。经过数天的早上6点到晚上7点的工作之后，我很快就意识到消除工作期间受到打扰的重要性。

无论你是否愿意采用如此严格的方式，关键在于设定能够长期维持的工作时间。软件开发就像是场马拉松比赛，所以细心规划你的时间计划很重要。如果数天或数周后你发现自己的时间安排无法实现，那么就应该调整你的工作时间。

记录所有事项

过去我曾经说过很多遍，《Getting Things Done》是本很棒的书。我向每个人推荐这本书，尤其是那些在家里工作的人。它可以提高你的工作效率，同时将工作与生活区分开来。我从这本书中得到的关键内容是，为所有事情制作出列表。只要我想到某些事情，尤其当我正处在非工作时间时，我就会把它写下来，在outlook中设置第二天的提醒，仅此而已。如果我躺在床上时想到某些事情，我会把它添加到计划列表中，然后继续睡觉。

邮件分离

这又是个简单的技巧。我喜欢确保自己在非工作时间内不会收到与工作相关的邮件。如果你在办公室工作时，这很容易做到，因为你离开办公室后通常就不会收到邮件了。当你在家工作室，设定同样的界线也很重要。我在自己的iPhone上设置了不同的规则，这样就不会收到工作邮件的提示消息。当我正在工作时，提示信息会出现在收件箱中。但是当我晚上外出时，就不会受到这些信息的打扰。当你同海外的发行商或客户合作时，这种方法显得尤为重要，因为邮件会不时发到你的邮箱中。

你是否有其他可供在家工作的独立游戏开发者使用的技巧呢？无论你是全职还是兼职在家工作，你如何让工作与生活保持平衡呢？

游戏邦注：本文发稿于2011年2月4日，所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Working From Home As An Indie

Alistair Doulin

Now that I’m officially a full-time indie game developer, for the first time in my life I am working from home full-time on games. Many of my game developer friends have also started working full-time from home in the past few months, partly because of all the game studios shutting down in our city recently. Working from home has its own set of unique challenges that aren’t initially obvious. Today’s entry is a list of tips I use to be as productive as I can while striking a good work-life balance.

The biggest complaint I hear (and face) from working full-time at home is the fact your “always on”. Unlike trudging off to work for 8-12 hours per day where there is a definite line between work and home, the line is blurred. This list is mainly ways I go about emulating that distinct line between working and relaxing.

Kill Switch

The best way I can shift my mind from work to relaxation is what I call a “kill switch”. Some activity that completely resets your brain, clears out everything you’ve been thinking about and lets you get into the relaxation zone (rather than the work “zone”). For me this kill switch is Company of Heroes (CoH). As soon as I finish for the day, I have a game of CoH and everything I was thinking about is blocked out. I put 100% of my concentration into playing the game and come out the other end with a clear head ready to relax for the evening. For other people this kill switch comes in the form of WoW. After a hard day they sit and relax, focussing their mind on Azeroth to help forget the stresses of the day.

Whatever the game or activity the important purpose is to put a barrier between work and “not work”. Many people already have this activity they perform, but don’t consciously do it at the end of the day to form a barrier. It becomes a routine and lets your brain form the habit of switching off after the activity is complete.

As game developers, the bonus of this kill switch being a game is that it forces me to actually play a game (even if it’s just one). One of the most noticeable differences in my life since becoming a game developer is that I play a lot less games. I believe it’s vital for game developers to play games to keep a view on the gaming landscape as it changes from year to year. It’s also important to see our craft from the other side, as a gamer.

Working Area

The second important way of differentiating my time is having a separate area that is used only for work. In the current age, this can be quite difficult as often the computer is the centre of both work and entertainment. By keeping my working area separate from everything else at home there is a definitive area that is my work station. I pretend like I’m “heading to the office” when I walk over to my desk and when I’m here, it’s all business.

I find my iPad is a great way for me to be connected while not “working”. Rather than sitting at my computer surfing the web or sending personal emails, I’ll sit on the couch with my iPad on my lap.

Laptops are also perfect ways of physically relocating to be outside of my work area. If I need a computer for something personal, I’ll take my laptop and sit on the couch. It may seem silly, but this small difference is enough for me to not feel like I’m working.

Set Standard Hours

This is an easy one. I’ve found a lot of Indie friends begin working sporadic hours when they start working from home. While its great fun to stay up until 3am getting that last task finished I’ve found it has a detrimental effect in the long run. I like to get 10 hours of work into a day and so I set myself a start and end time. I begin work around 6am and finish at 4pm. I’ll set my status to “do not disturb” and I’ll work through as solidly as I can. One important key is that if something comes up that interrupts me, I don’t count that time towards my day. So if something takes my attention for an hour, then I at it to the end of the day and finish at 5pm. After a few days of working 6am-7pm I quickly realised the importance of cutting out interruptions.

Whether you want to be as strict as that or not, the key is keeping consistent working hours that are sustainable for a long period. Software development is a marathon, not a sprint and it’s important to schedule your day to fit this. If you find you’re burning out after a few days or weeks then look at adjusting your work hours to better fit the long-haul.

Write Everything Down

“Getting Things Done” is a great book that I’ve spoken about countless times in the past. I recommend it for everyone, particularly those working from home. It helps you to become more productive and sort your life out. The main key I get from this is that I make lists for everything. As soon as I think of something, particularly if it’s outside of “work hours” I write it down, set a reminder in outlook for the next day and don’t think about it again. If I am laying in bed and something pops into my head I’ll add it to my to-do list and then forget about it.

Email Separation

This is another easy one. I like to make sure I can’t get work emails during non-work time. This is easy when working in an office as when you’re away from your desk you usually can’t access your email. It’s important to set up a similar barrier when working from home, much like the physical workspace. I set up different rules on my iPhone so I don’t get push notifications for work emails. If I’m at my desk working it’ll arrive in my inbox but if I’m out for the evening I won’t be distracted by it. There’s nothing worse than getting an email you need to act upon, or that has bad news in it when you’ve finished working for the day. This is particularly important when working with overseas publishers or customers with emails coming in at all hours.

Conclusion

Do you have any other tips for working from home on indie games? Whether working full-time or part-time at home, how do you go about keeping a good work-life balance? (Source: Doolwind’s Game Coding Blog)