作者：Elaine Heney

人生的目的在于游戏，而不是工作。我应该是第一个跟你们说我喜欢工作的人。但是我也发现自己过分倾注于游戏业务，所以我开始努力去改变自己的工作习惯。我希望能够减少工作，并拥有更多时间去游戏，锻炼，与朋友相处，骑马，读书，放松心情。以下是关于如何发展你的业务并获得更多休闲时间的12个诀窍。它们真的带给我很大的帮助。我的应用业务不断发展着，我也变得更加开心，更加健康与放松，同时也拥有了更多自由的时间。我希望它们也能带给你同样的帮助。

步骤1：找出哪个环节最浪费你的时间。安装节省时间工具并监视网络的使用。找出前3个你花费最多时间的网站。就像我便是Facebook。

步骤2：限制这些网站的使用。我使用了StayFocusd Chrome Extension。我的主要问题源自Facebook，所以现在我规定自己每天只能花3分钟去浏览该网站。当然了，这是一种习惯，我仍会习惯性地在低质量上输入“F”并敲回车键。不过现在比起打开Facebook，我会看到一个写着“你现在不是应该在工作吗？”的页面，我便会笑笑并重新回到工作中。

productive(from forbes.com)

步骤3：社交媒体也非常浪费时间，它们会不时将你的注意力转向智能手机。有人给你发了条短信。有人回复了文章。有人喜欢你的tweet。你应该避免所有的这些情况。删除罪魁祸首的应用（就像我便是twitter和Facebook）。这时候一切便会恢复平静。

步骤4：既然现在的你与社交媒体隔绝了，你便有可能比之前更多产！在Hootsuite（游戏邦注：是一家著名的社交媒体管理公司，帮助企业和个人管理各类社交网络）创建一个免费帐号。等待4周后再更新状态，并免费同步到你的Facebook，Twitter，LinkedIn，Google+等等。这真的是一种聪明的做法。我便因此每天节约了至少45分钟。总的算起来每周便能节约5个小时15分钟。

步骤5：现在是时候对你的工作生活进行规划了。写下你现在所致力于的所有任务和项目。通常我都会列出长长的工作任务列表。根据哪些工作能让你赚到更多钱而重新进行排列。你必须诚实地对待这一排列。然后专注于列表中的前2项。删除第3项之后的所有内容。这将为你空出大量的时间，虽然你有可能感受不到强烈的商业理念。这样每周能够省下3.5天的时间。

步骤6：尽可能将任务外包。雇佣一名项目经理，一名开发者，一名美术人员，一名团队领导者，一名程序员，一名VA等任何你的业务所需人员。我便因为如此每天节省下好几个小时，并推动着我的业务更快速地发展。几乎每天我也能收到一些感谢我提出这些建议的人的邮件。

步骤7：不要告诉我你的问题。相反地你应该找个没人的房间，不受干扰地进行思考—-在那里你才能完全地放松。你可以坐在一个舒服的椅子上，放松，深呼吸。现在你需要完成一个能量分析。这将是你当天最多产的任务。闭上眼睛20分钟。思考所有的业务问题。不要着急。专注于所有的问题。你将会找到自己想要的答案。

步骤8：当你饥饿的时候便很难做出合理的思考。找到自己喜欢的早餐才是健康的关键。不是可可力或其它甜味的美国谷类食品。我喜欢在一早上便开始工作，直到午餐时间。工作最好能够匹配时间。如果你为自己设定了一个严格的截止日期，你便会因为别无选择而变得高产。我同样也喜欢使用奖励系统。如果我真的在午餐时间之前努力工作了，我便会在下午给予自己奖励。你应该思考下如何奖励自己的付出。

步骤9：善待自己。当你清醒的时候工作效率便会更高。而当你宿醉，或只睡了3个小时而只依靠咖啡来提神的话，工作效率便不可能好到哪里去。这就像一场马拉松赛，不管你选择的是哪条路。你是当前自己的业务最重要资产。所以请好好对自己。

步骤10：保持健康。每天锻炼。如果可以的话加入一个群组。寻找当地的训练营，篮球队，足球俱乐部，网球俱乐部，与朋友去冲浪，或做任何你喜欢的事。独自慢跑或锻炼也很棒，但我发现自己在与朋友一起进行体育运动时总是会更加开心。所以赶紧联系你的运动伙伴吧。

步骤11：当我感到开心时总是能够更好地工作。主要存在两种快速有效的方法让你愉悦起来。首先你可以通过给予某人意想不到的称赞而让自己微笑。这真的很有效。从简单的“我真的喜欢你的鞋子”，“你太会做菜了！”“你看起来身体很好！”到“你在那方面表现得真好”等等。你可以从这些称赞中从对方的脸上看到他们的反应。我敢保证他们的微笑一定能照亮房间。这也会让你随之高兴起来。记得，最不可预料到的赞许才是最强大的。其次，给予那些并未期待能够获得帮助的人帮助。通过某种宽容的行动让他们感到惊讶。这也会让你产生共鸣。所以也是一种非常有效的做法。

步骤12：计划每周和每个月给予自己奖励。每周花些时间给予自己一些特别的待遇。可以给自己空出几个小时的时间，去登山，与朋友聚会，或者去做个SPA。找到自己喜欢的一种奖励方式。并使用它去激励自己并庆祝每周的进步。而对于每个月的奖励，你可以赐予自己一个完整的周末。从周五的下午4点到周一早上9点。关掉所有设备，包括手机。计划与朋友或家人做些特别的事，到某个地方旅游，或做一些疯狂的事。庆祝这个月的进步和成就。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

12 Ways To Be More Productive And Grow Your Games Business

by Elaine Heney

The aim of life is to play, not to work. I’ll be the first person to tell you I love my job. But I was finding myself working too much on my games business, so I started to make a calculated effort to change my work habits. I wanted to work less. And I wanted to have more free time to play, exercise, spend time with friends, ride my horse, read a book, chill out and relax. Here are my 12 tips to grown your business AND have more time off.  I do all of these religiously and they are working really well. My apps business is growing, I’m happier, healthier and more relaxed, and I have more free time. I hope they help you too.

STEP 1: Find out where you are wasting most of your time. Install rescue time and monitor your internet use. Find the top 3 websites you are spending too much time on. My biggest nemesis is facebook. Love it. Hate it.

STEP 2: Block these websites. I use the StayFocusd Chrome Extension. My main issue is facebook, so I have now set it up that I only have 3 minutes per day on this website before the site gets shuts down. Of course it’s a habit, so I still type in ‘F’ into the address bar and hit return. Now instead of opening facebook, I get a page that says ‘Shouldn’t you be working?’ Makes me smile every time. Then I go back to work.

STEP 3: Another excellent time waster is all those social media alerts you get on your smartphone. Someone sent you a message. Someone replied to a post. Someone favourited your tweet. Get rid of these as well. Delete the main app culprits (in my case the twitter and facebook apps) from your phone. Then something beautiful happens. Total silence. No beeps. No alerts. The world is calm.

STEP 4: While you are now disconnected from social media, you can actually be more productive on it than ever before! Create a free account with Hootsuite. Line up 4 weeks of status updates and sync you facebook, twitter, linked in, google+ etc account for free. This is pure genius. I have saved myself at least 45 minutes daily from these first steps. Total time saved per week: 5 hours 15 minutes.

STEP 5: Now it’s time to 80:20 your work life. Write down all the tasks and projects you are currently working on. I normally have a long list of stuff that’s in motion. Rearrange them in the order of which WILL make you the most money, or which HAVE THE POTENTIAL to make you the most money. Be truthful here. It’s time to be brutally honest with yourself. Concentrate on the top 2 things on your list. Delete anything that is not in your top 3. This will free up A LOT of time that you were spending on things you enjoyed etc, but which were not making strong business sense. Total time saved per week: 3.5 days.

STEP 6: Outsource everything you can. Hire a project manager, a developer, an artist, a team lead, a programmer, a VA, whatever you need in your business. I’ve saved HOURS daily by doing this and my business has grown faster because of it. I get emails in nearly daily from people thanking me for giving them the push to do this also, and stories of how big a difference it’s made to their business.

STEP 7: Don’t tell me your problems. Instead find a quiet room with no one in it where you will not be interrupted. Think of it as an oasis – somewhere to relax completely. You should not be able to hear anybody else in other rooms. Sit in a comfortable chair. Relax. Breathe deeply. Now you are going to complete a power analysis. This will be the most productive part of your day. Close your eyes for 20 minutes. Think about all of your business problems. Take your time there is no rush. Keep focusing on all your problems. You will find the answers you have been looking for.

STEP 8: It’s difficult to work and think properly when you are hungry. Find a breakfast you like that’s healthy. No coco pops or sugary American cereals. I like to start work straight away in the morning, and work solidly until lunchtime. Work expands to fit the time available. If you give yourself a tight deadline you will become more productive as you have no other option. I also like to use a reward system. If I work really hard until lunchtime, the reward is that I can take the afternoon off. Result! Think of how you can motivate and reward yourself for your efforts.

STEP 9: Be kind to yourself. You will work better when you are awake and you feel good in your skin. You will not work well when you are hungover, after 3 hours sleep and high on quadruple expressos. This is a marathon, no matter what way you look at it. YOU are the most important asset in your business right now. So take care of yourself.

STEP 10: Be healthy. Exercise every day. If you can, join a group. Find your local bootcamp, basketball team, football club, tennis club, go surfing with friends, or whatever you enjoy doing. Jogging or exercising on your own is fine, but I always find myself emotionally happier when I’ve spent time having fun playing sports with real life humans. Connect with your biological peers.

STEP 11: I always work better when I feel happy. Here are two really fast effective ways to feel happy. Firstly you can make yourself smile by paying someone an unexpected compliment. This is SO POWERFUL! From something simple like ‘I really like your shoes’, ‘you are a great cook!’ ‘you’re looking really healthy!’ to ‘you did a really nice job with that’. For the strongest effect this must be done in person, so you can see the reaction on their face. I guarantee their smile will light up the room. This is guaranteed to make you smile too! Remember, the more unexpected the compliment, the more powerful. Secondly, help someone who doesn’t expect any help. Surprise them with a kind gesture. This gives you incredible feel good vibes. Again really powerful.

STEP 12: Plan out weekly and monthly rewards. Each week take a few hours off and treat yourself to something special. Maybe it’s a hike up a mountain, a catchup with friends, a pampering session at the local spa. Find a treat you would love. Use it to motivate you and you celebrate your progress that week. For your monthly rewards, take a full weekend off. From 4pm on Friday until 9am Monday morning. Turn off all your devices. Including your phone! Plan something special with your friends and family, travel somewhere or do something crazy. Celebrate your progress and achievements.

Are you the espresso addict or the person who just can’t delegate to save your life? Have you got any other tips you use in your life to become more productive? Let me know in the comments below.(source:gamasutra)