Tutorial Topics

60-60-30 of Level Design Productivity

January 30, 2009
Category: Productivity & Goal Setting

Over the month of January at World of Level Design I've been posting nothing but productivity and planning articles. I've been reading, watching and learning about personal productivity. From books, to youtube to blogs.

My main problem over last few years has been a lack of focus. I wanted to be good at everything. Jack of all trades and a master of none. What that basically is saying that I am not great an anything. Just good to decent at a lot of things.

So over last few months and specifically over this coming year I have narrowed my sight on environment and level design. It's what I truly love doing.

The following technique has become almost a mantra for me over last few weeks.

60-60-30.

I learned this from Eben Pagan. If you do a google search on him you will find that he is a personal and business coach who mentors individuals and their businesses. The thing that I learned from him that I will share with you is the principle of 60-60-30.

What is 60-60-30 rule?

60-60-30 stands for time; time chunks. 60 minutes, 60 minutes and 30 minutes.

It's basically this. You work for 60 minute, twice and then you take a break for 30 minutes.

Let's break this down even further. What 60 minutes stands for is 50 minutes of work on a single activity and 10 minute rest.

Work for 50 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes. Then do that again 50 minutes of highly focused work and 10 minute rest. Then you will take a break for 30 minutes.

I want to emphasize that for 50 minutes of work, you only work on a single activity, highly focused and an activity that will bring you the most results when it is done.

Gears of War. Epic Games.

Think of the outcome and the result you want to achieve. It could be a new map. Getting really good at 3d modeling and building a Roman set design pieces that would be used in a mod or anything else you have on your mind.

You want to work on the highest output activity that will bring you results. Focus on the result and the outcome you want to achieve.

The key is single activity and focus.

Lets go over the key concepts.

Get a timer
Having a basic timer set for 50 minutes frees me from everything around me and I can focus on what I am doing. I know once the timer goes off I can take a break. I don't need to spend time looking at the clock. I can just focus and work.

50 minutes
Focus on a single activity. No distractions. No multi-tasking, no checking emails or surfing the web or playing videogames or refreshing the forums. You can do that when you have 10 minutes of rest or when you take a break for 30 minutes.

10 minutes
Use this time to completely unplug from what you are doing. Step away from the computer and go grab a snack, drink some water or tea. Just relax for 10 minutes and don't work. Rest. Set the timer for 10 minutes.

30minutes
30 minutes of break is when you grab a meal. It is recommended that you should eat 5-6 small meals through out your day. When you work in 60-60-30 chunks take breaks as instructed this allows you to fuel your body and renew yourself at 30-minute breaks by grabbing a meal.

This is important. You are what you eat and to function properly you can't starve yourself and expect to operate at a optimal level. So during this 30 minute break, completely disconnect from you work. Eat a meal. Relax and renew. Stretch. No work at all.

Final Thoughts
I have been implementing this over last couple of weeks and I find myself working longer then 50 minutes. Once I get in the zone I continue often to 90-120 minutes then take a break.

Also being focused and working on one thing at a time is very liberating. At the end of the day I can look back and see actual progress I made on my work. Done over a long period of time working this way you are going to create some amazing work at a level that hasn't been done before.

Let me know what your thoughts are and share your personal productivity techniques and mindsets.

Also take a look at http://www.ktims.de/timers.exe. It is a downloadable timer to use on your computer. Thanks to Benjamin Spang for the link.