Work, Life, Balance / Work, Work, Work
polycounter lvl 12
Hey Polycount!
This is something I've been wondering lately, I see so many great artists on here and was wondering what your philosophy is when it comes to getting art/projects done.
Are you able to find work, life, balance and create pieces of work while having artistic growth?
Or are you constantly working on artwork, leaving out time for socializing/gaming/relaxing?
Hope to hear your thoughts.
Thanks!
This is something I've been wondering lately, I see so many great artists on here and was wondering what your philosophy is when it comes to getting art/projects done.
Are you able to find work, life, balance and create pieces of work while having artistic growth?
Or are you constantly working on artwork, leaving out time for socializing/gaming/relaxing?
Hope to hear your thoughts.
Thanks!
Replies
Keep a schedule for your entire day and budget in free time the same way that you do work. Provided you don't have another job, plan for 40-50 hours/week, either as 8 or 10 hour days. Make sure you include small breaks every two or three hours.
The real trick, especially if you're working from home, is learning to shut your brain off when your work day is over.
I had a few personal projects on the go for when I wasnt at the studio, but I haven't touched any 3D outside of work for almost 4 weeks
I need to crack on, but when I do; the games will stop and this will become a work obsession again... I struggle to ever turn off, if its not polycount itll be linkedin/tutorials/emails etc.
@Equanim: My actual main job isn't very creative heavy, but is mentally exhausting. So, after work I'm usually coming home and working.
My situation everyday is:
Work: to pay the bills
Workout: since 90% of my day is at a desk/computer
Artwork: Personal projects/trying to improve as an artist
It just seems like work, life, balance seems almost non-existent if you're looking to really make some strides artistically.
At this point in my life (31) I feel as though I've mastered time management and expectations.
Gathering a build for our game? Use that time to authorize new members of Polycount.
At the sandwich shop ordering my lunch? Retweet some interesting tweets to @polycount.
Waiting for some things to bake? Plan my evening for when I get home and know exactly what I want to do.
Home in time for dinner? Spend time eating with the family, bathing my daughter, chatting with the wife, and hopefully catching a TV show with her before she dozes off.
Wife asleep? Load up Unity, 3DS Max, Xbox One, Steam, or anything else that fits in to the 'Work or play' for me-time.
Midnight? Go to bed.
Now its the weekend? Spend time with the family, friends, or whatever else I want to do and spend the evenings on personal projects.
4 weeks!?
I feel like it's a good and bad trade to always want to be creating/improving.
I work like a madman from Sunday Night to Thursday Night.
I wasted so much time because of distraction, but I didn't realized it, I used to think that I'm learning, working hard
And then just last month I found a technique that help me a lot in time management.
Yes, it's Pomodoro technique. (maybe some of you guys heard about it or even using it ) it's very simple technique, but it's let me know how much time I had wasted. it based on the fact that human can't stay focus for a long time doing a challenge job ( game artist is problem solver, right ? ). So it's give you 5 minute break for every 25 minute that you're completely focus on your task. After 4 time like that you take a 15 minute break. you can change the numbers to whatever you feel comfortable with
IMO, the most effective way to use your break time is stand up from your desk, go and grab a glass of water, do some simple desk exercise or simply just twist your body. It's like a refresh button not just for your mind, but for your body as well ( sitting too long is bad, everybody know that ). The refresh button could help you with problem solving as well, because working under stress and run in to problems is horrible, it even worst if after a bunch of research then you realize that problem is just because you too tired and forgot to rename one object. it's always good to work with a fresh mind
after all it help me work more effective and by that I have more free time for other stuff
So for me it's complicated to manage work/life/artistic work . When I'm in the middle of creating something it stays in my brain all day even when doing something else.
@JacqueChoi: I've never really tried that approach, but if you don't get what you want accomplished do you just push it off until Sunday night?
iconoplast: I have noticed that keeping a very tight schedule can help with balance quite a bit! I've also realized that when you're not on a tight schedule/deadline time can be eaten up a lot more! Amazing how much time social media can eat up!
Nam.Nguyen: I have never actually heard of the Pomodoro technique! I will definitely be trying that out during my next extended art session. Thanks!
i do exactly this. i work, then i drop it for few weeks.
when you are a struggling artist you can't have any balance. you either work and eventually make it, or you balance it out and get nowhere.
Finally learned how the threads work now! haha.
But! Hearing this is actually really refreshing to hear.
Though, my artistic side sometimes kicks in where if I don't like what I've been working on at work, or I just dont feel challenged enough with the tasks I`ve been given for too long, I do more personal stuff at home to fill the void.
When I was looking for work after school finished, it was different. Even though I was extremely tired after my restaurant job, I had to force myself to keep doing more after work because those 8-12 hours were spent on art throughout the day, so I never felt like I was improving. Now that I work in 3d, the on average 10 hours a day I work, I still see improvements daily, so I dont feel like I`m wasting my time or anything like that.
when you have all the time in the world things tend not to get done, so keeping yourself busy seems to work, I like going to the gym because afterwards I have this urge to do everything else right as well, before I just wanted to go home sit down on the couch and eat chips, after the gym I feel like cleaning eating healthy and work.
a cloudy mind can be caused from sleep deprivation, and emotional deprivation from missing out on your loved ones and living your life will infect your artwork like a virus, you will start to see it as what's toxic in your life, you will most likely stop liking it and stop improving.
so this balance isn't just good, but essential to becoming a better artist and a happier human being.
Great post. I couldn't agree more.
Sadly the 8hrs for you, includes things like travel to and from work/school, doing things you have to do like pay your bills, eat dinner, take out the trash, fish your wallet out of the toilet when your kid goes through the flushing phase, bla bla bla. So you're probably down to 2-3hrs of actual time for you. If you have someone else in your life you probably need to spend that time with them, which is going to be hard if you're still trying to learn and establish yourself.
When you're starting out, your life will probably need to be a little unbalanced. You'll need to dedicate a lot of time to learning and establishing yourself. Depending on what else you have going it will seem like a full time job, if you have to work another job while you're learning, then there won't be much time for other things besides work and training.
Once you get established you can start to balance things out. You'll probably be putting in roughly the same hours but you won't be working the other job to pay the bills, your interests and your job will have aligned giving you more free time.
I think it's critical for creative people to do other things and experience new things. It connects to and helps water a persons sense of wonder and creativity. It helps give you a pool of experience and reference to pull from. Feng Zhu says it better than I can:
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That's another hobby that is now turning into a somewhat viable job for me in the evenings/night and as I work more its like keeping a couple plates spinning at once, which requires fine tuning and
I find once you get decent at something you can spread a bit more of your focus elsewhere and slowly add more to the daily load because you get better at managing your expectations and time.
Also, going to the gym 3-4x a week really helps and eating clean like others have said is great way of keeping your energy up and motivated. I find even riding a bike to work makes me feel like I have acomplished something at the start of my day and helps roll into a more productive state of mind.
Balancing all aspects of life is really important to not becoming burned out. I cant understand the people that work 8 hours a day in 3d at work and then go home and power out another 5-8 on personal projects. where is the time for socializing and experiencing the world/life?!
i disagree.
tbh i have always been lazy. i am irritated when people boast with how much they work.
honestly it doesn`t matter how much you work.
as with everything in life it is the result thats important and not how you got there.
so i think its about finding YOUR balance.
if you can and wan't to work without stopping ,go ahead.
i am not that person. i have to drag my ass to get stuff done.
i do eventually.
so for me its actually about motivating myself to work. for others it might be about reminding themselves to take a brake and time for friends.
so try to figure out what works best for you.
There's an argument for working super hard at the beginning and tapering off as you get a job and gain experience ... but at first, when you're trying to reach your goals, you're going to be hard pressed to justify doing anything other than bettering your skill set.
I think anyone working in a tech industry job should be continually educating themselves, both in areas related to what they do and areas outside of that. I try to stay educated in level design, art production, programming ... anything I can get my hands on really. It helps me do my job better because I can speak with some amount of intelligence to just about anyone in the company. Other than animators. Still working on that.
Either route is fine, don't get me wrong. But my point is that if you want to get ahead, odds are you're going to have to put in more than 40 a week.
(this is where someone replies that they work 2 hours a week as a remote art director for 4 AAA companies while tanning on the beach but understand there were likely other factors involved in them getting that job - connections, etc). And odds are they worked their asses off to get there.
after 8 or 9 hours of modelling at work i simply am too tired to start anything
also someone has to cook and do the laundry also (thats me)
i feel like the only time when i can work on personal stuff and get something done is in my lunch break and on weekends
I don't know how people can work on the weekends on a computer! The world is calling! Need to go BBQ, ride my bike, drink at bars, watch movies, visit friends, and so on.
Basically any personal work while fully employed blows my mind.
it does matter how much you work and practice, more practice = better results = taking you less time to do it.
you know that this industry is highly competitive and no one is going to wait for your ass and that's the reason why people work a lot.
the more you drag your ass around, the more it's going to take you to get work, and there is always someone out there that's doing more than you are and will get your job.
after you have achieved your goal, like getting your industry job, then you balance it out. but before that you are supposed to work and work.
that's how i think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtSXlTTGFrQ
I chop wood for a fire and light & keep the fire going to keep the house warm now that its getting cold. Play with the dog & cat and have some family time in front of the fire after getting home from work for an hour or so before I get straight back into it.
It's getting tough to juggle - probably should cut it down to just 1 freelance job, but I like the pressure, I think that's where I am at my best. Just try to be efficient - buttloads of time can be lost idly doing shit thats contributing nothing to getting you to wherever it is you want to go. Look at Adams breakdown - thats a perfect example of 'gettin it done'.
its not that i feel guilty when i`m not doing anything anymore but rather that i`m bored when i`m not working on something artrelated. Maybe some distraction would be healthy but atm i feel fine doing what i do.
Im the same way i pretty much work every hour im awake Monday to Thursday, but once im off work on Friday, all of my time goes to spending time with the girl friend from Friday night to Sunday.
Sometimes the projects I do at home are art-related. More often it's programming, design, painting, writing, or research. There are diminishing returns to dumping time into any skill, including game art. There's not as much for me to learn in the game art world as there was when I started 9 years ago. At some point, you pass the knee of the curve.
The flip side is that you can make meteoric progress by working on a skill that you aren't already a professional in. I find that hit of progress is a great way to start the day.
Trying to cram in personal projects after work just introduces life problems for me. Makes it less likely that I'll do them, more likely that I'll become frustrated with them, and less likely that I'll get 8 hours of sleep. Avoid that. Front-load the side projects.
It's easy to spot someone who isn't getting enough sleep or enough fun in their life. We work in tech. Social pressures push people to work long hours and neglect most aspects of their lives for short-term gain. But there's zero scientific question that a balanced life makes for a more consistent, effective, and pleasant worker in the long run. Those are valuable things.
see that kind of thinking is what drives people, to crunch insane hours and eventually become unhappy with what they are doing.
shure there are 1000 chinese guys that are better then you. but they are in china and you are probably not.
i know a lot of guys that are way better then me, but were turned down after job interviews because of their attitude.
beeing a nice person is important too, and that is pretty hard if you are constantly pressuring yourself and frustrated with your progress.
if you stay dedicated and try to improve yourself you will make it eventually.
i don't know dude, but crunching insane hours never made me unhappy, only burnt out. and that feeling goes away in few days.
being nice has nothing to do with crunching. if i am frustrated with my progress i'm frustrated with MY progress, not someone else.
and don't think just because you are a cool guy that someone is going to hire you. also i don't believe your "A LOT of guys with good art turned down because of their attitude" story.
being nicest guy in the world is not going to get you a job, your skills are. you have to stay hungry in order to make it.
if you stay lazy and dedicated and try to improve, you will never make it. if you do make it, it's going to take you 5 years more than someone who's working everyday.
If you have a more balanced lifestyle not only will you feel more motivated towards your work but you'll produce consistently good results in the long term.
EDIT: Just want to add - Rino, do you currently work in the industry or just remote work? Just because you mentioned "after you have achieved your goal, like getting your industry job, then you balance it out." I can assure you personally this wasn't the case for me - when I started an industry job (although it rocked) I missed having time for my own personal work, so don't go into an industry job thinking 'I can just chill out when I get my first job' because its often not the case.
As I said, once you're an established game artist and you want to let off on the throttle, that's fine ... but understand that you will start falling behind from that point forward.
For example, any character artist hoping to compete with Hazardous is going to have to work. A lot. Or he's going to eat your lunch, every time. The only limiting factor he has is hours in a day.
That's just reality.
shure for some people its just their way of doing things, but if you constantly pressure yourself to beeing the same way although you are not, it will be detrimental to you in the long run.
if you find yourself forced to compete and realise you can't win because they are younger and don't have kids etc. you will have to find a way to adapt.
and thats for me the thrill of gameart.
not working more then another person, but beeing more effective.
If you're looking to be a guy in the trenches who puts in his 40 and goes home, that's FINE and a different situation. In that case, sure, you won't have to work as hard. Just hard enough to acquire the skills to get hired and not get fired.
However ... competition at that level is just as bad. There are SO many people who want to get into the games industry that every job position is highly contested. The number of resumes we receive every week is insane.
It can actually make you unpopular if you work too hard.
I remember being told that I was making waves because I took work home to improve facial likenesses for main characters. i though it was important at the the time, but other folks didn't like it.
Also I think in the long run if you work 14- 15 hours a day on your 3d stuff , after about 20 years for doing that your mind will rebel against you.
you need a family life and an outlet , but if you are 19 years old , it's not so much of a problem, so maybe you should compete.
They might be nice people to have a beer with but they're hurting your career.
when you have a room full of highly strung people there are always going to be problems.
anyway not to derail, I do feel that at some point you have to slow down and have a life outside of work. not good for your mental health to work so hard.
humans are meant to go out and socialize, I find the "im an introvert" excuse thrown around far too much. I guess people just get into a comfortable groove and dont want to change/improve their life. Thats a big part of the reason McDonalds is so successful, instant gratification while giving you just pure shit to eat. its comfortable though.
For myself though, my social life is pretty much non-existent. Most of my non art friends just spend their time out at the bars or other activates. And all of the friends I made in college have pretty much just stopped even pursuing games. They've found a mildly stable job that pays well, so they just stopped and always say that they’re going to go back and update they’re portfolio.
Thankfully the GF is also an artist and we usually spend of our time working on art. We even started a personal project together. But, I am still constantly working on art. It's become something that I feel like I have to do; it's a bit that I feel obligated. But, I want to improve and I enjoy creating it.
My biggest concern is that I don't know how much time to give up for balance, since I need to drastically improve.
A lot of people have made really good points on both sides; just want to say thanks for everyone's thoughts!
good luck on your journey.
I worked as a ballroom instructor for 2 yrs. During those time, I was the first to arrive at the studio to get some extra practice done. That was like 1-2 hr early. I took half lunch time only so the other half I could dance around the studio some more. And many times I stayed a bit longer afterward as well. Other coworkers ? They sat idly in their cars if they arrived 5 mins early. Nothing would get them to come back from lunch early. And the sooner they walked out the studio at close time the better for them. They were nice people and all that, of course. They did not give me hard time for doing what I did, either.
People are just different, I presume.
Ps. I'm Introvert.