Time management on the example of a simple game designer

There has already been a lot said about how best to manage your time. “Why am I worse?” - I thought suddenly, and as a result of this thought - here, please, this little article. I will not say that all thoughts are original here, the author's production and piecework. Rather - it is something like a creative rethinking of the motives. The primary source of this system is Yana Frank’s book Muse and Monster or How to Organize Creative Work.
Since I have the audacity to identify myself as an employee of the creative field, I read with interest this book, I thought at leisure, and now my workflow looks something like this.

Suppose a difficult game design fate is preparing me to create a new level. Create a file (you can even completely plain - text, but better something more progressive, like Excel document or Google spreadsheet). And already in this file all our plans regarding this project are described. What should be done? We go from the general to the particular. If everything is simplified, then at any level we should have: Level History, Map, Monsters, Objects, Traps, Quests, Awards. So we single out these global categories, like this:
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Now go through them with a critical eye.
Story. Why, why and how this level suddenly appeared, how it is tied to the history of the world, what a player can learn from the history of this dungeon, if he can use the data obtained in the future.
Map. What can it consist of? One or more zones? What are the textures, layout, placement of objects? Do not forget about the mobs wandering around the district and talkative (or not) NPCs.
Monsters are, first of all, their parameters, appearance, methods that they can use in battle and everyday life, and, of course, loot, which falls after his death.
Objects - tables, chairs, buttons, switches, all that. Their appearance and purpose.

And so every point is worked out. What we have at the output is a ready-made template for all new levels with an approximate hierarchy of components. Of course, most of these items intersect, for example, the monster loot intersects with Rewards, but in this case you can always use hyperlinks, or if you don’t really want an extra hassle - just mark yourself somewhere.

Approximate set after light processing with a critical eye:

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Now with all these categories, you can already work closely. We have a work plan and everything in sight. It remains to gradually fill this large scheme with small details. Suppose I decided that today is a great day to tackle monsters. I have already invented that we have three types of monsters living on our level (a small one): Big Khruyborvandel, Petty Slider and Medium Burugusik. We look at our plan - what remains to be done. And in general, a lot of things remain. We haven’t done anything yet, we’ve just started. What can you do with them right now? Appearance is, in general, not our area of ​​action, let the artist do it. But in order for the artist to reflect in his paintings all of the bright individual of the Slider, it is necessary to describe this. 2 minutes of flight of fancy, 5 minutes of searching on the Internet photographs of various Slithering creatures, for the inspiration of the artist - and now the file on the monster is ready. As each such dossier is created, we put a “plus” in front of the “Appearance” column. Why after each dossier? And so that if we were suddenly distracted, we could immediately see without much thought where we were staying.

So, the dossiers are ready, we send them to the artists and put them next to the first plus sign - another plus sign - the dossier is gone, and we still have some of the work done, we can congratulate ourselves on this. As soon as the pictures come from the artist, we will see them, evaluate them, or let them go (put the last plus sign) or send them back with comments on the correction. With images all. It is the turn of our work.

Spit in a man who says that "I am not in the mood to create now." If you can't create, do something else. This is where the whole brilliant simplicity of our hierarchical table opens. Just by looking at it with your eagle eye, you can answer a question that many people cannot ask themselves - and what am I in the mood for now? What is my heart and what does my soul demand. And it turns out - even if you are not in the mood to create, you can always do something that will bring closer the glorious moment of the delivery of the project. For example, calculate the probability of a megabluster falling out of a chest, which stands directly behind the formidable Khryaborvandel. With what chance will he fall out, for whom will he be, how much power, how many trips for the coveted blaster will the average user of level 10 need, how likely he will be able to fill up the guard, how much will he spend on this first-aid kit? It does not require a special flight of fantasy, naked mathematics.

Or if you do not want to go into mathematics - please think of a device for Buruguzik - then of course you need fantasy, but not to the same extent as in inventing a level story. We already have a dossier on it (and even perhaps an image) - this is such a powerful kick for creativity. The data known to us suggest that this is a glorious animal, capable of tearing iron with its paws. What can he do in battle? Well, yes, tear iron - but it's boring. Let him better tear off armor from players, fold it into lumps and throw it back. All the fun. The more powerful the armor, the harder the hit. Antitank such a monster will. Here is a light touch of creativity. It remains a trifle - to turn this concept into a reception. By the way, on the whole process of working with the reception - we put the pluses in the appropriate lines. If desired, we insert the same and all their achievements. Invented a description of the reception - put a plus sign and a link to this description. In order not to fall victim to their own distraction.

The creative impulse is over - I want something thoughtless and automatic, to the appropriate music - we will rivet the uniform pieces of armor in the object editor - boots, helmets, belts, and so on. Again we put pluses. A thought came up on new tricks - we postpone the mechanical work, write down the idea, invent the implementation, and as soon as the creative mood begins to end - we return to the creation of things.

Somewhere in the middle of the work, the above scheme looks like this (to facilitate navigation, I threw half the points):

« »
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└ — « .doc» + + —

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└ — « ».doc + +

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│ ├ ( «\ ») + + + —
│ └
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├ ( «\ ») + + + —
└

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│ ├ + + + —
│ ├ ( « ») + +
│ └ ( « ») + +
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│ ├ + + +
│ ├ ( « ») + +
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└ ( sh_big_boom, SH_data)

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│ ├ 3 3 ( «») + + ( - 20%, - 10%, - 5%)
│ └ 3 3 ( «») + + ( - 80%, - 90%, - 95%)
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│ ├ 10 21 ( «») + —
│ ├ 1 5 ( «») + — . .
│ ├ 1 2 ( «») +
│ └ 1 1 ( «») + + —
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│ └ + + ( SH_drop)
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Here is such a simple reception allows you to work quite flexibly and not particularly lazy. In general, if you really want a more productive work, then in the above-mentioned template you can select in advance zones where, in your opinion, you will need your creative, logical or stupid-mechanical skills. And in the process quickly switch from one job to another, depending on your mood.

Also, such a system is very convenient to work with a variety of distractions. For example, on several projects. You can always appreciate what you have left, where you stopped, where to go next. There is one global plan in the form: “Make at all”, consisting of subplans: Make level, Make “New Gadgets”, Write an article, Conquer the world. So - I have no particular time to think that I have nothing to do.