One thing I learned that after a while it gets super easy to convince yourself that just 15 minutes of playing outdated online FPS games is OK, then 2 hours later you're still playing, and nobody is there to say "What the hell?". Is this normal?
I don't know about you, man, but that is the reason I took this job.
The whole point of running your own business is that you can do exactly what you want with your time. If you're not feeling productive, you can down tools and blow off the rest of the day to do something you'd rather be doing. Your business will pay you exactly the same for those hours.
I made this explicit when I built my SaaS business that its goal was "Maximize Jason's Vacation Time." It ticks away so well in the background these days that pretty much any day can be a day off. As can any month.
So long as your thing is shipped and bringing in revenue, don't go beating yourself up for screwing off a bit. Screwing Off is your job title. You've earned it. Enjoy!
If you want to play when you feel like playing and work when you feel like working you need to be ok with working at 8pm on a Saturday. Otherwise you won't get anything done.
Also, exercise more. I swear I get more time out of exercise for my business than I put in.
I should really make a blog about that too. I got so ridiculously addicted to making money in MMOs in high school. I have some absurd stories where I partially was responsible for crashing the gaming economy, did insider trading while being a AAA game tester, did click-and-bait scams, manipulated stock markets, ran bots, ran my own guildhall, had 5000 followers at one point, did AAA game Q/A testing (had to sign NDAs), wrote gaming guides translated in multiple languages and read by 100,000 people+ and made the shittiest class in the game the most popular one. Those were some really fun memorable times.
On paper I don't tell people I have any business experience though, not many people would appreciate that experience though sadly. Learned the hard way in college
Pseudonyms exist for a reason. Though I suspect those involved would know who you were, minus the NDA. It's not worth it to breach the NDA, but the rest? If you can sling together a coherent story, you've probably got solid book. You've got the start with an eager person getting into games out of love, turning it into an obsession where you strayed into the dark side, followed by how it made you feel empty and want to people "connected to people again (guildhall), and finally how this made you realize your passion all over again and turn it into a profession. This is a book people would read.
I actually wrote a few of the stories in a 500,000 word cluster dump on reddit i wrote in 2months but i ended up deleting the account. I got temporary ulnar tunnel syndrome(UTS) from writing for prolonged periods of time. I had psychological issues that I needed to explore so thats why the text dump was so long. I ended up writing my own awful version of existing psychology theories and did things to prove /disprove it.
I still have a backup of it though, i hashed out many specific gaming stories thoigh. I would have to string together stories across multiple MMOs ive played to make it more fluent
I still have my old youtube channel too under a different pseudonym, this MMO game is still popular today (its not WoW). My favorite comment I still treasure to this day is how a surgeon would watch my videos and practice his ambidexterity and motor skills for life/death situations with guides ive made. That changed my perspective in life, its also why I see value in everything. I was going through shit times after getting burnt by 3 internship offers bc of dual citizenship legality issues and getting fired from my summer job while being deathly ill from eating chipotle.
NDA is long since irrelevant now though. I had to send my drivers liscense photocopy with the NDA too
I still have screenshots too showcasing how absurdedly rich i got in the game(about 1000xs more money than the average player, i did alot of census surveys of people who paid for my services out of boredom at the time). I am 100% certain I was the richest selfmade player in a game of 5million+ people bc I monopolized one dungeon run that no one was able to do for months. Nobody could figure it out and everyone was trying to emulate me for the longest time. Dealing with scammers in instanced zones was a PITA. I even had people on payroll to badmouth all the Korean copycats emulating the setup I had going. Thats literally what i did for fun in high school.
I used to just theorycraft the millions of permutations of builds available in this MMO. It was sandbox heaven. Game was commonly called "build wars" bc of this reason. I built absurd builds designed to handle 4v1 situations that actually worked in PvP. I would submit these builds to the buildlist wikis but they were always rejected and never caught on. I still remember all the skill stats and combinations to make them today, its just ingrained in my head now. Thats how I learned to get really good at managing multiple things at a time, and how in another game I popularized the most shitty class. I am still considered the godfather of that class /build and its still a popular MMO today.
In this "build wars" game I was also the designated strategist for competitive GvG (guild vs guilds). I led what is essentially my own esports team before esports became a thing. Having to schedule practice sessions, practicing dry runs, etc.
The economy crashed from an exploit I leaked to a friend who leaked it to the public. I knew how devasting of an effect it had so i dumped all my stock into items that would go up in value. I had secret trading routes that no one knew even after the fact either.
Insider trading was fun trying to predict which materials would go up in value. I had access to all the crafting recipes before anyone else did, in the private test servers. The NDA agreement never mentioned this conflict of interest. I dominated certain niche market avenues. I used bots to automate trade posting.
I failed pretty hard at making my first guildhall. People wanted to join it and wanted me to spearhead it but i learned that i suck at being a leader. What I found was I enjoyed really teaching macroeconomics and entrepnueurship in high school though to guildmates.
I used to play tons of Korean MMOs growing up(similar to runescape), I learned the hard lessons of bait and scams here with awful trade windows. I bait scammed a few people myself. I learned my first korean words (baljong for rez me) and found most asianic players just knew a few english words, namely "fuck you". I learned how to trade with WTS and WTT spamming. I was in middle school at the time.
I used to play competitive DoTA before it was a thing and played with some of the top players today, merlini and w33. I wrote a post about this elsewhere on reddit, when iwent to my first esports outing.
I used to play league/scrims in CSGO too, but FPS is just what Im okay at. I learned about good HUD and UX design from playing so many video game genres.
My favorite songs came from audiotracks in starcraft modded maps (daft punk and zergling runs). I used to make my own modded maps in elementary school too and that was my first exposure to IRC. I got my first exposure to porn, specifically hentai, from thumbnail generated maps in elementary school. So many things were born from starcraft modded maps, for instance tower defense like fieldrunners or TD balloons.
Diablo 3 I was one of the first 100ish people to beat it on inferno mode too. I used to have a trading partnership where we'd use currency differences between real money auction house and ingame auctionhouse to make actual money (similar to forex exchanges)
No joke video games have taught me so much in life its not even funny. I hadnt even played EvE which is another can of worms and many absurd stories are birthed from there as well.
When i watch readyplayerone, enders game, SAO, the main characters remind me of my own life.
For the longest time though I didnt tell anyone in real life any of the stories and gaming adventures. It was hard on me too because it was also what I was most prideful of but I had to straightup lie in interviews on lesser accomplishments I did.
During highschool I got shutin so I also wasnt in good shape either. I was both skinny and fat at the same time as well. 9" biceps and 27"thighs someone once joked I looked like an anime character casually and that was the biggest burn I have ever received in my life. I got harassed alot in school so thats why I played lots of MMOs growing up. I have pictures of these still.
I also partially managed reddit r/place, the worlds largest online art collaboration as well too under a different pseudonym. I managed 30 contributors in real time for 20 hours. I dont know why I volunteered to do it I was just situated to handle it at the time. I know of almost every meme made (even the ones that didnt make it to final version) from r/place because I was the one who led documentation efforts.
Ive done a lot of weird stuff growing up. I have just accepted that I'm weird and learned to appreciate it now, I didn't so much in the past though. But I feel like these types of stories are generally more accepted now due to VR implications etc.
I dont play any video games much anymore because I have other ambitions I want fulfilled.
I'll dump small specific stories overtime in my blog later :)
Idk about writing a book though I like writing micro stories more, its easier to manage. If I made a book I'm not sure where the line of fiction vs nonfiction is drawn
So what you do is you write out the stories in blog posts, this builds your audience over time, as long as you're regular generally you'll get a gathering. Then you take all the posts from a year and package them together into a single book so it's only a little more effort on your part, just be honest to your fans what it is. (It's mostly a collection of what's here with better formatting and some pictures. Plus you'll be supporting the blog!!!) Get on a podcast or four, you'll have people asking for you at a certain point, plus you're interesting. Worst case send a pitch to them with your content, you're basically doing a huge part of their work for them. You'll definitely get some offers and money. Best part is you'll be inspiring other people who will live vicariously through you or make some kid feel less alone growing up. Totally guiltless and people will pay you for it.
I used to be like that until I actually shipped a product. The realization that you're accountable for something works miracles. Especially if it's a B2B product where your user base is much smaller but they're all paying customers. If you fuck it you lose clients, simple as that.
This has been the biggest revelation for me since I took my 5 year side project on full time. Up until this point I had worked hard sporadically on it, but as soon as I signed up my first customer my motivation has gone to a whole new level.
Now I can see why companies that find customers before they even have a product are often the most succesful - both because it validates the product, but also because it instantly gives you accountability.
Left 4 Dead 2 is the greatest game is the history of games, so I understand wanting to spend some time exploring it's many riches. What I find useful is to set a timer. When the timer goes off, after, say, 15 mins, it's time to stop. It also helps to have enough sleep. My overall concentration and willpower are far greater when I've had enough sleep, and that leads to less unproductive games playing, or Internet browsing, or whatever. Finally, todo lists and well defined goals for the day put pressure on to Get Shit Done. Especially helpful if you can make yourself accountable to someone else.
Video games are the addiction that really messed my life up.
Exercise is the thing I never did that REALLY makes your life better.
So I've decided to combine the two. I can play as much console games as I want, as long as I am peddling on my recumbent bike on a difficult setting.
I started out I could only do 1/2 hour before not wanting to play anymore. Now I'm down 30 pounds and can bike hard for about an hour while I play Fortnite/Overwatch/Zelda.
It's worked so well the only thing that I'm worried about now is maybe wearing out my knees or something.
> It's worked so well the only thing that I'm worried about now is maybe wearing out my knees or something.
Over-training is a thing. Pay attention to whether you are making gains or not (i.e., going longer/faster at the same level of exertion). For me, 6 days a week is ideal. For cycling, you can probably manage 7 days a week if you are putting in 2 "light" days instead (low intensity).
As you've been stationary-cycling for a while, you probably know the difference between "good pain" and "bad pain". "Good pain" is kind of misnomer -- really, if you get lactic acid buildup or something similar and you aren't doing your body significant damage, you can ignore the pain. But "bad pain" (which signals an injury) should not be ignored. Immediately get some rest. With over-training, you can get niggly injuries. If you think it is "good pain" and it doesn't go away in a week, or if it's getting progressively worse, then it could well be over-training. Make sure to have a rest day once a week.
If you still get pain even with a rest day, then look at your setup/form. For cycling, having your knees go out at a weird angle when pushing is a common fault. Concentrate on maintaining a good position on the pedals (usually near the balls of your feed) and having a natural angle for your feet.
But if you aren't getting over-training injuries or injuries cause by poor form, there is no particular reason to worry about wearing out your body. People cycle/walk/jog every day for an hour or two well into old age without problems. The benefits you get will vastly outweigh any problems.
Sounds like you've been through similar things? What helped you master time management? We're bootstrapped so the only money management problems is really related to (wasted) time management.
I was addicted to browsing during my work. I knew I was wasting my time and it is not helping. I would resolve to not so it again. Then slowly I would fall back into my old ways. What helped was realizing that it is easy to do something 100% of the time than 95% of the time. Previously rationalized when I was getting distracted by telling myself it is just for 5 mins which inevitably resulted in more rationalising and realizing only after an hour. Now when I get distracted and realize it, I just stop it there and then and get back to work. I also made some changes like having specific internet time and strictly avoiding it during other time also helped.
Read the book deep work by Cal Newport. It has these and various other ways to focus more. https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/...
I found the same to be broadly true for me. One small tip to break the habit - use your hosts file to straight up block distracting websites on your work PC. You can still read them elsewhere when not working. This really helped me break the subconscious habit of checking distracting news sources.
