How do you keep yourself motivated while developing apps? I have a tendency to do anything else OTHER than apps. There are a few occasions where I really am in the mood for developing but other than these, I really cant get going.
Do you have any tips? How do you keep yourself on track and working with so many distractions.
(PS. I feel this is the most appropriate area of the forum to post this in)
i worked in one of the worst job that u can get prior to becoming an indie dev. I felt so miserable at that job that one day i thought to myself. Do I want to do this for the rest of my life? Do i Want to wake up every morning feelings so grumpy going to this job?
So i left the job to take on the risk of making money at home without any experience in programming at all. I absolutely love the lifestyle it has given me . To stay motivate, I try to search for that moment of fear where I would wake up to that shitty *** job I used to do.
My motivation is my ego, ambitions, desire to be free (from day job), and financial needs.
After reading some of the successful stories on this forum and on the net I said to myself: "damn, I have 20 years of C/C++ experience, I'm not worse than them, if they can do it, then I can do it too". So if I leave this business and go get employed (even for half a million salary) it will be failure and it will hurt my ego.
I know I can do better than what I have in appstore. That's my ambition.
For several years I haven't been working for "the man" and I love it. I travel, I go wherever I want, whenever I want, and do whatever I want. It's priceless (considering that I worked all my life for "the man" and hated it).
I gotta pay my bills. Banks don't let me to relax.
I think that's strong enough motivation to glue my a$$ to the chair and fingers to the keyboard. Right now I'm in $10k/month range. I consider this semi-success. I need $25-30/month (for now) and I have to make better apps.
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Even though I love app developing I still find it hard to concentrate most of the time. Once I sit down and get started I can go for 3-5 hours no problem but getting into it is the hard part.
Im actually unmotivated pretty often. I don't really enjoy the actual act of programming so much as just having a good idea and making it happen. When I'm really into it I'm in the zone and motivation isn't an issue. That's the great thing about being an indie. If you aren't motivated by what you are doin then just stop and do something else
Well The Last Time i had a Job was 2005 and i hate it and quit. Since Then I have been independent and self employed and i love it. The Freedom to Wake Up when i want, Not Having to Answer to nobody.
Of Course I have a alot of Haters, Most People look down on you when you say your self employed. They always say stuff like " I like the safety of having a secure Job, I hate sitting on a computer everyday", I Rather Sit home and make my money then to sit on a computer all day working for the man, making peanuts.
And Whats so funny during the recession while people were losing there so call "secure job" I was making a whole lot of money and travel the world every 3 months. But I have to Thank God and Knock on Wood,
But to your Original Question What keeps me motivated is that i do not think i can ever work a 9-5 again, So As a Entrepreneur you have to always keep up with the times and learn new skills and invest in new opportunity's. So you always have to be on your feet.
I try to not force myself. If I don't feel like developing an app, I do some marketing stuff, read up, etc.
I also never work from home. Every single day I wake up, get my MB Air, and go to the nearby Starbucks to work there. Starbucks costs me $10/day, but I found out that working outside of home I'm 10x more likely to produce anything, so it pays itself off. Even during my worst times, when I had to go into debt, the daily Starbucks was a must for me.
If I had a full-time job, I'd go to Starbucks right after it - it's too hard to focus at home.
I also used to work in sprints. That is, I say, "in two weeks the app has to be ready", and then do whatever necessary to get it done - usually it meant working late at night (from a friendly office, Starbucks closed), and drinking shitloads of Red Bull, eating fast food, etc... But this did end up badly, as I gained 30lbs and lost a lot of weight. But some of my best apps, if not all, got created this way.
I always ask myself - "what is the minimum amount of work to get this done". This can be awful when it comes to games (where tiny details are everything), but for utility apps, I can skip lots of functionality and still get the same benefit to the user.
Working with other people. If there is a graphic designer who is helping me, or another developer doing server side, it's much more fun. I also have an advisor, a group of friendly people I meet daily and a cheer club on Facebook (I shared some of my stats there . I organise app marketing workshops, go to startup parties, write blog articles etc - the contact with other people keeps me sane, albeit distracted. Showing my app to a crowd gives me a lot of feedback I won't get from the internet.
Finally, the modern society tries to believe that every person should work 8 hours a day, day to day, with the same speed. This might be true in factories and corporations, but artists never did well on this kinds of schedules. We *are* a modern day artists. Sometimes the muse is with us, and we work like crazy, sometimes we just have to rest and wait for it to come, sometimes we need to go out and chase it.
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Every person has his unique set of interest/hobby which motivates him. The source of motivation can come from any source like a good book/ good movie/ some quote/ your favourite tv show/ someone from your family/a friend/ and a 1000 other places.
I think the best way to stay motivated is to feel that you "do make a difference" by the work you are doing and it means a lot to you. Nothing brings more satisfaction to an artist(or in our case an app developer) than to see his product see the light of the day.
I am saying this from my personal experience coz in my previous company i couldnt find any meaning in my job. Although i tried several things to motivate myself to get up every morning and do my work with full enthusiasm, but i couldnt succeed even ONCE.
Any motivation that you get from OUTSIDE may work for some time but it is never permanent.
So i guess that you can only feel motivated if it comes from INSIDE from the feeling that your work has benefited/helped/inspired/made someone smile/challenged your limits/changed your perspective i.e. as i stated earlier "made a difference". This has worked for me and am sure has worked for a lot of other people.
Hope you find your PERMANENT motivation soon.Then you wont have to look anywhere else ever again
Watch 'office space' to remind yourself of why you're doing it.
^^^ So much THIS!!!
If you find yourself being unmotivated just remember that being your own boss allows you to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, and how you want to do it. You have FREEDOM!
If you aren't motivated to actually do the coding yourself don't forget, you are your own boss and you are free. You don't have to code it!! Instead, if you have trouble sitting at the computer for hours, maybe outsource your next project and just manage it a few hours a week.
How do you keep yourself motivated while developing apps? I have a tendency to do anything else OTHER than apps. There are a few occasions where I really am in the mood for developing but other than these, I really cant get going.
Do you have any tips? How do you keep yourself on track and working with so many distractions.
(PS. I feel this is the most appropriate area of the forum to post this in)
At this time of year it's hard. Today I would have been back to work after the holidays if I was still 'working for the man' but instead I'm watching the rain & playing with my puppy dog instead of doing some dev work. In general I just set myself time limited targets & try to get somewhere near to them. I don't really need the money so I don't have the benefit of a bank manager chasing me so it has to be the ability to take an idea & make it a product that motivates me.
You just have to love what you're doing. Don't mean to sound like Steve Jobs, but this is what it boils down to.
I had no problem working till 4am for weeks when Dragon Lords launched. The game was my piece of art and I never had to "force myself" to work on it. Find something you feel passionate about making and do it. Don't do it because you want to make money on the iPhone apps.
I am a beginner in this area so i still have that "haleluja" flow/feeling in my head that keeps me motivated.
I might be successful some day, maybe not, but the thought of taking a S**T on my boss officedesk motivates me so damn much, so i have to say +1 on office space..
How do you keep motivated?
. I organise app marketing workshops, go to startup parties, write blog articles etc - the contact with other people keeps me sane, albeit distracted. Showing my app to a crowd gives me a lot of feedback I won't get from the internet.
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