HAVING LOTS OF FUN IDEAS CAN BE A GIFT HOWEVER IT CAN ALSO BE A GREAT WAY TO GET DISTRACTED.

The Game: There was a new personal project I started. The project was a local multiplayer mobile app called Planet Pong. The idea was to create a game that you could grab and play with a friend when you have to wait for a few minutes. The concept of the game itself was a pong/ tennis 1 v 1 game where both players start on opposite sides of a small planet. The players would have 4 buttons: going left, going right, jump and smash. Next to hitting the ball the players could also hit the other player to stun them for a second or two. This created a cat and mouse system within the game. If you keep standing on the same place, the other player would be able to crouch next to you and stun you just before the ball arives. Making you lose a point.

The Solution: I tried to solve the statement that is at the top of this post. The goal was to make a alpha from my game that could be played by other people. This alpha needed atleast 1 character, 1 level, a menu and the base controls. To prevent myself to stop working at the project I set up a bet with my accountability buddy Mike (SheepBrush). The bet was that I would finish the alpha from the app (we created a list to be sure we understood the same aspects that needed to be included for an alpha) before I started to work on any other personal project. If I would fail the bet I needed to pay Mike 100 dollars. He was happy with this deal, he couldn’t lose and he could use the extra dollars being a freelancer.

But enough about the game itself. If you would like to play it you can find the link here. Now let’s get back to the original subject. The 100 dollar bet!

The Thought Behind The Bet: The original idea was to force myself in a position where new projects would become less seductive. A new personal project almost always look like more fun to work on than one that is already in production. The new project is still an idea and therefore everything is possible while the old idea has had challenges and difficult tasks that still need to be done. With adding a fine to starting a new project I hoped to counter this seduction of a new project.

In terms of not starting a new project of was successful. I didn’t start other personal projects during the period it took me to create the alpha. The alpha is now finished and in its testing phase.

The Results: However achieving its goals, the 100 dollar bet also had some negative results. New projects still looked like a lot of fun but I couldn’t start any because I still had to finish this one. I almost started to recent myself doe making this bet. Next to the new projects still looping fun I also made the mistake of making the bet about not starting new projects instead of finishing the current project. With a lack of deadlines of was way too easy to stop working on the project for short periods of time where I was busy with other things. And with having difficult tasks to fix of almost became more rewarding not to work on the project at all. For there wasn’t a penalty on being slower or less productive. Only doe starting something else. This changed however when my previous portfolio site’s hosting got a ransomware virus. Now I needed to make nu whole portfolio again but couldn’t because of the bet. This became the biggest motivator to keep working on the project. It also let me realise some things about the bet that I would change next time I would do another bet.

 

 

Things I Learned: The next time I would change the focus of such bets to be on completion instead of not starting other projects. Instead of would more likely be something like. I will create an alpha before date x or else I will pay 100 dollars to person x. However this still feels to much of a punishing action instead of an internally motivated (rewarding) action. Instead I could write down certain milestones and a reward I will receive once I completed that milestone. Another change will be to create a clear vision of how my life will be affected by completing the bet. This vision can help you through the hard times where you just need to grind. The this and last addition will be time. Goals aren’t worth anything without being connected by a time frame. Which person would be more likely to achieve his or her goal. The person that says I would like to someday create x or the person who says I would like to finish creating x on monday 26-08-2019 or at least 30-08-2019, giving myself an additional week might I bump into any unforseen obstacles.

• Make deadline bets based on completion.
• Make deadline bets based on positive reinforcement instead of punishing factors.
• Make deadline bets time based.