Every Saturday I publish a report reflecting on the previous week. These reflections exist to demonstrate my progress, share my experiences and help transfer what I learn to others.

The Past Week

I discovered something very surprising about myself this week…

I need a team.

No, I don’t mean in the sense of having more skills on hand or the sort, I mean I can’t bear to work alone. This astounds me because I’ve always been more of an introvert, so the idea that I hate working alone seems absurd. But that’s what it is. I tried to fight this awhile, explaining my unwillingness to open Unity to simple doubts or lack of motivation. But no, deep down I knew I just didn’t enjoy walking towards a goal without anyone by my side. So, I decided to join a team and made a post on the Unity forums offering free services as a programmer.

The response was overwhelming. At first I feared nobody would be interested and I’d be stuck waiting for weeks on end, but thankfully within just a day several people contacted me to join their teams. I talked to a few, and joined up with Danijel, a nice Croatian artist. I immediately felt this is someone I’d like to work with, although he can be a bit negative at times.

Work was slow this week as I was settling down with the new project, a 2.5D Platformer, and Git proved more of a hassle to setup than I anticipated. A full day was wasted trying get it working on my machine until I finally managed to do it.

 

Analyzing Problems

The most important thing I learned in the past 4 years of hacking my productivity, is to note what’s not working and getting rid of it immediately. If you’re forcing yourself to do something, then you’re not achieving your full potential. This is why I decided to make the jump and join a team so soon, the longer I waited the more time and potential I’d end up wasting.

 

What’s Next

Next week will be interesting, as I start tackling my new responsibilities. I’ve also planned a weekly schedule to keep ahead of all the stuff I need and want to do, so I’ll see how that will affect my weekly churn-out.

 

What I want you to take from this post, is to pay closer attention to what your heart is telling you. I’ve thought deeply and analyzed my own emotions to come to my “need a team” conclusion, and the benefits are already showing with my momentum suddenly on fire. So, next time you’re going through a whirlwind in your head, sit back, take a deep breath, and ask your heart What the heck do you want from me??