Hey, it's no longer 2020, and we can all be excited about that! In the process of leaving that year, I had an epiphany (something I do quite regularly, though often the surprise is something everybody else already knew - maybe this is too!): I was working very hard on how to get myself to work, and I suddenly realized other people - ones with real jobs - don't have that problem. If I had a job at McDonald's, I'd go in, and I'd do the job until quitting time. No questions, except if I was sick. I wouldn't like it, but I'd do it, because I'd be accountable to doing it. Just like everybody else!
So that was my brilliant idea. Having a real job. So now I come in at 9am to my office, and I have to work until 11am (yep, 2 whole hours*), 4 days a week (Friday is a 1-hour work session where I change to being the boss, and doing admin stuff like this blog right here, and plan the next week for my employee). I can't schedule appointments during that time, I can't 'not feel like it', it just is a fact of life. Of course, I've only been at it for a week and already had it heavily disrupted by a power outage followed by a white supremacist coup on Wednesday, plus a pre-planned appointment on Thursday, but I made up all the missing hours and I won't be booking any more coups or appointments during work hours.
So far it feels more solid than my previous attempts. Instead of wondering how to get myself to feel like doing work, I just do it, because it's required. I may be slow or ineffective, but I can't say "this isn't working" and decide I have to play Fenyx Rising instead (it's good!). It remains to be seen whether my employee will ever figure out that there are no consequences for failure. Hopefully the emotional consequences will count.
My first week of work has not resulted in a ton, but that makes sense being only 8 hours total. I fixed up aiming of the turrets so they properly target the lowest enemy in their aim range (but will fire if anybody is in their sights, as they rotate towards the intended target), and I've begun making the 'final' version of the tower building menu. Got hung up on that a while, as UI in Unreal is an awkward beast. I think it is in every pre-made system. The only easy UI work I've ever done is when I hack together my own stuff because it doesn't have to be flexible for use in every scenario.
No screenshots for you! Deal with it!
* Why so lazy? The key to making a habit stick is to make it so easy you can't fail at it. You can always ramp up later, and fall back to the level that you can succeed at if it doesn't work. If you go big, you fail early on and throw the whole system away. A process I am familiar with. Also: lazy!
