Daniel Marino

Work Habits

Everyone has different methods to getting their work done. Some wait to the last minute and cram it in an all-nighter. I myself don’t do to well under pressure like this and prefer to pace myself. There are other work habits I have that I find weird, but on the other hand, may not be so weird.

I love music, but can’t design or develop while it’s on. I find it too distracting. In fact, I was listening to music when I first started this post, and had to turn it off because I couldn’t concentrate on what I wanted to say. The style of music doesn’t matter either; it could be Metal (which it usually is) or Classical. I still wouldn’t be able to concentrate.

The longer I’m stuck on a problem, especially with developing, the least likely I am to solve it that day. This one really bugs me because I’m very persistent about solving problems, and start calling myself bad names, pound my desk, and complain to everyone about my problem until I finally throw in the towel. I’ll then revisit the problem the next morning when I come in, and no word of a lie, I solve the problem within 15 minutes. Not only that, the solution tends to be really easy or a mistype.

I’m on and off with doing thumbnails and wireframes. Though I’ve noticed that the more I’ve been doing them, the better my work/logic seems to be. So I’ve been forcing myself to do them, at least with large-scale projects.

A very bad habit I do have is when I get stuck on a problem or feel unmotivated is I tend to surf the web – or do anything other then the work I’m supposed to be doing. That’s usually when my blog posts get written (including this one) or updates are made to my site.

This could be a good or a bad habit depending on how you look at it: When I’m on a roll with something, I can’t let it go. Sometimes this causes me to go overboard or neglect work that needs to get done. At the same time, this is also when I tend to learn new things or really grasp what I’m working on. This is when I usually get my “Ah-Ha!” moments.

I’ve procrastinated long enough, so its back to work I go. I’d love to hear if others have any crazy work habits of their own.