Thanks for the post.

I follow a similar method, all comments I get from mentor critiques or from peers go into a list and then I just number all those things to reorder them, then usually draw a little “icon” for every group of notes – like a head icon for “facials”.
I love this part the most – striking them off one-by-one as I go finish them one at a time

Cheers!

Sounds like trying the “pomodoro” technique might help for helping you focus on different areas. Check it out:
http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

haven’t been using toggl for a while now.. I should get back into it! hopefully the system I decide on will allow some sort of task timing so i can do both together.

Thanks!

See this link for some parallels between GTD/ZTD
http://zenhabits.net/2007/04/zen-to-done-ztd-the-ultimate-simple-productivity-system/

Check out the blogger’s book new book:
http://thepowerofless.com/book/

Very much applicable in life and animation.

Adding the extra “@Body, @face” is a really cool thing.

sometimes, I did the list of things to correct and often I changed things, that later I have to change again, because I moved a parent control after the child ! (stupid boy! )

cheers.

I have just started reading this book, around 10 pages down and considering your post, I am so eager to read the entire book.

Your idea of breaking tasks down, adding context and energy level can indeed be a breakthru in terms of workflow and having a better management of time at hand. Tags like BODY/FACIAL/FINESSE and so on can be super useful for animators in focusing on the most important things first.

What can be challenging is that, what if the context is BODY and energy required is HIGH, then getting to it can come with crossing many procrastination barrier since sometimes we may not be in the best of energy levels and at the same time this task has more priority than others.

Anyways, I will definitely keep a shot at this and see how it goes.

So do you use pen and paper for this kind of GTD, or any applications ?

Thanks for this fantastic insight ! Cheers!

The idea of putting “energy” into the list is good, in fact usually I do what I want to do first. For example while I am working on the body sometimes I feel like I need to do a first pass of the lipsync because I am “in that mood”, so I do that first because I feel like it’s easier to do it, and I do it faster and without much “energy”, and when I am done I go back to the body with a freshier mind as well and more energy. So I think that is another good habit for us animators.

Robbie

150 frames a day is quite hard. It’s often the first clear idea that is in the shot. We don’t have time to explore new ideas, or once every 3 or 4 shot.
How can GTD be used in such an industry to help me focus all day and still can be more creative and bring new things to the shots?

Matt

Another thing you can add is the idea of “energy”. Figure out how much energy you need to be able to address those notes, and then do the right notes at the right time of day. If you can totally cruz through body mechanics, make sure you do them at a time when you’re okay with not focusing as much. If you have to concentrate for facial, make sure to address those notes when you’re in the mood to concentrate.

luckily I’m using propritary software at work that saves all the time.. so even if it crashes I usually don’t loose any work.

When I was using Maya, I got in the habbit of hitting ctrl+s every time I made an important change.. sometimes that was every minute, sometimes every 10 seconds. It was literally like “set key, set key, save, set key, save, set key, set key, set key, save”. That way I never lost that much data.

Thanks for sharing this new method, it sounds very interesting.

I have never heard of it before today, but I think I have been using it (without knowing) for a while now when I am working on my animations.
Everytime I get feedback from the director or other animators I usually make a list of fixes I need to do like you said, and usually that list is quite messy because it has everything not in a logical order.

Then I put some x’s next to each note to remember what to do first, what’s more important gets 3 x’s (body), then the face gets 2 x’s and the finesse gets only one. That way everything is much more clear to me and I think it helps me better understand how much time I need to spend on each fix depending on how much time I have to do them.

So I think that is a good method, of course the one you described from the book it’s even more precise and less messy. I will give it a shot and let you know, but I am sure it helps clear your mind.

Robbie

Jason I have a personal question for you. How do you face the fact of program crushes. It is so annoying sometimes, specially for the person like me who always forget to save. Then BOOO! 2 hours of works gone..
I am so bugged..
What happened then, I have less patience keep doing the work..
I reckon that happen to everyone, thought I am curious what other people would do after that..

Wenny

it’s a slippery slope to middle management This is a nice breakdown of David Allen’s system. I need to re-read that book now that my b12 levels are back up.

Scott