End of day routine?

[nickdymond]

Do people have any end of day routines that they stick to? A way to perhaps relax a little and get a sense of closure on the day's work? It might be admin, emails, games, note-taking, whatever.

This is something that was a innate requirement in previous jobs I've had (cleaning, sorting the till etc.) and it felt like something that helped the working day have more shape to it, but it's something which has to be self-imposed when working on your own.

I've tried to enact this a few times working in the past but it never sticks - previously working from a studio in town there might be a few games after work, perhaps a drink and if not then at least a chat and the walk home to wind-down. I feel it's something that can help separate work/life a little and I was curious if other people had something they do before they finish work each day.

[chrob]

Something that's helped me greatly (when I can remember to do so!) is set an alarm on my phone for 2 hours from logoff. At that moment I evaluate: "Am I going to commit, or will it wait?" to avoid a checkin-and-run situation where I'm pulling up at home and get a buildbot "Build Failure" and freaking out about being "that guy."

That sounds like a lot but when the editor takes about that long...it is what it is. With those remaining two hours, I'll go into non-technical work. Usually I'll run out the clock on sound design or in Wwise - but nothing gets put into the game engine. When I don't have too much work in sound design land, I'll respond to non-urgent emails, update docs, meetings related to work that's not[/] the current sprint, etc. and sometimes just shoot the breeze with my colleagues.

Truthfully though, it's been a lot harder to maintain that work-life separation ever since COVID hit though. Definitely curious to see other people's strategies.

[nickdymond]

Something that's helped me greatly (when I can remember to do so!) is set an alarm on my phone for 2 hours from logoff. At that moment I evaluate: "Am I going to commit, or will it wait?" to avoid a checkin-and-run situation where I'm pulling up at home and get a buildbot "Build Failure" and freaking out about being "that guy."

I really like this idea of an alarm and buffer period at the end of the day. I guess the 'commit or not' is more acute when your working on large projects with bigger teams or deeper in the code. In my situation it's just me on the audio and I'm rarely doing anything that will break the build. Which in some ways is great, but it means I don't have those externalities that force me to make that choice.

I've tried similar strategies in the past with admin/emails but I'm usually pretty drained by then and it's easy to leave it until the morning and keep on working on audio. I wonder if 30 minutes of unrelated sound design or patch-making, something fun but still productive that I can use to wind-down a bit might be something to try.