Patrick Stoddart

7.00 AM

Alarm rings. I am NOT a morning person. Alarm rings again 5 minutes later. Righto, fight myself to get out of bed. Make a coffee, check the latest rubbish online, maybe have some breakfast.

8.00 AM

Jump in the shower, get ready and leave the house. Most often I will walk to the train station, about 1.5km away. Jump on the replacement bus because the line is shut for rail works,  switch onto the train halfway, and get into work at around 9.30.

9.30 AM

I’ll check my emails and get rid of most of the noise that will distract me throughout the day. This is the most important part for me, as it allows me to focus purely on the development tasks of my project.

10.00 AM

Join the daily stand up for the current simulation app I’m working on as a Game Designer. This is where we discuss what we did yesterday, what we’re doing today, and if we have anything preventing us from completing the work. We will also discuss the progress of the project, how we’re tracking over the 2-week “sprint”, and receive feedback from the client on the daily. We use Trello, a Kanban board tool, which allows us to track all tasks, provide regular updates to the clients, and visualise the progress.

10.00 AM

Coffee time!

10.30 AM

Development power session. This is the time that I’ll start chewing through the tasks for the day. I’ll plug in my earphones, get into Unity Game Engine, and pick up where I left yesterday. For these 90 minutes, I will ignore everything else and really focus on producing some solid results.

12.00 PM

Time for testing! During this hour, I will test what has been developed, talk with my team in Sydney, get feedback from my colleagues here in Melbourne, and make minor changes.​

1.00 PM

Lunchtime (if I remember to stop!). I will NEVER eat at my desk. I believe it’s important to stop, get away, and think about what comes next. Sometimes, if I’m really worked up about a bug or issue, I’ll jump on Overwatch, a first-person- shooter video game, for a round or two during the break. It’s important to look after your mental health.

1.45 PM

Back into the development! This development time is not so focused, but more around problem-solving, look and feel, as well as end-user experience. I come at this session from a very customer-centric focus.

3.30 PM

Afternoon stand-up with the client, much the same as the morning one, but this time suits the product owner much better. We aim to be flexible and adaptive, to get the most value out of our time with the client.

3.45 PM

Development power hours. This time is back to 110% focus. These are my power hours, so I complete my best work in this timeframe.

6.00 PM

Clean-up for the day. Reply to any emails. Move tasks to validation or done. Final tests for the day. WALK OUT THE DOOR, SWITCH OFF, plug in my earphones, and drown out the world on my way home. I leave my work at work and my home life at home. This doesn’t always pan out, but 99% of the time, I’m proud to say that I can maintain this balance.

7.00 PM

Cook tea, sit down, chill out with a couple of episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

8.00 PM

Jump on Overwatch and absolutely destroy the competition. Completely wind down from work, but I end up getting wound up because I’m way too competitive. Yes I play too much Overwatch. When I find a game I love, I’ll sink a thousand hours or more into it

10.00 PM

Pick up my fiancé from work. Re-connect after a long day. Talk about stuff, never work, but funny things that may have happened throughout the day. We always make each other laugh, and I reckon that’s pretty damn important in a relationship.

11.00 PM

Either some more Netflix, more talking or more Overwatch. Then time to crash and do it all over again!