It's a while since I had front-page posts abilities and I decided I could contribute with something that you may think is interesting or helpful.

So, here's something that helps me getting things done and may be useful for you all... I don't really know if this is well known or not, some of you may know it but whatever, I just decided to make a post to it to discuss and maybe introduce the rule to some people.

Basically, there is a thing called the 80/20 rule, and it says that most of your work comes from twenty percent of your productivity... You take twenty percent of your time, doing eighty percent of the work.

It basically means that you take more time polishing whatever you do, or in the case of animators, you take more time making every single line super smooth, than doing the actual raw work, it also counts for the time you spend procrastinating.

In animation, sometimes the timing and overall scripts are far more important than the actual animation, but animating takes a lot more of your time, and the polishing takes time but it's not always needed, you could use the saved time to work on another project. See "South Park" for instance, it's pretty simple but delivers, just like "The Life and Times of Tim" where they put more effort into writing, which is more important in those cases. (Of course there are animations that are just eye candy but that's another case. This example applies only for things with scripts)

But before you stone me to death thinking I'm defending taking shortcuts or farting out half assed unpolished projects like a maniac, I'm not, this is just an example of how some things are more important in some cases and needs more attention. By any means, don't take shortcuts, we should always try to improve our work in all ways possible. But this rule can be applied differently.

For instance, when I was at school, all my homework was done in the last awake hour of the previous day, I always rushed through it and ended up having a decent grade, but in cases where I needed to get A+, I had to waste a LOT more hours into it, but since I had the barebones of my work already done, it was much more easy and satisfying, I took more time doing that parts but my brain could relax a little because the important was done. Also, you can select what projects are more important to you using this rule.

So, that rule can be applied and it doesn't mean you will be taking shortcuts... At least for me, the harder part is to start something, but usually when I start, I keep going until I finish, and that rule helps me giving my initial boost, the 80 percent is more like repetitive work, you know, inbetweens, polishing, and can be done with relaxing music since you don't need to use your brain that much, I know that after I do the storyboard and writing I will have almost everything important done, but still will have a lot of work time ahead, at least it won't be that painful.
It is that little small burst of 20 percent of your energy that you need to get things in the right path and actually finish something good.

Also, if you keep in mind that your procrastination is included in the 80 percent part, you will procrastinate less and less.

I can't be clearer about it because my English is not that great, I hope it's not too confusing... I was wanting to post something useful in the frontpage for a while, I hope this is good enough and you won't disregard it because I'm unknown or something. Also I didn't want to make it too extense, but a quick google search can make the subject clearer for those interested.

So basically, stop being a lazyass, make a storyboard or animatic, write the script, the first step is always harder... With the bones of the project up, the rest will come easier.

Of course this is not a fail-proof thing and may vary or not work at all with you, but I just wanted to share this technique that may help someone someday.

That said, the title of this post is productivity TRICKS, so, Lemme know what you think or if there are productivity tricks that you use and would like to share.