Hello everyone! I’m an indie game dev form Brazil and I’ve been trying to develop my first game, and started the Finish It course, and got super excited to continue working on it again after months of serial procrastination. It’s my passion and I need to have it finished, and so I began taking my routines more seriously.
I don’t know if this forum is the right place to ask this kind of advice, but since it’s a productivity course, I decided to give it a go.
My boyfriend hasn’t been taking this shift so well. He’s curretly unemployed, and he texts me basically all the time. And while I am really excited to get productive again and continue this passion project I’ve been tracing for years, I don’t want to neglect him attention, but I can’t keep getting distracted…
So yeah, sorry if this was off-topic for the forum, it was more of a vent really. I figured I’d post it here if anyone had a similar dillema in the past. Hope you all are having a good time making your own games! :3
Hi @Raulboo!
This is quite a personal question, since there are very different ways to approach this dilema and they all depend on your specific situation, personality, etc.
For what I can understand from your text is that you are passionate about making games but you haven’t been taking it seriously for a while. In that regard, I can also understand that your boyfriend is also not seeing this as something serious, but more like a simple hobby.
So first of all, you need to ask yourself: Are you serious about becoming a developer or is this just a hobby?
Any answer to this question is the right one, but either way, if you are serious about spending more time developing your skills, then a good thing you can do is make an schedule and stick to it.
You need to learn how to be disciplined and actually put in the hours of work, which I think you are already doing 
This way, you can tell your boyfriend (or any person for that mater) to not disturb you while your working and at the same time they will have the peace of mind that you are going to spend time with them as well, later on.
So wrapping up, the most important things that can help you is have good discipline and take yourself and your working time seriously, as well as having an schedule.
I hope this helps 
Boa sorte com seus jogos!
Gael.
I agree with what @Indiegael said.
I’ve been there - having to divide my time between my project(s) and the other half, and my creatively-oriented friends who have girlfriends / wives/ husbands had or are having a very similar issue.
It is especially hard when your ‘other half’ or family member (like your parent etc) isn’t creatively inclined, and doesn’t do art / game development / writing (and so on), and doesn’t seem to fully understand, why do you need to do this thing instead of spending your time with them.
i think the key thing is to signal to your loved one(s) that you must do your thing because it makes you happy and fulfilled (among other things), and to divide your time between working time (because it actually is your WORK, even if it doesn’t pay atm or/and you have another job that pays) and a time to relax when you hang out with your loved one(s).
They must understand that it’s very important for you, and that spending your time on your project doesn’t mean that you don’t love them. Surely they have to understand that to focus properly you must cut off the messaging for a few hours. I remember the time when people had no cell phones, so the constant notification wasn’t a big issue back then lol
Best of luck with your projects, to whoever reads this!
Had almost forgotten about this thread, but these advices came in the right time. I’m still struggling with these issues ^^;
Thank you so much @Indiegael and @Milk_Bar_Prophet! Best of luck to you guys too <3