time management
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YouTube can tell you to stop watching and go to sleep
YouTube's bedtime reminder feature is available on iPhone and Android as of today.
Timeful is a new calendar app that reinvents how you organize your time
Timeful (free) has launched today after a long development and beta phase. The app tries to capture everything that vies for your precious time and stores it in one place. It can import and sync your current calendars from iCloud, Google, Yahoo or Mirosoft Exchange. The app blends to-do's, events and what it calls "habits," which the developers define as a good practice you want to develop. When you enter anything into Timeful, you are asked about its priority and when the best time to remind you about that item is. It can be a specific time, or even something more vague like a weekday morning. There is a "frequency bar" to regulate how often you are flagged on lesser events. Timeful also wants to know when you sleep, so you won't be alerted during that time. The app comes out of a lot of research on how we use our time, so Timeful makes smart suggestions, rather than giving you alerts by rote. One of the people behind Timeful is Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, an expert in human fallibility and short-term thinking, so you get the idea that Timely isn't just another calendar app or To-Do list. "We've successfully applied technology to improve our lives in many domains – search, finance, music, shopping, you name it. And yet we haven't yet applied it to optimize the use of our most scarce resource – time – and there's so much algorithms and behavioral science have to offer," said Timeful CEO and co-founder Jacob Bank in a conference call we had last week. "Our first application is based on the simple observation that what doesn't make it onto your schedule is less likely to get done. By making it easier to put everything that vies for your time onto your schedule, including by automatically suggesting good times to do things, we hope to make you more productive and less stressed." Using Timeful is pretty easy, and there are some tutorial videos you can watch to fully understand how the app works. I was easily able to import my iCloud calendar, and I could decide if there were some categories I did not want to display or sync. What can become a problem with an app like this is that it takes a lot of time to enter items properly, which will, of course, have an impact on your time. It's also easy to get over-nagged by any app, which can also be a distraction. The Timeful developers seem to have thought about these things, and a lot of the scheduling and suggestion times happen behind the scenes and are driven by algorithms that should reduce distractions. Over time, Timeful learns what you do and when you like to do it, which will generate more accurate and timely suggestions. I think this app is worth a look for people who have busy schedules. Even retired people may like how it organizes your time. Timeful demonstrates some fresh thinking, and the app is sure to grow and improve. Although Timeful has some location awareness, I'd like to see it get more granular in that respect, knowing more than whether I am at home or work. Timeful requires iOS 7 or later. It is not a universal app, but will run scaled on any iDevice. The company is also working on a web-based version so you can interact with your calendar from anywhere. That version is expected to appear quickly.
Growing Up in WoW: One-third of a lifetime shared with Azeroth
A few months ago, I received an email from the kind of player who sets off all sorts of bells and whistles for a feature writer like me -- a WoW fan who's integrated the game into a balanced, engaged, lively lifestyle. If you've ever found yourself shaking your fist and snarling at teenaged players as a group -- Get off my lawn! -- then you've probably never met a young player who's got his stuff together quite so well as Zukkai of Area 52 (US). I'm 18, I'm a raid leader for one of the 10man teams in our guild, and I've been playing since I was 12. In December, I can claim that I've played WoW for a third of my life. Along the way I've been in school full time, and will be attending university in the fall. When I first started playing, my parents regulated my play time. Once I started controlling my play time, I had to learn about my own time management and how to balance WoW with RL priorities. I've also learned how to deal with the social stigmas of playing WoW through high school, including how to explain to your friends that you might not be able to go somewhere because you have to raid. I've managed to grow up right along side the game, and I think playing it for so long has taught me a couple of valuable lessons along the way. I've had stretches where I'd be playing 4-5 hours a day and I've had stretches where I've toyed with quitting, but I've kept going for 6 years. I've never had massive amounts of time to play, but I've managed to put together my Insane title and collect a large sum of pets and mounts, as well as raid at the heroic level. Fixated on gaming? Hiding away from life? Not in the least. Our conversation with Zukkai reveals a player for whom World of Warcraft is just another pastime -- albeit one that's filled a full one-third of his lifetime. Moving in and out of WoW with the rest of life's rhythms is as natural as breathing, as Zukkai demonstrates in this look at life for one of the many players today who are growing up in Azeroth.
The Mog Log Extra: Tips for a Final Fantasy XIV beginner
We're all kind of beginners with the new version of Final Fantasy XIV. Some of us have high-level characters already, but none of us has years of experience with the game. At best, you have memories of how things worked in the last beta test or two. But there's still a difference between having a character from version 1.0 dripping with high-level items and having a fresh guy or gal stepping off the boat into Limsa. Fortunately, the game's tutorials now do a solid job of introducing you to how the game works. But there are still some tips and tricks to consider, and it's with that in mind that I present this column. If you're new to the game completely or even just an occasional dabbler in the previous beta tests, here's some advice to help you out during your first steps.
Breakfast Topic: Are you starved for WoW time?
Spoken like a proper gamer, today's Breakfast Topic is less a question of "Are you starved for WoW time?" but rather "How much more WoW time do you need?" Let's face it, whether or not you take your recommended daily dose of dailies every day without fail, there's always more to do in Azeroth. WoW has arrived at that ripe, juicy stage that tempts even the most dedicated players with one more bite. But despite the availability of a playstyle to suit almost every player's schedule, most players seem to end up wistfully pining for at least a little more play time. Do you? Do you feel that you have enough time to get into everything you'd like to try, enjoy, and accomplish in WoW? What would you do if you had more time to play? If you feel short on time, is that shortage a short-term situation, or is it simply the shape of your life right now?
The Drama Mamas guide to going AFK
Life happens; we all get that. But should your life be happening to the 24 other people in your raid group? We (and your 24 raidmates) think not. After all, if you're here to play World of Warcraft, why do you keep going AFK? The need for and the etiquette of going away from the keyboard (AFK) was stronger in WoW's earlier days. During classic WoW, 5-manning places like Blackrock Depths was an all-night affair. Players were more forgiving of a quick dash to the bathroom, and groups doing longer content tended to schedule natural breaks along the way. Today's WoW is a much more terse affair. Scenarios, group instances, and raids are likely to be over long before your bladder is. It's not so difficult to simply plan ahead or wait for a group to come to a natural conclusion. Yet people don't always do that. Like That Guy who's always texting and checking his Twitter feed instead of looking you in the eye during a conversation, That Guy in game is likely to wander AFK just when you need him the most. Tuning out the people you're with, online or off, simply is not socially acceptable behavior. (You've heard what they're calling those tuned-out types who'll be wearing Google Glass, right? It's not a complimentary term.) The best way to handle going AFK is to avoid it in the first place. For the rest of those moments when something comes while you're grouping that's beyond your control, let's look at the best ways of managing the interruption and getting you back into the game.
Drama Mamas: Time to stop tanking?
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. Our email address is having technical difficulties. If you would like to send us a letter to be answered in our column, please email to dramamamas@gmail.com for now. On to this week's letter. Your recent article on Time Management has me considering if I need to change roles in the game. I'm the main tank for my small 10 man guild. We raid two nights a week. We are currently working on Horridon one night, and going back to HoF/ToES the 2nd night to help some members get better gear. If I don't play, 9 other people don't get to have fun. I also feel a certain responsibility to my guild to have the best gear I can get which means putting in a ton of time into WoW on our non-Raid nights. The thing is I love playing WoW. I love my guild. I love tanking. It's a blast and a great way to shake off the stresses of my day.
The video gamer's guide to time management
Aside from the lingering social stigma that tells us that hours immersed in an interactive game world are somehow less acceptable than hours connected to an intravenous TV drip, most of us have come to accept that video gaming has achieved full-fledged hobby status among its aficionados. Like most hobbies, it's a hungry one. Even in console games that spin a story to an inevitable conclusion, replay and achievements and hard modes and alternative endings beckon. With a subscription MMO game like World of Warcraft, the entertainment is designed never to end. Unfortunately, your supply of time to play is not equally boundless. Those hopeless, choked nights when you fear there is no possible way to hack your way into the thicket of tasks waiting to tear you to shreds come dawn are no reason to cut off your game subscription entirely. We'll show you why, and we'll follow up with tips and resources that help you keep all the plates spinning at once -- including some well-deserved game time.
Storyboard: Playing the role and playing the game
Roleplayers are usually keenly aware of the split between roleplaying in the game and actually playing the game. Roleplaying does not tend to play nicely with the actual game, see. The game expects you to perform a variety of tasks to accomplish things, and none of those tasks is accomplished when you're sitting in town and talking about metaplot elements with RPers. At the same time, you want to roleplay, and roleplaying is not really accomplished by just playing through the game's content and reaching the level cap. You have to strike a balance between the two, something that's often very difficult when you compare the nature of the game to the nature of the characters you play within the game.
The Daily Grind: How much gaming do you manage on a daily basis?
I spent a weekend away from MMORPGs recently, and while that's somewhat unusual, it's not as unusual as it used to be. Despite popular assumptions to the contrary, the life of a pro game blogger sometimes involves less gaming and more, well... other stuff tangentially related to gaming but more directly in line with administrative duties common to more traditional professions. While I still have occasional binge gaming marathons, my average daily time is down considerably. What about you, Massively readers? How much uninterrupted gaming time do you manage on a daily basis, and is it enough? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Drama Mamas guide to teen video gaming and World of Warcraft
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. Lisa and I love it when parents parent and teens try to reason with them rather than just mindlessly rebel. To the Drama Mamas, I am a teen male who plays WoW and has for about a year and a half. I enjoy playing and have a joined a good guild with several good irl friends and enjoy the game immensely, however my parents don't seem to have the same perspective. My parents limit the time I can spend on the game to about one hour every day which is not something I am particularly fond of. I may not be the Mr. Outdoors my father hoped for, but I get good grades and am not involved in any of the bad things that occur in school or in my age group.
Dark Legends levels up its vamps, grants them allies
A vampire's life isn't just about torrid teen romance and counting from one to 10; it's a full-time career to battle back the other forces of the night and keep all of the goodies to yourself. Fortunately, Spacetime Studios is helping out the fanged population by increasing the level cap in Dark Legends to 26 and removing the energy requirement for 3-D missions. Dark Legends' most recent update doesn't just stop there. The game now has two additional campaigns, a cool flame aura for level 23-plus characters, and nightly rewards for regular players. Spacetime's added an allies system to the game as well. Allies are computer companions that are unlocked during the campaign. These characters can then be ordered to do one of three different jobs, each of which has a time requirement and a reward attached. Jobs do need to be collected by players within a certain window, otherwise some of the reward will be taken away.
99 Games focuses on time management genre, looks ahead
This week's Game Developer's Conference was, I believe, the second time I've meet up with 99 Games, an independent, India-based studio with quite an iOS library. The company has found an audience with time management games. These ask you to manage virtual customers, moving them from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Prison Mayhem is a popular example from 99 Games's catalog (Diner Dash is another example of the genre, though not from 99 Games). Founder Rohith Bhat says the company has been developing on its own time mangement game engine, which will let them develop games quickly and then port them to Android within "less than a month." That may seem a little mechanical, but this genre is set in stone. The games only require players (who tend to skew female, and sometimes even a little older) to execute a few simple taps and swipes to keep the game going. Therefore, 99 Games can crank these out and appeal to many markets with the same genre. The company's latest title is called Night Club Mayhem. It requires you to move clubgoers through a series of nightclubs, sending them from the entryway to the coffee bar, the "mocktail bar" and finally the dance floor. To play, you simply drag a customer over to a certain part of the screen as requested, and then tap on them to take care of whatever they need. Bhat says he is working on some minigames with a little more action, like choosing the right stamp for the nightclub, or serving the food to customers. However, too much complexity will lose that casual audience that these games need to stay alive. There's both a story mode (in which a young woman needs to build up her father's club empire over time), and an endless mode to play with. Things are very business-as-usual for this genre. Bhat isn't wasting any time putting his engine to work, either. There's yet another time management game due out from 99 in another three months. The company showed me two other games they're working on, both which add just a little more innovation. Tito's Shell is the more intriguing title. It's heavily influenced by physics puzzle games like Cut the Rope, in that you need to make some physical objects interact to try and connect a round turtle named Tito with his circular shell. But the key component here is that objects can be connected together. Once a line is drawn between them, the line will pull them together. Those lines can be used in all sorts of ways. Sometimes Tito can be pulled to his shell, and sometimes the lines keep objects from going off the screen the wrong way. In one level, connected lines open up doors and pull up platforms, pushing Tito and his shell together. Unfortunately, the interface looks a little clunky (which makes sense, given that this is 99 Games' first entry into a genre like this), but there are some good ideas. Tito's Shell should be out next month. Finally, I saw a title called Dream Star that should also be out next month, and it's the company's first entry into social freemium gaming. The idea is that you're building up a character into a movie star. In order to succeed, you'll need to use the game's freemium engine to do all the things movie stars would normally do, like work out, take on jobs as models and actors, get seen at clubs and go shopping. They even get caught by the paparazzi. There are a few minigames too, but most of Dream Star is just customizing your character, and then clicking away on the various activities (at least as long as the in-game energy stat will allow you to). This one seems targeted at a younger female audience. Most older gamers probably won't look twice at it, but 99 Games could build a significant following if the right players find this one out. Bhat has laid claim to his time management titles. They may not appeal to all players (and certainly they're not doing anything too innovative), but there's definitely a place on the App Store for those. We'll have to see if 99 Games' other experiments in various popular mobile genres pan out in the next few months or so.
Officers' Quarters: The importance of finding 'me time'
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available from No Starch Press. Something most nonofficers don't realize is the amount of time that officers spend dealing with guild business when we're otherwise off the clock. Nights with no official events can seem like a great time to log in and enjoy a relaxing solo play session. You plan to work on an alt, level a profession, or earn some achievements. Then a member whispers you about a loot issue, someone else needs a few alts invited, a third member wants to talk strategy for the next raid, and so on. Suddenly your night is gone and you haven't managed to finish anything you actually set out to do -- especially relax. This week, one guild leader wants to know how to carve out some time for herself. Hi Scott, I assumed leadership of our social/casual guild early in the winter, and with the help of two senior officers have resurrected that which was once essentially dead. We have enjoyed the process of breathing life into our little community, and welcomed new guildies with open arms. As the weeks passed interactions between the members increased, guild chat started being used, dungeon runs and retro-raids started happening again, and each week more players entered the fold. Then with the addition of the spouse and friends of one of our guildmates, we embarked on a raiding career. We are now 5/8 DS 10N, and run regularly two or three nights a week. As is so often the case, we now have more DPS that are interested in raiding than spots available, so we have stepped up recruiting to find enough raid-ready people so that we can start a second raid group. I sometimes find this process exciting and rewarding, but more and more I am feeling overwhelmed. In addition to raiding and leading the guild, I am also an extremely serious alto-holic. I love questing. I have all the professions covered (some more than once), and on top of seeking out and collecting all the professional recipes, I also collect mounts and pets. I don't mind putting my responsibilities to the guild and the raid team before my own playtime, but I am finding it harder and harder, with the growth of the guild, to carve out any time for myself.
The Summoner's Guidebook: It's time to get serious!
One of the things that was baffling for me as a League of Legends noob was the overall tempo of PvP games. In bot matches, I got used to staying in my lane, and I was never sure when it was a good time to meet up with my team or go for objectives. I actually didn't really understand what "mid game" and "late game" actually meant. However, on Summoner's Rift, those terms actually have real meaning. You have different goals in the early, mid, and late game, and if you try to continue laning when you're in the midgame, you're going to run into huge problems, as the entire enemy team is probably ganging up to come and kill you. This week, we're going to talk about the flow of the game on Summoner's Rift, and when you should be switching up your game to accomplish different things.
The Daily Grind: Are MMOs your main hobby?
This week is a big one for fantasy fans, as the fifth volume of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire cycle has finally arrived in bookstores (six years after its predecessor, no less). Since there's quite a bit of overlap between fans of fantasy literature and MMORPGs, and since most MMOs are fairly time-consuming, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that a few of you may be seeing less of your favorite game than normal this week. Whether you're making a long-awaited return to the world of Westeros, or you're feverishly turning the pages of the first four volumes in an effort to catch up, today's Daily Grind is all about budgeting your hobby time. Specifically, do you play MMOs at the expense of other hobbies or do you occasionally set the games aside? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Storyboard: Time is not on your side
I don't know about the rest of you, but these days it sometimes seems like I just don't have the time to roleplay any longer. Don't get me wrong -- I love roleplaying with a passion normally reserved for romantic partners, or in rare cases, a particularly awesome game. (Or potential romantic partners within a game, but there's a time and place to talk about Merrill, and it's not here.) But by any deity you care to name, roleplaying can be a time-consuming and tedious affair. It's not such a big deal when you're in college and your primary responsibilities consist of actually attending your stupid Thursday class this week, but at this point, I'm lucky if I'm logging in by 8 p.m. and I might be up for another three hours at best. That being said? I still find the time to get a lot of roleplaying in along with playing the actual game, and it requires a delicate dance between saving time and glossing over the unnecessary. So today's column, coming right before the one-year mark, is all about finding the time to actually sit down and roleplay in a functional fashion while still getting to sleep and shower.
Breakfast Topic: How do you make time for WoW?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. There is such a wide variety of WoW players. Everyone from college students to 70-year-old gaming grandmothers play. Some people play for an hour or two every few days. Other people play for hours every night. No matter what your play schedule is, you more often than not have to find time to play, and that can be hard. School, work, family, friends, other commitments ... All those things and more make a huge impact in finding time to play WoW without interruption. Making time to play can feel like planning a rocket launch sometimes. If you're a full-time college student, you spend a good portion of your day in class, you have to study almost daily, and when exams roll around, you live in your books. Someone with a full-time job and a family might as well feel like planning a rocket launch. There are so many things to do in one night that you can't even begin to list them all. I knew a nurse who was working full time in the trauma room of the ER, going to school full time and had three kids. She was not only in one of the best raiding guilds on the server but also managed to do arena and go just over a 1,900 rating. I asked her how she made time for everything. Her answer? She took her laptop to work when she knew there would be a slow night and could do arenas. She would rotate on her nights off with the kids. Her husband was also a raider, so they would take turns getting the kids to bed for the night. Luckily, they were both gamers, so it was easier to find time to play. How do you make time to play WoW? Are you limited to a few hours every night, or do you plan for a weekend of WoW?
Breakfast Topic: Do you play other games besides WoW?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. 2011 looks to be a great year for gamers. The return of Duke Nukem. Portal 2. BioWare's trifecta of Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3 and The Old Republic. A new Final Fantasy. A new Legend of Zelda (and a remake of the greatest game ever made, Ocarina of Time -- flame on, but you know it's true). The return of Kid Icarus. The already-released Dead Space 2. There is no shortage of great stuff to play. And all the while, sitting smugly on my desktop and the desktop of 12 million others worldwide, is that little golden "W." When the Steam holiday sales rolled around, I found myself drowning in a sea of backlogged games. The past five years that I've played WoW, I have seen very little of games outside of it. So when I should get sucked into Mass Effect, I realized there was a massive (no pun intended) collection of great games out there I had missed! I must play them all. The challenge then was playing these other games and still playing WoW -- a balancing act I have yet to master. With the smorgasbord of excellence awaiting gamers in 2011, how will you find yourself sneaking time outside of Azeroth? Will you succumb to the deluge of games and break away from Azeroth entirely for a time, or will you find ways to incorporate WoW and other games into your gaming schedule?
MMO Family: Mind your massively multiplayer manners
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. Kids are like sponges, sure -- old saying is old. But are online manners something you really want to leave to chance? Are the interactions your kids so intently follow online the manners you want them soaking up and using themselves? As parents, we know that the habits and attitudes that kids pick up today are what we'll find coming right back at us tomorrow. Teens who are used to trolling in games and forums will have a hard time modulating to a less strident tone in a business meeting. Kids who excuse a lack of scruples with "whatever -- it's only the internet" are due for a big surprise when a thoughtless instant message or careless lack of response to an email slams doors in their faces later in life. As parents who game, we all have hot buttons that set us off: the guy who always shows up late to raids, beggars, you name it. The point is: Have you talked to your kids yet about these behaviors? Are you explicitly (by both word and example) helping them not to grow up to be That Guy? I'm pretty sure we don't need a primer in online etiquette here at Massively, but I don't think it would hurt to share some of the things we wish Those Other Parents had taught their kids before turning them loose in our games. I'll share my dirty dozen after the break -- won't you share your own in the comments?
