During previous LD events, I’ve tried to plan my weekend around getting just enough sleep that I can finish the event, but spend as much time as I can working. I usually aim to get ~8 hours sleep, with the other 40 hours working, and split the compo into two “days” – Saturday runs from the event start (~2am over here) until some time Saturday evening, then Sunday is from whenever I wake up till ~5am Monday, when all the submission and early voting is done.

But instead of working two-ish days which are 20-30 hours long and difficult to plan around, why not split those 40 total working hours into a regular working week? By standard planning assumptions, you’ll have five days of eight hours with 75-80% velocity – so about 6 hours of useful work and 2 hours staring out a window or gurning at Facebook. I’ve sketched up a working schedule that I’ll try out this event:

Sat 2am Event Start – Day One Sat 3am Sat 4am Sat 5am Break Sat 6am Day One Afternoon Sat 7am Sat 8am Sat 9am Break Sat 10am Day Two Sat 11am Sat 12pm Sat 1pm Break Sat 2pm Day Two Afternoon Sat 3pm Sat 4pm Sat 5pm Break Sat 6pm Sleep Sat 7pm Sleep Sat 8pm Sleep Sat 9pm Sleep Sat 10am Sleep Sat 11pm Sleep Sat 12am Sleep Sun 1am Sleep Sun 2am Day Three Sun 3am Sun 4am Sun 5am Break Sun 6am Day Three Afternoon Sun 7am Sun 8am Sun 9am Break Sun 10am Day Four Sun 11am Sun 12pm Sun 1pm Break Sun 2pm Day Four Afternoon Sun 3pm Sun 4pm Sun 5pm Break Sun 6pm Day Five Sun 7pm Sun 8pm Sun 9pm Break Sun 10am Day Five Afternoon Sun 11pm Sun 12am Mon 1am Break Mon 2am Submission Hour

At a guess, Day One is planning & prototyping, Day Two is core mechanics, Days Three-Four are content (graphics & audio) and additional features and Day Five is playtesting, polish & bug-fixing. Each break is a chance to stretch my legs, clear my head and check my progress, so hopefully I’ll have more time to spend on areas I usually skip (like audio) and not burn all my hours on one thing.

Has anyone else tried a work schedule like this?