   Priorities and Time Management
  I'm having some serious problems with managing my time and getting my priorities right. I have lots of stuff that I would like to get done and to learn but I'm not sure where to start or what is most important. Easiest way to do this is lay stuff out in a list:Stuff I want to learnMore C++A graphics libraryPerlAJAXStuff I'm in the middle of learningC++SDL   Now I'm wondering what is worth learning, what I should just not bother with and how I should divide up my time between things. There's a couple of things that I can't change like school and study times but I end up with about 10-15 hours on the computer each week. Not much but I'm sure I can get by with it.   What I'm really looking for is what sort of stuff should I be learning for game programming, Web development and programming challenges as they are my three main goals.  So how much time should I be spending on different things and what should I be spending time on?    Thanks!   
  I agree, I struggle with many of the same issues right now. Except swap out programming with art related fields/studies.I'd really really like to learn how to draw well, do good 2D design work, learn 3D modeling and texturing, and hone my skills as a level designer up to "par". And that's only scratching the surface, there's many creative activies that I would love to do and engage in in order to expand my horizons and such.On the other hand my time simply doesn't permit all of this... and I don't know exactly what I should focus on at what times. I really want (and feel I need to) to develop my traditional art skills and spend serious time developing those before I can up the ante on my design related work. But I'm afriad of becoming a "jack of all trades, master of none" too. If I try and expand art/creative horizons will I just "waste time" I could be spending doing design work and water me down to being a jack of all trades?   ;  perl and AJAX are more related to web development, although you can also create a website in C++.Web development is a world of itself.I would suggest PHP and Mysql instead of perl and AJAX, if you want to get a taste of web dev. They are faster to learn.After trying if you don't enjoy web dev. Leave it and concentrate only on desktop development.It's not good to be a Jack of all Trades. But it's good to allocate some time to try a bit of everything, while concentrating most of the time on your specialization.   ;Quote:Original post by KorJaxBut I'm afriad of becoming a "jack of all trades, master of none" too. If I try and expand art/creative horizons will I just "waste time" I could be spending doing design work and water me down to being a jack of all trades?I used to have this fear; but in my experience I don't think there's any such thing as "wasted time" as long as you are being productive, focused, and learning - by which I mean learning something properly, not just how to hack it. There is a skill to learning things; and I think by learning lots of things you practice the skill of learning which can set you up to learn anything you want, really! When you program, you're developing problem solving, deduction, optimization, thinking algorithmically... which directly transfers to every field I can think of. A lot of the skills that have set me up for success in my job now I learned at music school... which had "nothing" to do with computers, but everything to do with organization, planning, people skills and lots of music-theory = math. Same with drawing. I'm lucky - my girlfriend is easily a "master" artist/illustrator and I've always drawn a bit, but now I'm getting more pro-tips and learning things from her. Will I ever be an animator/designer/professional artist? No, but doing art causes me to feel a big mental "crunch" as I do it - especially when approaching how to represent form, light, etc. I find it helps me to go draw on lunchbreaks at work. I come back refreshed, with new ideas about how to approach the problems I've been staring at all day.That may be a personal thing, but I doubt it - I think your subconscious is always processing information and solving problems, but you have to keep the brain running so that it operates as such. By stimulating yourself with other activities outside of your main focus, imho you are actually improving your "main" skill.Now I'm trying to fill in gaps in my math knowledge until I can afford some more school! I don't think I'll ever be a physicist, but knowing a bit of something (as long as you understand the limits of the knowledge) only helps you become a master, knowing something does not harm you in anyway by diluting your skill-set!!!edit: A tip for you since you said you wanted to improve your traditional art skills. In my experience, the best way to rapidly improve your art skills is to get a book like this (may not be the best one, just the one that I have) copy every page into a sketchbook. Then go to life-drawing classes, as many as you can handle. Art and design are really the same anyway - with "traditional art" stroke width is controlled with your brush or pen pressure, but it still denotes something. With design, you're still denoting the same thing, but you're using a vector object - which is much more tweakable than a bold blop of india ink. I think design work basically = strong trad art skills + knowing how to use the software tastefully. You'll probably find that both areas approve in tandem./end derail;  Thanks I really appreciate the advice. But yeah, part of the problem is when I do something like draw or even read on my own time, I feel like it's precious free time I should spend doing my mod work I help out on, since I'm at school or work for a majority of the other time.I'll try to not worry so much about trying to taste it all :)   ;  @hiigara: I already know PHP and MySQL, along with (X)HTML and CSS. I'm looking to expand into other fields of web-dev but I don't really know where to start...   ;  soitsthateasy: As I recall, you mentioned in a thread, that you are 14 years old.Kids! You have plenty of time to waste! You whole f.cking adulthood will be about time management! Don't do this to yourself while you can afford not to!Live, take it easy, have fun!If you live so over consciously, that is the truth wasting your time/life. (Especially when you realize, that maybe programming is not for you). Don't make this huge mistake for your own sake.   ;  Yup, I'm 14... I'm also frustrated with not progressing as fast as I think I should or as fast as I want to. I'm a driven child and I want to make the most of the oppurtunities I am given. That's where the need for focus and time management comes in!   ;  I started programming when I was 19.Okay, that's my opinion, and I'm lived through a "midlife-crisis" like thing (I'm only 25), mainly because my wasted young ages. And I wasn't even so strict like you.You will progress when you are older, programming is one thing, but you have to take up other knowledge too (from school), and other experiences from life. You won't become a good programmer, if the only thing you do is programming.I'm very good problem solving (outstandingly), mainly because I tried things. It's about thinking, not learning. If you are open minded, you will be a good programmer, even if you are not so good at coding. I hope you get me.   ;  Yeah, I sure do understand you. I just get frustrated and annoyed when I feel like I'm wasting my time or my talents. I accept that I won't be as good as problem-solving compared to someone who is older than me. I hate missed oppurtunities nearly as much as I hate patronising people. I like to at least have the illusion that I'm treated the same and can do the same things as people much older than me...    Anyways, I've gone a bit of point here so...