UA Without Burnout: Productivity Hacks That Actually Work
In today’s gaming industry, UA managers are juggling more hats than ever.
From the classic UA with “only” campaign management, to diving deeper into data, creatives, product topics, and navigating strategic initiatives. Even newly-acquired AI expertise is supposed to help us be more productive, not just with the current tasks, but in order to be able to deliver more.
Studies like those from the WHO & Harvard Business Review show that poor work-life balance directly impacts mental health and long-term performance.
How can we maintain this pace without burning out?
And how do we ensure our effectiveness doesn’t come at the cost of our well-being?
We’re asking you, Gamigion community, to reflect on these critical questions.
A Quick Health Check
Looking at your past four weeks, how many weekends or late evenings did you spend working?
Prolonged periods of such work might indicate a slippery road towards poor work-life balance and potential burnout.
Foundations of Personal Productivity
Focus: Systems to avoid chaos in multitasking environments.
Questions:
- What systems or routines help you manage a flood of inputs and tasks?
- Have you tried methods like “Getting Things Done” (GTD by David Allen)?
What’s worked, or not?
Some in the industry have found success with GTD tips that work to avoid chaos in multitasking environments:
- The “2-minute rule” – if it takes less than 2 minutes, do it immediately.
- “Inbox zero” – processing all sources (email, Slack, Asana, etc.) daily.
- Weekly reviews – planning your week every Friday or Monday to stay in control.
- Using one central to-do tool (e.g., Todoist, Notion, Asana) for clarity.
Deep Work & Focus Time
Focus: Managing distractions in a high-notification job.
Questions:
- How do you protect time for deep, focused work?
- Are there company-wide norms that support or sabotage that?
Possible options to explore for managing distractions in a high-notification job include:
- Creating meeting-heavy vs. meeting-light days (e.g., Meeting-Free Fridays).
- Using calendar blocks for deep work.
- Silencing non-urgent notifications—Slack, emails—for parts of the day.
Learning & Long-Term Growth
Focus: Investing in yourself without getting buried in today’s workload.
Questions:
- Do you actively set aside time for learning or professional inspiration?
- How does your company support (or fail to support) that?
Possible options to explore for investing in yourself without getting buried in today’s workload include:
- Suggesting one day per month dedicated to learning (courses, webinars, industry trend reading).
- Recognizing that even short learning sprints (1 hour/week) can improve your future productivity.
- Holding a team meeting to share and discuss what everyone learned from industry news.
- Engaging in quarterly improvement projects related to personal development, presented to the team.
- Understanding that any time taken for reflecting is helpful.
Tools, Automation & AI
Focus: Working smarter with support from technology.
Questions:
- What tools or automations save you the most time?
- Are there areas of your UA workflow where AI could help more?
Possible options to explore for working smarter with support from technology include:
- Using AI for creative testing (e.g. copy generation).
- Utilizing AI for data analysis & reporting (Looker, ChatGPT-assisted summaries).
- Exploring AI for campaign planning or budget modeling.
- Exploring productivity extensions (e.g. Notion AI, Zapier, Slack workflows).
- Leveraging tools like Perplexity for research, AI note takers for meeting summaries, or Notebook LM for processing big chunks of information, like industry news or platform documentation.
Final Thought
Change of routines and processes takes time, and we are often trapped following less productive ways of doing things as we don’t take time to reflect and implement changes.
Join the conversation!
Share your insights, challenges, and what keeps you fast, focused, effective, and SANE.
