I Hobbied Every Day for 2018
Entry posted by Fairbanks
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At the beginning of 2018, I made a New Year's Resolution to do something related to Wargaming each and every day.
Yesterday (the 31st of December, 2018), I crossed the finish line of my marathon. This is a fraction (About 1/3) of what I have to show for it:
Since I know that a few of you have made this same pledge this year that I had made a year ago, here are my personal insights about the resolution:
1. The idea came about from two summers ago, when I finished my first Warmachine models by committing to do some painting every day for a month. This go around, I was also motivated to help reduce the number of boxes and unpainted models I owned. I didn't make a promise to do all of them in a year, but I took a large chunk of them down.
I proceeded to add a ton of new boxes to the pile.
2. I pledged to do something that was creative and tangible each day. With respect to the various gaming forums/sites, reading or making a post, no matter how slow I am at it, counted for the resolution. Nor did buying anything count toward the total (since it is also a habit in contradiction to another goal)
3. I restricted things to Building Models, Painting Models, or Making a non-update Youtube Video (I think 2-3 times).
4. In May I added Taking Inventory to the short list, but wrapped that up that same month. If you have never taken inventory of your models, it is my suggestion that you do at some point in the future (at a minimum, for insurance purposes). If you are thinking that it's a cakewalk and/or cheating, you probably don't have over 1000 models (which sincerely I say, good on you).
5. I added Book Reading (Soul Wars) in July/August, because I spent a day in which I didn't have any time to myself to build or paint to myself, but had spent the time on the airplane reading.
6. If you are entirely serious with keeping with the every day pledge, having a travel box or contingency plan is an absolute must.
7. Find a time to build/paint. For myself, it was the two hours between when the wife went to bed and I did, or the 30 minutes between when she and I went to work.
8. If you know you are going to be out somewhere late and not be able to paint, try to paint in the early morning, or at a different time you can find for yourself.
9. The toughest times to keep the pledge were on days in which I wanted to do something else. Working until 9 PM usually turned into playing a game until 11:45, then panicking to find something to do in the last 15 minutes. Building a hero model was a great stop-gap.
10. What counted as "work" also had some loose terminology. This could be as weak as "Painting the handles on 5-10 models pink". If I kept the number of times this was done to a minimum, or for emergencies, I never felt bad about doing it.
11. Keep a log. I kept a VLog on Youtube and while it never got much traffic, when I got to yesterday and wanted to see everything I completed, I found that an hour of scanning video descriptions was more than enough to catch everything.
12. You probably won't get to any other recreational projects. For myself, I had wanted to build a league in a baseball stats simulator called Out of the Park Baseball, but found that between the pledge and other video gaming, I never got around to starting it for long.
13. I suggest doing both building and painting, and not just one or the other. For myself, I found myself burnt out on one by the time I switched to the other, and would often get a lot more done in a month after switching than I thought I would.
14. Definitely include other hobby related projects, like getting that army you have on your shelf completed. I basecoated/three foot detailed 3,000 some points of Stormcast during a Hobby Challenge.
15. I didn't have one during the pledge, but if an emergency pops up, there should be no fear in dropping the pledge. You and your family matter so much more than a project like this. Author's note, not hobbying because I was 'sick' but wasn't hugging a toilet or laying in the fetal position constituted as failing the project.
16. Because of how rarely I got them in, I included playing a game as 'hobbying'.
With that, I feel I have provided enough help to start you on your own personal hobby adventure. If you have any questions or can think of any other ideas, post them below.
Happy Wargaming!
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