If you read blogs on the hobby of
war gaming you are probably keenly interested in some aspect of it. Whether it
is painting, playing, background fluff, conversions, etc. etc. there is
something that grabs you most of all. The issue is for a lot of people maintaining
motivation to do it all. It is definitely a point of contention for me, and I
have blogging to add onto it (which I have been slack of of late).
For me I love building and
converting, I love the fluff, and I really like to game. But to truly reap the
rewards of all that, I have to get my army painted. This is where I fall. I
enjoy it, and I am a perfectionist when I do it, but it takes me forever and it
can get old fast, so I just walk away, and this compromises my hobby efforts as
a whole.
How, when this is my list of
projects, do I keep going???
Painting my Blood Angels Army (~2
companies worth)
Airbrushing Vehicles
Finish my Thunderbolt
Paint my Imperial Knight
Paint Napoleonic French Line
Infantry
Building a Hobby Table
Building/Painting Terrain
Paint my Blood Bowl Team
Paint my Necromunda Gang
Blogging
Developing BFG-R vessels
40+ Imperial Navy Vessels
30+ Chaos Vessels
Convert DE/Tyranid Vessels
Convert a Necromunda Gang
This is on top of being in the Navy, being a Husband and a Father and trying to get time with my family, maintaining my house, my car, my finances etc. etc.
Well of late I have tried to do
several things
1- More attainable goals. 1-2
Marines a week is more doable for me than a squad. And then when I can't get it
done, I just leave it for the next week. It is still a goal to be achieved,
whether I did it or not.
2- To do list- I put my little
attainable goals on a to do list. This I make ambitious. I know it is counter
intuitive to what I just said, but the little goals are something I can knock
out in an afternoon, but the to do list is full of these for the week, so I try
and have as many little things that I can accomplish as often as possible and
overall I get more done this way. I know I am not likely to get everything
done, but if I get half of it done as a direct result of the list, then I have
at least made progress.
3- When you are bored with what you
were doing, do something else. So instead of just brutally crushing through
assault marine after assault marine, because it is overall more beneficial to
accomplishing my list of projects and getting an army on the table, I have
recently just been picking up random models I want to paint and painting them.
It actually keeps me more excited and more focused for longer periods of time.
They may not play into the immediate picture of finishing that assault squad,
it plays into the grander picture of finishing my blood angels.
4- Rewards- Hey if I finish these 2
tactical marines, I will paint that techmarine. If there is something I am
eager to work on, I can dangle that in front of my face like a carrot. Now the
danger here is to let this interfere with number 3. If the criteria for your
reward is just to unsavory to make it worth it, just default to number 3.
5- Deceive yourself- What? Well you
see how many projects I have. I used to have all those marines on my desk
waiting to be painted. It was so depressing to me. So what did I do? I put them
all away. Now I only have like 15 marines out, and it doesn't keep me away from
my hobby desk. I can pick one up and work on it and tell myself "I
accomplished something" without being reminded that there is a mountain of
work still to be done.
I hope these tricks can help you on
finishing your projects as well. How do you maintain motivation yourself?
