Reply To: I am feeling guilty.

[jamescutts 6925xp 0]

This as for a lot of others really struck a chord with me @sundancer. I’ve been struggling with similar issues recently and at times have got myself into a spiral of guilt. @ninjilly really sums this up well for me, in addition to the excellent points, others have raised.

Our hobby really has exploded in terms of the amount of content that’s produced for us to consume, there simply is too much. I think most of those creating content, outside a select few I think everyone realizes it’s never going to be the day job and do it mostly for their enjoyment and to share that with others. As such any views/interaction is generally greatly appreciated but I don’t think expected and we just have to not feel guilty if we didn’t get round to it.

That being said I really appreciate the work everyone in the community does in creating content, taking the UHH is an excellent example, I just cant watch/read/engage in everything all the time, and thats OK.

What have I done to try and help this?

I cleared my desk, quite literally I threw it out and got a slightly bigger one that I now try and keep clear as far as possible.

To help with this I now store all my paints and supplies in drawers rather than on racks or on the desk.

I have project “trays” cheap Tillgang from ikea, I try and have no more than two of these on the go at once with a “small” project of minis on each.

I obstruct my screens while painting just something simple like a lamp half in the way.

I watch content in the background, rather than giving it my full attention.

I try and have a goal for the week hobby wise e.g. paint this unit. but if I don’t manage it I don’t worry and just roll it over.

I plan my hobby time around set weekly events, The weekender, XLBS, UHH, and the Plastic Crack Podcast to name a few, each of which gives me some planned in hobby time of a few hours each evening most, but not all days of the week.

I take hobby days, holidays being a bit less of a event as before C19 i now use some of my days to take the time off and just hobby, in much the same way I take the odd day off to just have a trip out somewhere.

Hows has this helped?

Well, I no longer have a pile of paints, half-painted minis, and general clutter on my desk, I now can quickly grab a tray, pull out some paints from the draws and start painting. I no longer feel guilty looking at mess or guilt from putting painting off because it feels cramped. As an added bonus, I can take a tray outside and paint and no longer feel guilt of being stuck indoors.

I now don’t feel I have to be doing hobby each evening, I do it when there’s something I can watch in the background to a vague schedule, I do occasionally do extra but I’ve tried to stop it being a big focus of my free time.

I still listen to and watch other people’s content but find I don’t fully focus on it what I found was there’s so much content out there that I would just end up looking at the screen, and feel guilty about not doing other things. Now I tend to combine this with my hobby time, by watching things in the background, yes I have a slightly guilty feeling about this but I think the removal of other issues helps balance this into a positive. For example, I watch the Weekender, XLBS and UHH all in part of hobby time while painting, modeling etc. the lamp obstructing the screen helps me see the minis, but it also breaks the focus on video enough that I don’t just watch it.

I try and spread some hobby time into the normal day in small micro chunks work permitting, if I can I’ll watch a video in the background or if I’m in a long meeting I might crack out the paints, or I may take 10min to write a post or reply to a comment while waiting on somebody else. Thankfully for my job this works, it does not take away from what I’m working on, and on occasion having a short distraction can actually prove beneficial and help the mind think of a different approach and get over a problem.

As for the pile of shame, I dislike the term as it encourages guilt, I now just have a collection of bargains I’ve acquired that will either be sold off for profit or one day become a project that gives me enjoyment. But I’ve stopped feeling guilty about it, I like toy soldiers and will continue to buy more without feeling any guilt.