Sprue Cutters Union 25: Time Management

A new way of introducing weekly topics to be discussed, is having the Sprue Cutters themselves come up with them. This week, Jim from Fill 'n Sand is the first to give this a try.

- How do you find time for the hobby? -

You may have hit a sore spot there. If I come accross as a little whiner in the following post, I apologize for the overdramatization (is that a word?) and I urge you to just let it slide this time.

/Wall of text crits you for 5.000. Continue? (Y/N) _

Find time, you say? Lemme see ... uhm, nope!

Make time? Yes and no.

For me, more is required than "finding time". I also have to find motivation. I know it may sound weird to HAVE to find motivation to do something you really like doing. I guess this is a good time to introduce you to my brain and it's wonderful quirks.

When planning my next modelling session, my brain will often short-circuit into doing the following:
"I should continue that M60. All it requires is something extra on the base and it's done. But what? The Missouri really needs to be continued. Where was I? Right, masking off the vertical parts. That liquid masking stuff didn't agree with me. Pass! Starfury? Misting paint didn't go well. But I have a different airbrush now! Hmm, should really give it a go then. Oh, if I'm airbrushing, I should really try a new base-colour for the castle. Meh, I don't feel like doing that right now. Prime the spaceshuttle in white? Last time, I couldn't get the mix right and I had to keep disassembling the airbrush to unclog it. New airbrush, remember? Oh, right. Uhm, nah ...."

You see, I try to plan ahead to maximize the efficiency of what time I have available and end up loosing time worrying and planning and end up doing nothing because it frustrates me and I end up in front of the  television. Don't get me wrong, I like watching all my (many!) series and the occasional movie as well.

This tends to go on for a couple of weeks and then I'm back into my sort-of normal routine.

I admire Jon and Matt for setting apart 2 hours most every night, modelling until midnight while the rest of the family sleeps. I doubt I could make that work. I'm away for work about 11 hours a day. I require about 8 hours of bedtime, which actually translates into 8 hours in bed, but only 6 hours sleep. I'm a light sleeper and we have a 2-year old. An extra hour is spent each morning and evening to just get ready or eat.

So we're left with 3 hours per day to "do something". I like reading blogs, doing research or just spend some time aimlessly on the PC to unwind my mind into some form of relaxation. I also like spending time with my better half, something she seems to appreciate as well.

Somewhere last year, we came to an understanding : 2 evenings a week, the TV stays off and we try to do something more "creative". This doesn't work every week, but it's good incentive to try.
She's no modeller, but likes to make trinkets, jewellery or something for our daughter. Or we both read a book. These are the times I try to use for modelling. Last tuesday, I chose instead to do some work on a computer program I'm trying to make for myself to make AD&D sessions go easier and faster (with less stuff to track on paper myself).

During weekends, it varies. There's not really a pattern, just a random hour here and there. There's family and social obligations. AD&D also takes up a whole day each time we play. Weekends tend to fly by, don't they?

This post may seem a "bit" gloomy, so I really need to set things straight again. I'm quite content with the amount of time I spend on this hobby and the amount of "work" (i.e. number of finished kits) I do in a year. I'm happy with the result, insanely so if I just tried something new.

Time to end this stream of consciousness. Congratulations on making it all the way to the end and thanks for sticking with me!

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My fellow Sprue Cutters seem to be more organised, at least some of them :

• Doogs' Models
• The Combat Workshop
• Fill 'n Sand <-- he raised this topic, blame him :-)
• Miniature and model painting
• Greg's Models