Time Management

Hello friends, family, fellow war-gamers, and welcome to another musing day at Wargamer Ramblings.  I've had some time over this past weekend to consider things about the hobby and I wanted to share my thoughts with you.

It's about Time Management.

Gone are my days when I could spend hours upon hours doing hobby related things.  With marriage and my current employment I don't have as much perceived free time to do what I used to do.  Of course I can't (and won't) give up the hobby as it is too important for me.  Yet if I don't do something related to it, I get antsy/depressed/angry.  It's my source of stress relief.  Cathartic in a way if you will.  These days I get a bit annoyed if I can't do my daily painting, and that happens sometimes.

How I feel most new dads react on a daily basis

So what's a man to do?  Well like many before me and many after me you just have to find the time if you want to keep engaged in the hobby.  Now I'm not saying that you need to dedicate hours and hours because let's be real, that isn't going to happen.  Sure you might find a weekend day where you don't have anything planned, your wife doesn't want to do anything, and you've got that time then yeah you can take advantage of it.  Day to day though life just gets in the way and you've got to find the time whenever you can.

I've seen many people sell off models, "quit the game," or other similar things because the demands of life temporarily get too intense.  Makes sense, I've seen a lot of new dads do this.  New kid, lots of change, huge responsibilities, and that must mean you have to sell that Ork/Space Marine/Khador/etc army.  I disagree.  One selling point for most of this hobby is that our models generally, with some exceptions, will last a long time.  It's an investment really, spend X amount here and you will likely be able to play in Y years with the same models.  Ultimately the stress of life makes it seem like you have no time and cannot do the hobby at all, but that doesn't mean it won't change and you will have that "time back."

The face of a man who sold his army only to find out he now has more time to play

That's what I'm discovering for myself.  Sure I might not be able to paint for 6-8 hours/day like I used to as a single bloke.  What I do now is paint for the 1-2 hours I can before the wife comes home and dinner is ready.  Do I get whole 10+ man units done in 3 days time?  Nope.  What I do have is some release from the pressures of my job and reality while making some kind of progress in the hobby, which is better than no progress at all.  Also as a side note I think it has made my painting skills improve as I am taking more time than I would before.

I am getting all mah skills improved, aww yeah

I think it's just the worse for a fellow wargamer to feel as though they can't do the thing they love anymore because of time, and it's worse when they rid themselves of all the work they've done assembling/converting/painting/etc only for time to pass and within a year they are accustomed to whatever it was and miss the void they have created.  I want to encourage you reader if you are in that boat to hang on, maybe assemble one model if that's all you can, do a layer of paint, whatever it is, but hold on to the thing you love!  Time marches on and eventually you will find yourself in a new situation, with more time maybe to do more of what you love.  Even if all you can do is paint a layer of iron on one model while rocking a newborn to sleep, eventually you can do two layers/models.

You'll get more time, in time, so it's all good

I hope that encourages you out there fellow war-gamer if you are stressed out about time and life, and all you want to do is hobby stuff.  Get creative, dedicate that time, and you'll come to appreciate it.  I know I have.  Have a good one everyone.