So here’s a problem. I have three… okay four… okay five main “hobbies” (not crafts, but organizations and people) that I spend time on. I devote every Friday night to study group, every Saturday night and every other Sunday afternoon to D&D. I devote an occasional weekend, plus crafting time, to SCA. I take voice lessons every Tuesday. And I play video games on weeknights and most Saturday afternoons. All of these things take time. I want to be good at all of them. I want to keep doing all of them – or, in the case of the SCA, increase my involvement (I miss my SCA people).
However, there are only two non-work nights in a week. And I’m committed pretty much all weekend some weekends. And I have friends and people who are counting on me at all of these things. And I LIKE doing all of these things, and want to keep doing them, or do them more.
But… I can’t. This week I need to prepare handouts for study group, write a ritual for study group, read for study group, do my wizard chores in WoW, and finish rolling up a new pathfinder character for our Outrageous Dinosaur Campaign. I also need to continue to clean out my craft room so I can use it for SCA crafts again. My Sunday D&D character could use a few hours spent on background work, plus I need to work on her gear with our DM since we’re getting to a break point and I need to spend some cash on upgrades. My WoW characters could all stand to have some stories written about them. At least I can practice singing in the car.
And really, it’s gotten to the point where I’m just so overwhelmed that I don’t do anything, and then I feel like a flake for not doing what I said I was going to do.
So in the quest to make some serious decisions about my hobbies in 2015 (since “is it fun” is way too broad a category), I am going to try to prioritize for things with tangible results (not necessarily physical, but tangible) and skills that make me a better human. If it makes me more creative, more skilled, more compassionate, more thoughtful, more spiritual, or more knowledgeable, I’m all in. This puts study group and SCA and voice lessons higher up on the list than D&D and video games, but will hopefully leave me time for all of them, because they all tick at least one of the above boxes.
And no, I’m not quitting anything. No flailing at me. Just … making myself some priorities. We’ll see how well they stick.
So far, it’s working pretty well. When I have the energy, I’m doing more productive things, and when I don’t, I’m farming up transmog gear in WoW. Not a bad situation all around.