Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?

When most people think of playtime they probably think about toys, games, and sports while also associating those things to specific age groups. Sports for any age, toys and games for kids, things like that. My perspective is looking at things with a hobby mindset. My hobbies are all investments of my money and time to bring myself entertainment and joy. So naturally, any time I get to spend on my hobbies is my playtime.

Take Magic: The Gathering (or Disney’s Lorcana now, thanks to my siblings) as an example. Playtime for this isn’t exclusively the time spent actually playing the game against someone. I could spend dozens of hours trying to build a deck or researching cards for new ideas, and there’s also the time spent discussing spoilers for upcoming set releases. There is so much to do that I could be “playing” even at work when I take a break and do that aforementioned research. Layering in the game of Lorcana now, I spend time on the daily for my “playtime” just getting lost in thought thinking about how to play this new game.

Video games and painting miniatures for my tabletop games should be a given for “playtime” but with other hobbies and responsibilities I just don’t spend time daily on these two things. Video games are kind of a weird area for me these days because I don’t have the time I used to for picking up a new game, only playing an hour or two over the course of a few days, and sticking with it. Miniature painting is a combination of space issues (the holidays really threw me off, all kinds of things shifted around and occupied my usual painting spaces) and time because I don’t want to waste paint. I use a wet palette to try and mitigate wasting paint between sessions, but I always feel like I need more than just an hour or two in one sitting to paint. So, not as much daily play in my life in those areas, but I try to fit them in when possible.

Thinking about all this reminds me that I need to not pick up new games or hobbies. I’m going to need to be more firm and assertive with people when they try to drag me into new things. I just won’t have the bandwidth for new things to “play” with.

What are your biggest challenges?

Well, the new year has started and my vacation is ending. I’ll be going back to work tomorrow and have no idea what challenges I’ll be facing there but I’m sure everything will be just fine. I am instead concerned with personal life challenges.

I’m not doing new year’s resolutions because they’ve never worked for me but I’m going to do my best to keep working toward my personal goals and the challenges that come with them.

In the financial space, challenges are fairly straightforward. Save money, don’t spend too much unnecessarily, and hope for no unexpected expenses. Unfortunately, hobbies cost money, so I either need to cut spending there or find a way to earn more money, which ties into one of the other goals and its challenges.

Writing requires time, and usually a lot of it because of all the tasks that come with trying to do good work. Some challenges are fairly obvious here, but others may not be if someone isn’t familiar with the publishing process. So, on the subject of time, if I want to make it through writing a complete novel then I’ll have to sacrifice hobby time for writing time. Sadly, hobby time is often part of my social time with friends, so I’ll have to strike a balance somewhere. If I can manage that, things should go fairly smoothly, right? Then I’ll have a novel and can focus on the publishing process, but depending on the direction I end up going it won’t guarantee success. Do I try to find an agent and go the route of traditional publishing or try to go indie? I’ll have to keep that in the back of my mind and worry about it when I get there, but that’s a major challenge in itself if I hope to make it a viable source of income.

The last major challenges are associated with personal health. I definitely need to lose weight and get in better shape, for several reasons. The challenges there require consistent dedication to all the facets of the process, which means I need to seriously consider lifestyle changes. Getting through all that is going to require time, which is just another thing I’ll have to balance with hobbies and writing, and finances because of better budgeting for groceries and eating better.

So many challenges that need balancing. Well, let’s see where 2024 goes!