Different Ways to Start a New Hobby

Skimming

The first way is what I would call skimming over hobbies. That is where a new hobby interests you so you give it a whirl. You grab the minimal amounts needed to start the hobby and you get going. You see if you like it without much investment.

This is how I started divining into painting during the pandemic. I bought the minimal amount that I needed. A couple of brushes and a few paints. But I never got that into it. Some of it is that I bought less than I needed. I didn’t have primer so was just a bit of a mess as I tried to start.

Deep Dive

Another way, and this way I kind of am splitting into hairs with, is the deep diver. The person who will spend and get everything for a hobby with it. Let’s take painting miniatures again as an example. What happens if you do a deep dive there?

There are a ton of things you can get for painting. You buy things to hold miniatures, you get a ton of paints. There are things you get for storing paintings, magnifying glasses stands so see finer detail, and really so much that you can decide to pick-up. All of that before you even start the hobby. And with something like mini painting, they go deep into watching videos and learning techniques before even picking up a brush.

Preparing

And I think that it is splitting hairs some with deep dive and preparing. When you do the deep dive you get everything. When you prepare you get most of the things. But it is focused on making sure you have enough to start started well and enough knowledge to make it work.

In the case of painting minis, that is buying a good variety of paint colors, some different brushes, primers, varnish and more so that you are set for painting. I think even watching a video or two about being new to painting is good for preparing. It lets you know what you might not know, for me for example it was about varnish. But it isn’t so far down the rabbit hole that I’m looking up advanced techniques.

How Do You Start a New Hobby?

So what is your preferred way? For me, I think I wanted to just go and get started, which, I found, didn’t work for me. I am too much of a planner, that is part of what I do. Now I don’t plan everything, but I want to know a bit more of what I’m starting to do. And I did watch some videos but things like varnish, totally missed that when I started. And knowing a bit of why things are done, such as thinning paints is useful as well.

So now, when I start painting again, plan to do it this Fall, I am more of a preparer. I don’t think that I went into the deep dive stage, but I do think that preparer and deep dive are close. I own now more paints, varnish, and more brushes. But there are other things, like holders for all my paints, lighting, or whatever else it might be that I haven’t gone into. I will like watch a video on starting painting again, but that’ll be about it.

What is a new hobby you are starting?

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We see here two tweets that got me thinking about this topic. And it’s not a topic that I’ve been ignorant of, in fact, it’s one that I think about fairly often. And the first tweet is much more general than just board games, but Rodney Smith talks about how it matters with board games as well in his video.

The Golden Rule of Being a Fan

We start today in an interesting place. I won’t directly touch on the topic, because I think we as fans of things need to consider what I hope is what we all want.

We want more people to find joy in our fandoms.

Basically, the rule, as is said simply up there, we want more people to join into our fandom. We want more people to love and find joy in the things we love and find joy in. The more people who find joy in the things we find joy in, the more we have in common with people, and the more we can share the joys of our life. That is the ideal that I hold for being a fan and one that I hope that fandoms as a whole can agree upon.

Where It Goes Wrong

However, it often goes wrong. And Rodney talks about it with board games, and I’m going to talk about it in that light as well generally, but this covers a lot of things. It tends to go wrong when current fans expect other people to be fans in the same way they are fans.

A board game example, a person who loves euro games might look down upon a new gamer who likes lighter games like Munchkin. A television example, a Doctor Who fan might look down on someone who prefers Peter Capaldi to David Tennant as the Doctor. A movie example, a Star Wars fan might look down on a new Star Wars fan who enjoys the prequel trilogy.

You can see how it works, because someone doesn’t enjoy the fandom in the exact way that someone else does, it isn’t as good. Their enjoyment of the fandom is less valid than the person who has been the fan longer or is the fan in the “right way”.

How We Tackle This

I could have spent more time on the negative, because it gets me annoyed. Rodney Smith is one of the nicest people out there and you see how passionate he is about the issue. But I see too many other posts who will just talk about the negative aspect and not about how we can help change things. And honestly, we need to change things. We look at big aggressions or slip ups and they are bad, like the gamers who scoff at female gamers, or similar to that, and we point fingers and call those people horrible. But it’s extremely insidious and easy to step on someone’s excitement out of a place that looks like it’s better. It is equally as harmful though to getting new people into the fandom or hobby.

The most common example of this is, and again going to board games, a conversation on Facebook or Twitter that goes something like this.

Newbie: “I’m so excited I just picked up Munchkin, I’m so excited to play it.”

Person in Hobby: “Munchkin sucks.”

Person 2 in Hobby: “Have fun with that game.”

Person 3 in Hobby: “Munchkin isn’t a good game, you should play Scythe instead.”

Written out like this, you can easily see what the issue is. The newbie is excited for their new game, they are probably just getting into games and like lighter fare that is closer to what they have played before. The first response is just bad. If you don’t like the game, great, don’t step on someone else’s fun and excitement. The second response is probably fine, I through that one in there to make it look more realistic in responses. The third one is also bad because again it’s negative and ruining someone’s fun. It hedges itself in being positive by giving unsolicited and not useful advice. If this person posting their excitement is truly new to the hobby, Scythe is not a jumping in point, or whatever the person’s favorite game might be.

It might seem weird, but I’ve seen all of these responses and more negative ones. Why doe we like to be negative about things and ruin other people’s joy? As Rodney says in his video: “It’s not special not to like something.” Maybe it’s a power play, but honestly, I think most of the time it’s because people are excited or excited and disappointed might be better. They see someone say, “I got a new game” and they think it’ll be something maybe they’ve been interested in and then when it isn’t get they get disappointed. I think that this is where especially comments like “X isn’t good, try Y instead” come from. The person is trying to get their excitement back by getting someone to agree with them or to like their thing. But to the person who posted, it’s just negative.

So what’s better? To quote Thumper from Bambi: “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Honestly, it’s that simple, there is nothing that requires you to respond to a tweet or Facebook post on something you don’t like. In fact, it’s 99% of the time better to ignore them and show support to things you do like. A newbie to a hobby or fandom will generally gravitate towards the parts that are positive and away from the parts that are negative, as most people will. But if there is too much negative, a newbie might just leave a hobby or fandom. If you do feel compelled to respond, let’s see a better response.

Newbie: “I’m so excited I just picked up Munchkin, I’m so excited to play it.”

Person in Hobby: “That’s awesome, I hope you enjoy it.”

Doesn’t say that you like the game, but you are wishing joy upon the person and eventually, maybe that person will agree with you that Munchkin isn’t great and they want to play Scythe, but let them get there and let them grow into the hobby instead of pushing away.

But let’s look at another situation:

Newbie: “I’m thinking about getting Munchkin, is it a good game?”

Person in Hobby: “Munchkin sucks.”

Person 2 in Hobby: “I used to like Munchkin.”

Person 3 in Hobby: “Munchkin isn’t good, you should get Scythe.”

Now, I went with all wrong answers here. Now, the person who started asked for an opinion on Munchkin, saying Munchkin sucks is an opinion, but doesn’t give any information nor is it said in a constructive or useful way. It’s aggressively negative for no good reason. The second one is saying the same as the first, just in a much nicer way. And the third one, the person asked for advice, but it was about Munchkin, not about Scythe or whatever the person’s favorite game again.

It falls into the same lines as the other example above and reasoning as to why those are not good responses. Let’s say that you really don’t like Munchkin, what is a better response?

Newbie: “I’m thinking about getting Munchkin, is it a good game?”

Person in Hobby: “I’m not a big fan of Munchkin, I don’t like how much take that there is in it. If your group likes that sort of thing though, it’d probably work for you.”

The big difference, it’s a nicely stated that the person doesn’t like the game. They only talk about the game the person asked about. And they gave a reason why they don’t like it. I even wrapped it up with an encouraging thing clarifying that for some people the game will work.

One final example that I see often as well:

Newbie: “I’m just getting into the hobby. I have Catan, Ticket to Ride, Munchkin, and Exploding Kittens, what game do you think I’d like?”

Person in Hobby: “Those games suck.”

Person 2 in Hobby: “I remember when I liked those games.”

Person 3 in Hobby: “Scythe”

Again, it’s fairly easy to see what is wrong with these. They are very negative, two don’t answer the question and they tell the person they are doing it wrong. At least the first two do, the third one is just Scythe again. And it might seem like I’m picking Scythe, but honestly it’s one I see a lot of people use, I could also say my favorite game as well, Gloomhaven. But it’s also not useful to suggest massive games that the person would struggle with. It’s possibly less hurtful than the other two, but can push people away because it’ll make them feel inferior if they try a big game like Scythe or Gloomhaven and are overwhelmed by it because of what they have played before.

Then answering a question like this, think of it as stepping stones. You might want them to play Scythe, but that means you need to help get them there, taking the same steps that basically every gamer did from Classic Games to Modern Classics to Hobby Games to Scythe. If you need help with that, here’s a bit of a cheat sheet.

So what’s a better response?

Newbie: “I’m just getting into the hobby. I have Catan, Ticket to Ride, Munchkin, and Exploding Kittens, what game do you think I’d like?”

Person in Hobby: “Hmmm… I think that Five Tribes or Small World could be interesting for you.”

Person 2 in Hobby: “Good question, what do you like about those games? Something like Potion Explosion could be interesting, maybe if you like the set collecting and completing stuff parts of Catan and Ticket to Ride.”

Pretty easy to see how these are better. They give suggestions in line with or a bit more complex with that the person has played before. I think it’s always good to ask clarifying questions as well. The second person asks the general question of what is liked, but then gives a specific element of both Catan and Ticket to Ride, set collection in their reasoning. That sort of engagement makes the new person feel more involved in the hobby and in the group.

Go Forth and Grow the Fandom

Now, we are all going to slip up on this. I know that I do it from time to time as well. For me, it is something I intentionally don’t want to propagate throughout a hobby or a fandom that I love, this negative response. And I truly believe that most gamers, most fans, they want their hobby to grow. With that, I do believe there is a bit of letting go of your fandom or hobby just like you hold it. That can be hard, but when you can do that, your hobby and fandoms will grow. You will learn new things and see things in a new way, and it’ll strengthen your own joy in a fandom or hobby. I hope in the upcoming years we see more fans of board games grow and more fans of every fandom come into light and that we can all enjoy those similar things in our own way remembering that just because someone likes something a bit different than you, it doesn’t have a negative impact on your own joy.

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There’s a reason for the focus change in the second question because you won’t be able to get everyone into your hobby, for some people that’s just not interesting. And that’s fine that you can’t get everyone into your hobby, but for those people who seem open to the idea, how can you help them into the hobby without overwhelming them or having an elitist attitude about the hobby?

First, I would start by inviting them to join you in the hobby. You’re looking to create a welcoming space. If someone seems interested in board games or the game you’re playing, if you’re in a public space, ask them if they want to sit down and watch or if they have any questions. Or, if it’s a smaller/fast game, you can maybe even ask them to join in on another game. People aren’t going to be that apt to invite themselves to your table, but you can invite them in. Or if someone is interested in your Sci-Fi books, consider inviting them to join you in reading the book or to a book club that also is reading Sci-Fi. And when you do invite people to that club or to a game night or to your table, it is part of being inviting to make sure that they are having a good time. This doesn’t mean playing the game for them so that they can have the optimal strategy, but it does mean helping them if they get stuck, explaining Sci-Fi terms or who an author might be when they don’t know. It’s about creating that welcoming environment because they are going to feel like an outsider no matter who welcoming your are, but you can make it feel less that way.

Next, don’t overwhelm them. I talked about this in the last article about starting in a new hobby, about how a lot of hobbies can be really overwhelming. How do you pick through all of the Sci-Fi books that came out last year, let alone all the Sci-Fi books that are already out, and the same with board games, or anime, or comic books. So, while you don’t need to have a list of things already to go for new people, because you can do better than that, don’t overwhelm them with a ton of different options either. Instead, using your knowledge of the hobby, ask them about other things that they like, maybe you can tailor it more so. If they like comedy movies, starting with a heavy Sci-Fi book isn’t going to be what they’ll want to start with, instead, you can recommend a lighter Sci-Fi book. Or if they like Sci-Fi movies, don’t pull a fantasy game off of the shelf. I think that there is often a temptation to pull your favorite book or game or anime off the shelf and recommend that, but, if I were to do that with my favorite game, I’d scare people away as Gloomhaven is too much of a monster for a new gamer. So have options of more accessible options for new people into the hobby.

Thirdly, slowly introduce more, and I mean slowly. There’s always a desire to rush someone to the point where you are in the hobby, because then you’ll have more in common to talk about, but that goes back to the overwhelming, you don’t want to do too much too fast. Most people won’t be able to jump into Gloomhaven right away. Let the person who you are leading into the hobby lead the pace they get into the hobby. If they are seeming bored with a type of Sci-Fi book or interested in another type of Sci-Fi book, you know you can move them on. If they really like a game, say, if they really like Dominion as a deck builder, when you’ve played that a handful of times, introduce them to more deck building games. If they start pushing back when you suggest something else, slow back down again. I realize that this might be boring to you at times, but hopefully you’re able to have other gaming groups or other people to discuss Sci-Fi books with, and realize that creating a strong base with the new person to the hobby is going to allow them to more fully join the hobby.

While I’d like to say that these three steps are a guarantee to get someone into your hobby, but it’s not always possible. Some people won’t like it no matter how you go about it, and that’s fine. Not everyone has to be in the same hobby. But also, don’t let that discourage you from trying again with another person or group of people. There will be people out there who just need a nudge to join you in a hobby. I’d also like to say that these aren’t the only things that you need to do to get people into a hobby, there are other tactics that you can take, but these are fairly easy steps that you can do to hopefully introduce someone to a hobby in a way to make them more likely to joint the hobby.

What other suggestions do you have for someone who is trying to bring people into and grow their hobby?

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Now, there are plenty of things that we can start as a new nerdy hobby, maybe you want to start playing Dungeons and Dragons, get into board games, or read more Sci-Fi books. But where you jump into them can be pretty tricky for some of them. So how do you pick that starting point of joining into a hobby that already has a lot of people in it?

Let’s use, what I know well, board games, as an example. In 2019 there were thousands of board games that were published, and that’s just last year. And in that, there were thousands of bad board games published, so if you are getting into the hobby, what should you be looking for? Is there some proper starting place?

It is going to be overwhelming to jump in, but thankfully, there are a lot of articles out there about good starting places for board games. So to start with board games or any hobby, I’d use Google and simply research, “Introductory…” and it’ll give you some good options. Now, that might seem off, because you want to play the best board games, so maybe you would go to somewhere like Board Game Geek, which will probably come up in search results, and just buy games in the top 10, but a lot of those are much bigger and heavier games, and the same with picking the most popular Sci-Fi or anything, it is going to lean more into what those who are already steeped in the hobby like.

The other reason that you want introductory is that while the games aren’t always cheaper, they are going to be teach you about the hobby. So something like Carcassone teaches you tile placement, how games can have various ways to score, and generally gets you to a point where you can understand board games better, and the different introductory games are going to be good at teaching different things. Catan can teach you about probability and resource management. Ticket to Ride is about set collection, route building, and there are so many other intro games that teach other things.

But, maybe you won’t like all of the introductory games, so should you really go out and get all of these games? You will probably find some that you don’t love, so did you just waste money? Thankfully, if you’re in a larger town/city, you might have a couple of options. A lot of larger cities are going to have gaming stores. These places often has games that you can just try or the employees should be willing to open up a game and teach you how it’s played a little bit so you have an idea before you purchase the game. Also there are other spots that you can try and game. A lot of breweries are going to have some games, and while you might mainly find Cribbage and Cards Against Humanity, I’ve seen Catan at a lot of them as well. And who knows what gems you might find there. Also, you can look on Facebook or other places used to schedule Meetups (again Board Game Geek could help) and you can find a public one in your area that you can join. I’m in a city, so there are more options, but in more rural areas, you might be able to at least connect with people who are already in the hobby. But use these ways to start playing the introductory games and then when you have a better idea of what you like, you can get some.

Now, that section seems fairly specific for board games, but it works well for D&D as well. For something like Sci-Fi, this would be the library. Get a library card and check out books that are different types of Sci-Fi to see what sort you want, maybe you want the hard core scientific Sci-Fi, or maybe you prefer one that focuses like on the science aspect and is more a grand space adventure. Who knows, maybe your library even has a Sci-Fi book club or would have up a poster for one. There are always groups around for various nerdy things, whether it’s in person or an online forum that you can join as well and ask questions. Now, it’s the internet so there will be people who get annoyed because you aren’t already into the hobby like they are so you’re stepping on their turf and wasting time by asking questions, and while it’ll seem like they stick out more than anyone, it is really less people than those who want to grow the hobby, so ignore the trolls.

This is all a good way that you can start and it helps get rid of some of the chafe that might be less than ideal stuff to dive into to start. But any hobby, unless it’s something with technology that is brand new, is going to have a lot to dive into. So it’ll seem intimidating when you’re jumping. And you’re going to run across games or books or DM’s or whatever it is that you don’t like. Don’t let that drive you off and don’t let those people who feel like it’s their hobby and because you’re just joining keep you from joining the hobby. It might take you time to find the area of it that you like, so the last piece of advice is patience. And with that, if you don’t like part of it, move on and try another part of it, if you don’t love heavy Sci-Fi, go and try some more adventure type Sci-Fi, if you don’t like deckbuilding, try area control games, if you don’t like playing a wizard try playing a fighter. Experiment until you find something that you like more. And maybe the hobby won’t be for you, but there is so much diversity in all of these hobbies now in different types of things that hopefully there will be something for you.

I could talk more about this topic, but I don’t want to overwhelm someone who wants to get into a new hobby. To summarize, try and find an existing local community that can help you or a good online community. Try a wide range from the hobby you want to join, and while everything might not be for you, find what is for you.

If you’ve already gone through this process, what other simple tips do you recommend?

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A couple of examples of this:
I have a lot of comic books, I read them when I got them and I enjoyed the stories that were told. But I haven’t gone back to reading them in a long time (I’m thinking I should soon), and I stopped getting new ones. That’s a collection now of comic books, but reading comic books was a hobby for a while.

Compare that to a friend of mine who had/has a massive collection of Star Wars and other action figures. He decided a little while ago that he wanted to start taking pictures of them and set-up scenes. He now has hundreds of posts, and over 1,000 followers on Instagram, at TheToysAwaken, who see the pictures and scenes that he’s set-up with what used to be his collection, and now is his hobby.

So why talk about this topic?

I think at times there can be judgement put on people because they aren’t using something has a hobby and it’s just a collection. It’s kind of the idea that if you have it and aren’t using it, you’re doing it wrong. Or the same is the other way around. action figures are a great example of this. We come to it with a collectors mindset because we think we’ll be able to sell them eventually. And you judge anyone who has opened up the package because now it isn’t in mint condition anymore.

Let me quickly get my main point out of the way. To complain that someone is collecting things or using things, that they paid their money for because they wanted them, is dumb. It is there money not your money, you get to decide how to spend your money, they get to decide how to spend their money, and that’s how it works. Stop judging people for not doing exactly what you’d do.

But I think the more interesting thing to look at is this shift, why does it happen?

There are plenty of obvious reasons, circumstances change in a person’s life, the thing gives you joy in a different way, you have a new interest, your interest in the thing is now focused in a different way.

Let’s take my board game “collection”. It’s not just a collection in the purest sense, where it’s something I have a lot of and I just look at. I use them, and in fact I’m not extremely picky about them, don’t have to have every card sleeved, because they are meant to be used and enjoyed until they fall apart. But this is a hobby that borders between being a hobby and a collection. I have a number of games that I haven’t played yet, and that is something that I’m hoping streaming (coming soon) will help me take care of. I don’t really like having games that I haven’t played and that are on my “shelf of shame/opportunity”.

But for a long time I had what I’d consider more of a hobby of games versus a collection of games. That was when I had a smaller amount of more simple games. I think I played games less often then than I do now, but all the games would get to the table, because I had a limited number. Now that the board game hobby is blowing up and there are so many options out there, it’s much easier to have games sit around and not be played longer.

I also think, though, that I do try and keep my board games as a hobby. There is the monthly game night, I have people over to play games, it used to be once a week, now it’s every other week and sometimes a random game time thrown in. But beyond that, I have the streaming that I’ll be doing so that I can play more games. And even more than that, I have culled games from my collection because I know I’m not going to bring them out again. So I’m trying to keep it to an amount where I can get to and play the games on a semi-regular basis (by that I mean every few years). And I’m lucky to be able to do that because we have a house, if we didn’t I’d have to cull even more games.

With all of that, my board games to border on a collection as well as a hobby, but it’s something that I’m trying to keep as both.

Compare that to my comics which are clearly a collection at this point. I have fond memories of reading them, and they are easy to store out of the way. But will I go back and read all of them again ever? Probably not, but I do plan on going back and reading some of them again, and probably soon, because I’m going through them again.

I’m also much more okay with my comic books being a collection, because they take up less space. But even with space, that isn’t always the factor. Sometimes you just need to divest yourself of something you know is just going to be a collection primarily.

An example of this is my Magic the Gathering cards. I’d love to be able to play more often, play more commander and casual games, but with the group who played, a lot of us now have small kids. Scheduling just isn’t reasonable anymore. So I have thousands of cards sitting around, what do I do with them? That’s a collection that at this point in time doesn’t have any inherit value to me. I’d really like to keep them if I was going to play more, but they are just going to take up space now, so it’s probably better to get rid of them, because I can’t read them, and just building random decks never to get used isn’t that much fun.

So how do you deal with a hobby that has become a collection? Have you had it work the other way ever? Are there any hobbies that are now collections that you need to get rid of?

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Why Might You Want to Cull?

This is a tough question, and for each person it’s going to be different. The common reason is that you’re running out of room. You have a collection of something, movies, board games, RPG books, manga, art supplies, etc that you have loved and collected for a long time, but now they are taking up too much room. You haven’t used them in a while or you have another nerdy hobby you’re more focused on now. That is a good time to clear out some things from that collection. It might also be that it’s just taking up space, you have the space to store it, but you never use it or look at it anymore. For that reason you might look to free up the space just so you have more space available. Or, maybe you have a collection that has some value, for example you collect Magic: The Gathering cards for a while but aren’t playing anymore, maybe you look to move them so that you can get some funds for your current collection. That’s a great reason to cull some of the nerd clutter out of your life.

How Do You Cull?

Another tough question, how can you be brutal enough to get rid of some things that have given you joy in the past? It’s tough, going through board games, I got rid of 16 different games and it’s tough to get rid of some of the games. For some of them, it was the fact that I haven’t gotten them to the table either at all or in a long time. I got rid of the game Power Grid, which is a fun game that I have good memories playing, but it hasn’t made it to the table in a long time, and looking forward, I don’t know that it ever will again. I have other games that I prefer to play now, and if I really want to play it again, I can probably find someone who has a copy or find it on a game shelf at a game shop. I will say, you have to be brutal at times when culling and sometimes you need to do a second pass. When you go through something you haven’t seen in a while, you open up a box or find something that you’ve forgotten about and the memories come flooding back. You remember the good times you had with something and all of a sudden, something you haven’t looked at in years seems to have value to you again. Ask yourself this when that happens, if you put it back into the box or onto the shelf, is it just going to sit there again for a year? If the answer is yes, you maybe should cull it. And if you can’t quite bring yourself to do it now, set it aside, and when you are done going through once, come back to the maybe pile and go through it again. Especially if this going through the maybe pile is a day or two later, you might find that you are now ready to let go of things since you have had your reminiscing and now you can now move on from it.

Where Can it Go?

This is something that can maybe help you get rid of more. Is there a spot that you can donate it to where people will enjoy it? Or a place where you can sell it and pass on what you’ve enjoyed to someone else. In my case with the board games, I’m going to see if one of the breweries that I like is interested in the games. They have a game shelf that I could help refill for them as games at breweries end up missing pieces or getting beer spilled on them. But maybe that isn’t your scene or you have comic books you want to donate. Is there a Children’s Hospital that you could give them to, or somewhere that can donate them to people who would want them. Or, you can sell yourself.

The piece of advice I have to give when selling them yourself is that the person the comic book or movie or board game is most valuable to is you. If a game cost you $100 and you’ve played it twice and enjoyed it but won’t play it anymore for whatever reason, $80 seems like a reasonable price plus shipping to someone who is out of town. It’s going to run them $100 after shipping (shipping board games is expensive). I’d love to say that you’ll be able to get that value, but you likely won’t and as much as it might hurt, you might need to sell your memory for less than it seems worth. Spend time on Amazon and eBay figuring out the actual cost of an item used and if you are just going to list it locally on Craigslist or Facebook group, go slightly cheaper, even if it seems too cheap to you. These are things you determined you don’t need anymore and getting something for them is better than nothing, especially if you’re selling something so you can get money for your next nerdy hobby. Finally, opposite of that, there can be things that have a certain value to you and anything less won’t do. It might be because they are rare and worth that much or it might be that anything less than a certain amount isn’t worth losing the memory. However, that is a special case, don’t do that all the time.

I’ve Tried to Cull, but I Just Can’t Do It

It is tough, sometimes when looking at something you haven’t touched in years, you still can’t get rid of it. I’m not an expert on hoarding or I’m not going to tell you that you’re a hoarder. If you are, hopefully you can find someone to help you with that. But if it’s just tough to get rid of your old action figures that are sitting in a box in the basement, recruit some help. Have someone go through it with you and ask you a second time if you really need it. Or someone who can listen to your story about the game one last time and help you be tougher about getting rid of things. This part I don’t have much advice about because it’s something that is tough and personal for a lot of people. I don’t want to belittle what you’ve gone through with your hobby and the memories you have with them. It might help to also remember that those memories are yours even if you don’t have the action figure or board game or movie anymore. While they might work as a trigger for the memory, the memory itself will always be yours no matter if you have the item or not. Finally, it might help to remember you don’t need to do all of this at once. If you have six boxes of comic books that you want to go through, go through one of them and start there. You don’t have to go through all of them at once, because that loss can seem like a lot, but doing a little at a time and moving forward on it that way can help a lot to slowly clear out the parts of the collection that don’t mean as much anymore.

Hopefully these are some helpful suggestions. It’s tough, and I’m a pragmatic person so for me, culling things is easier than a lot of people, and it’s still tough for me. That’s why, with the board games, I want to give them away somewhere that I know people will enjoy them. Instead of just giving them away randomly to a Savers, I want to put them somewhere that I know where they are going, but also with the hope that they’ll be able to get people into board gaming and be there for a lot of people.

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I’ve talked before about managing your time as a nerd, but I want to take a more in-depth look at a trick that helps me maximize my free time, set goals for the things I want to tackle next, and even get a better sense for which of my many hobbies I most value and want to devote more time to. While your mileage may vary with this tool, I’ve certainly found it useful enough to want to pitch it to other nerds who might find themselves having the same difficulty I do.

I call it…the Hobby Calendar!

Lackluster name aside, I’m of the opinion that it’s one of the better ideas I’ve had in a while. The concept is simple, but I’ve found it really helps me stay focused and keep from being paralyzed with indecision every time I have a moment’s free time. I find myself thinking, “I could do anything…anything at all! But what will I choose?” and then end up waffling endlessly over it and consequently wasting a sizable chunk of that precious free time, without making progress on anything whatsoever.

Last year, I decided I’d had enough, and that it was time to take charge. So I sat down, opened up a new spreadsheet, and made a list of my main hobbies in one column. In another, I listed the months of the year, and then proceeded to arrange the hobbies by month in a way that I felt made sense. Here’s what I ended up with:

As you can see, there aren’t many moving parts, and there’s nothing to regularly record (yet, anyway); it mainly serves as a reminder for what’s coming up next. Unsurprisingly, choosing what to put where was the hardest part. Some of the choices were arbitrary, but there was a method to my madness for others — for example, November is National Novel Writing Month, so naturally, that one had to be writing. And I know February is always the month that I end up feeling apathetic and really bogged down by winter, so I picked video games for that month since it’s low-key, doesn’t require much work, and allows me to hibernate.

You’ll also see that some months are doubled up — instead of breaking my hobbies down into twelve different activities, I chose to keep things more broad so that, while the calendar removes the “blank canvas” effect, I still have some freedom to decide what “crafting” or “writing” means to me on a given day. However, this is another spot where you can change things up to work for you. Maybe you work better when things are parsed out in more detail, or maybe you like the freedom that comes with broader categories — either method can be useful; it just depends your preference.

I’ve been using my calendar since June, so I won’t come full circle until May, but so far, this method has been really helpful — and even eye-opening — for me. One thing I’ve realized is that the thing I most often wish I were doing when I’m doing something else is crafting. This tells me that when push comes to shove, if I really had to narrow it down, making stuff would be my top priority. Knowing this, I can proceed with planning future months accordingly (whether that means setting aside more time for crafty activities, or keeping more variety on the list so that I’m more likely to branch out and learn new stuff).

As I more or less expected, some months have gone better than others — for example, reading month was easy, since I can pick up a book for just a few minutes and still make a little progress, which isn’t something I can do with, say, a story I’m working on or a show I want to watch. And sometimes months just end up being really full and I don’t end up with much free time at all (Artwork month just wrapped up, and, well…let’s just say there are a lot of ideas in my head that haven’t made it to paper yet).

But regardless of what I accomplish in a particular month, the sense of focus I get from the calendar means that I still get more done than I would have otherwise. And beyond getting rid of some decision fatigue, the calendar helps me put aside the guilt I’d normally have while working on something, wondering if my time would have been better spent in another way. Say in February I spend an afternoon playing Legend of Zelda, and the thought strikes me that maybe I should be getting more done on the craft languishing on my shelf instead. But when that thought comes, I can just remind myself that it’s video game month, and regardless of what else I could be doing, this is what I’ve chosen to do, and therefore, I have permission to not feel bad about it. In fact, I can enjoy it even more because of that!

So, what do you think, friends? Would you give the hobby calendar a try? What are some other tricks you’ve found helpful in your quest to do All The Things?

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