How to Use Your Hobby Procrastination to Make Progress 

I have some issues with procrastination, but I can deal with those tomorrow...

I was a music major in undergrad. I got so much trumpet practice in my senior year while avoiding writing my papers.

Here’s some more advice: Buy a set of rank and file minis that you have to paint the same way. Whenever you have trouble getting to painting a large or special model, paint the rank and file models. You will be bored into painting other things.

I've had two larger procrastination phases (once 2 years, once 4 years, out of 16 years in the hobby) that were both caused by having piled up so many miniatures that one day I just felt overwhelmed and thought I could never get them all done and that I had wasted a lot of money. What got me out of it both times was a painting lottery: I would list all the tings I had left (grouped into squads if possible) and all the terrain projects and side projects I wanted to do. Then I generated a random number, painted the squad that was on that point of the list, removed it from the list and then repeated that. It really gives you the feeling of hitting the jackpot when getting a special unit, and motivates to finish the current squad so you can get the next lottery ticket. The problem with amazing new stuff that comes out all the time I tackled by having another list whete I ranked everything I wanted to have. Everytime I had stuff painted that was worth three times as much as the thing I would have to buy, I added it to my painting list (not buying it immediately, only when I "won" it in the lottery!). Now I'm a very organized person when it comes to the hobby and I'm sure this is not for everyone, but I hope that helps at least someone out as it did for me. Keep painting people! ;)

Today I learned that talking to my family is stupid and soviets are like tyranids.

Alright I'll finish this video tomorrow

Sound advice. I have a horrible procrastination problem - switching gears is always the cure. For me, it usually has to to be a change of sphere (painting to writing to yard work to cleaning to work). The more stuff that I have to get done in a day, the more productive I am. If I have to squeeze 30 minutes of painting in over lunch or skip it entirely, I'll get more done than a suddenly free two hours in the evening.

This kind of Content is exactly why I like you and your channel! Thanks man!

Well I do this often but was not really "procrastinating" was more "ADD", because I will get all kinds of ideas and just rush to start them. I tend to start anywhere from 5 to 10 projects easily at a time. I would start them all, get the ground work in place and then stick to finishing up one. But when I get stuck or bored I would do something else. Like recently I got my Mollog's Mob that I wanted to paint Mollog for competition, spent 22 hours just on the mushroom tops on his shoulders, decided I need to take a break. Finished his batsquig as I play the game as well. Started to assemble my nighthuant for aos. Now playing with resins and some terrain pieces I haven't finished up yet. Will go back to Mollog once I am ready to put another 3 weeks, 2 hours a night down in a row. Thanks Uncle Atom, now I know what I can call this and make it seem planned xP

I don't paint miniatures, but I have been trying to teach myself to draw on and off for a long time. My motivation keeps slacking, and distractions and time wasters abound, bringing about ever too frequent procrastination. Content like this on your channel is really inspiring and helpful. Thank you so much!

Instead of trying to paint models, you should try to clean. Then you will procrastinate from that instead by painting.

"or talk to your family you know, or other dumb stuff like that" lol lol

This is what I’ve been doing. I’m getting tired of painting Dwarves for my KOW/AOS armies and have been taking a break by kitbashing and painting models for a home brew D&D game I’m working on. Plus commissions for terrain helps give me options to keep things fresh.

I wish you came out with these short videos more often! It's very relaxing while I'm busting out work at the office while filling my head with some good discussion and different point of views. I've enjoyed all your videos since I discovered your channel a couple months ago. Keep it up! And thank you!

I often times will go play with my daughter, exercise, or yard work to clear my head. It is amazing what a 30 minute session of child play or exercise can do.

sometimes i feel that my procrastination is a product of choosing between i have stuff to do and between i got nothing at all that and maintain the moment when you are full of hope and energy to actually focus all your attention on what truly matters

My best advice for anyone struggling with a project is to remember it's a hobby. It should be fun. It's a great feeling when you look at an army you have painted all assembled and based but most people buy more than they can paint, most people have painted things they have not gamed with. I think this is our hobby. Each person will have a certain amount of grey plastic they can have unbuilt before they build it, a certain amount of built grey miniatures they can have built before they get painted and a certain amount of painted miniatures before they hit the table top. I think no one in this hobby will have everything painted and played with but this is our hobby and we must remember we do this for fun not to stress out about it.

Fear of my models looking like ass is what causes me to procrastinate the most, but I always get over it eventually.

7:53 you've hit on something profound in my work life. My team uses Scrum to manage our work, you take a task and work on it till it's done. Scrum teams don't value half finished work, there's no space for flitting between tasks. If you burn out on one task, too bad - you don't get to do anything else till it's finished. When I went freelance, this was precisely what I wanted to avoid. I wanted to manage my own work flow. That hasn't worked out, at least on this contract I'm essentially an expensive temp. Anyway, I'm prone to a host of mental health issues. Because I've burnt out, that's triggered a depression, so I'm off sick and completely unproductive. Thanks to this video, I've figured out what I need for my next contract, and that's more autonomy. Cheers Atom, I owe you a beer!

I'm very aware of this, if I'm struggling with painting I try to have other projects in place to keep me active, that's why I love that shadespire came out, now I have painting, terrain building, scratch building filming videos and now deck building to rotate through. 😁 Great vid fella!

Hey Atom i just got into the hobby half a year ago and i must really thank you for the vids they really help a beginner like me out

Thank you for this talk. I tried very hard last night not to edge highlight some primaris inceptors. I tried so hard, that I painted up one of the Dark Vengeance chaos cultists I had lying around to a level rank and file cannon fodder like him probably does not always get treated to. I am afraid that cultists is my best work yet. You helped me make a breakthrough with my painting skill. Again, thank you.

"Vacuuming the fridge" heck yeah I'm claiming that one next the wife asked me if I've done anything around the house xD

I with I could "like" this video a thousand times.

I'm procrastinating the moving of a heavy bed headboard into the basement while I'm watching this video. ;) I have rotated through parts of the hobby (and other hobbies, too), painting/building models, painting/models from another army, building/painting DIY scenery & terrain, building and designing game tables & game table tops, and playing the game. I am also a member of a local hackerspace and with plenty of weird side projects to jump into. Right now, the interior of the hackerspace is being remodeled. That gets me out of the hobby until I'm longing to sit down for some painting/modeling time.

I’m currently building and painting 3 AoS armies rn. Between nurgle and stormcast I can suggest moving between nearly opposite styles to help prevent roadblocks. I don’t look at 3 projects as ambitious, I see it as refreshing given their vast differences. Also, a weird tip for me at least, when you plan on painting don’t pull up RU-vid. Spend one day doing research and another painting. At least in my case one of the biggest causes of procrastination is the rabbit hole I’ll fall into if I keep over researching and watching videos on nights I set aside to paint. Blessed to have endless content but sometimes the anxiety surrounding preparation becomes a very real mental hurdle and RU-vid doesn’t put paint on the model. Thanks for all you do!

I used to have problems mostly with worrying how things would turn out, but got over that (a solid 16 year hiatus from wargaming helped I got older) One thing I do different now is get a lot of things assembled prepped & primed at once, from all different games & some scenery too usually. The other thing is I almost always mix my paints myself from about 15 base colours, which adds to my enjoyment but also I find I have a fair bit of paint mixed at times so I start doing more models as well so not to waste it.

While uncle Atom likes to be in one mode of either painting or building, I love to switch when I feel like procatrinating. I'm usually painting more than one figure (type) at once, and sometimes I get sick of painting. I look between my stuff for what needs to be build and start building to change it up. Keeps me working on the hobby.

Would love to give a golden, neon giant thumb up- loved the part with the dirt and the bug

Great Advice. The main thing that I get hung up on is waiting for models and then when they finally come in it getting back started.

Thanks for the advice Uncle. I made the mistake of watching this at 5:00am before work and woke my daughter with my laughter. You're quite funny you know! 👍👍

This kind of video then reading the comments for other peoples strategies, like a painting lottery genius, in why I watch you videos!

Hahahaha love this one. The "i should go do yard work" bit is absolutely classic.

"Every surface I see, I want to... cover in stuff." - That is me in a nutshell.

I love the tongue in cheek style of this one Uncle Atom! A helpful video with a great sense of humor!

What breaks my procrastination when I get ahead of my army project is admitting a small amount of defeat and letting something be painted by commission. That cost hit when I get the model back and see what I could achieve if I get moving myself proves to be a good muse to get me going again. :)

I tend to rearrange furniture when I hit a wall with my hobby stuff. i find that the ergonomics of a project can change, so changing the workspace helps me a lot. I've recently had to find more room for painted stuff, so i've incorporated more display cabinets into my current toy room setup.

Adam I don't know what I'd do without your videos brother.

Just a thought ob how to stay self motivated. I like to start many very versatile projects at the same time all connected to the hobby and depending on each other. When it comes to painting there will always come the point of when it starts to "feel like work" instead of fun. To overcome this point I usually buy new, motivating figures or colors, which pushes me forward for a little time longer. Still, tricking your own brain doesn't work for long.This is why I started to build huge landscapes to play on. What I needed for it was to learn how to build a fitting table from scratch (lots of fun working with wood). Was a great experience and I now know for sure: I am no carpenter :-). Still the table was created and I started to create the actual table-top terrain project which is ongoing. Currently its lot of fun and I become so excited to play on it. Therefore I need my "painted" figures ... :-) That motivates me to move back to painting my miniatures. Things that are very important for me to get started: - Turn off media (except for musik radio etc.) ..--> They will keep you pending in an stand-by mode ... -Have a clear goal that you can achieve for the time being: Painting all heads or all legs of 5 figures etc. If more is possible: Wonderful -Don't be an overachiever: Hobby and happy should be one word and go along with each other. When what you do feels different from that, just change something. It should make you happy and proud. Its creative and also challenging to become better. Still don't get frustrated. - When you dont want to paint or think you will never finish all of the 20 Armies you bought and the 2000 Kickstarter figures, than take a break. Make a plan and decide which comes first and what for. Priming all models can already push you to a point that satisfies you from 0% progress to 5%. That was enough for me to get all Zombicide Figures out of my head. - Playing the games: When my wife ,kids and friends yell at me to "get there figure" painted, its getting serious ( In case of your wife and kids: For get the fun part, its work, get the job done :-).

Steal Like An Artist is, pound for pound, one of the best books you'll ever read.

I put my procrastination to use getting ready to get back to work. Which normally involves tidying. I find the fewer barriers (often measured in seconds) that I have to just being able to... go, the more likely I will just sit and start. So if I have to move 5 things out of the way then prep my wet pallet it is less likely to happen than if I can just sit, pick up the mini and a brush and get painting. There was a metaphor about the 'wall' that stops you from starting. It comes from mental health circles and is kind of like "I don't have far to go to start but I have this wall I have to cross first that others don't" and often takes quite the while of psyching yourself up to do so. I decided to "start putting step ladders" in front of it. Which was working well and now my gf does it with her ADHD and gets results. For me though the walls got knocked down by meds but that is a bit off topic. Still, putting those ladders when I can't get myself to start makes it so much easier to start next time. And often once I've prepped things (to the point where I'm not wasting paint or the like of course) I often do start anyway.

I do the sorting out real jobs when I cannot do my hobbies. I like this idea of productive procrastination.

I'm actually pulling myself out of a procrastination slump. I play Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) in Warhammer 40,000 and I am relatively new to the hobby. When I first started painting my small army (90 models) I only got about 10% done before I was pulled away from all hobbies for a year. When I finally came back I was a bit intimidated from starting to paint again. My solution to pull myself out of the slump took a few mental tricks. 1. Set limits, deadlines, and goals: I decided to keep it simple, 1 10 man squad a week until they were all done. 2. Dont dig yourself deeper: I decided not to buy any more models until my current full army was fully painted. 3. Play with paint schemes: I started painting using the standard Cadian colour scheme that you see on all the boxes. Ive since moved on to slightly altering it to kind of personalize the army. 4. Don't just paint: I get bored easily. So to keep the focus on building the models, I set youtube playlists, podcasts, and whatever else I can so I can paint while listening to something else to keep the mind busy while I work. Hopefully this works for me. Im currently at 30 out of 90 models painted and I feel like I'll be the first of my group of friends to field a fully painted army ^_^

i 100% agree with you, i find it difficult to sit and paint more than 5 marines, i wash the dishes, clean the kitchen and by the time i'm finished i'm ready to paint again.

Procrastination is like a pile of would.

Love this video! My wife and I call this hobby ADD. I always have at least 3 different hobbies, and 2 house projects to switch to as nothing holds my attention for long.

Additional: The author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the late Douglas Adams, suffered from terrible writer's block. However if you owned an Apple Mac you could phone him up and he would debug it for you over the phone - that was his 'procrastination' and why he never hit a deadline. His best line ever was: "I love deadlines… I love the whooshing sound they make as they go past…"

It's what I love about my current project. I'm paiting up the two warhammer quest games and there's just so much variety. One week nurgle the next a dwarf and now blue horrors

Hey Atom, this video hit a sweet spot for me. I've been in university for 3 years and left this summer with a single assignment left before I can finally get my IT degree. Went the entire summer without lifting a finger and despite having so much free time, I never got it done. Instead, I started working at my part time gig again and promptly remembered how much it sucks and voila, currently fixing up the assignment and I'm hoping to have my degree by next week. I'm not into minis myself, but find your videos really interesting and am planning to pick up a few figures - skaven maybe? - early next year, just to get myself into another hobby which will drain my bank balance back down to zero!

I procrastinated while in University... then grad school... then my internship. 8 years later the pile is larger as I had the money to buy but never the time to do anything. Its good to have time again to get back into painting.

I've got two mats on the desk. One is for painting, the other for terrain building. I find it useful to have a project on each that I can jump between.

Couldn't help but laugh out loud when you talked about doing important stuff in life, which is of course painting little plastic men. To the point where my wife (a 'normal' adult) looked at me in a weird way, but you know, she's wrong...

@tabletop minions: awesome video, for me, when I lose focus I switch to organizing my hobby area.

This method has led me to have a bunch of half painted models all over my painting table. I can see that working for other people though

I've been dealing with 3 Furioso dreadnoughts, a Primaris Captain and a Primaris Ancient. I decided to paint one dread to completion rather than production line, and now I'm painting a terminator captain instead of looking at any of the other stuff. The 2 dreads and Primaris are strongly fixed in the 'I don't wanna' pile, but I've managed to keep productive

I definitely have to deal with my never ending procrastination a lot. I actually managed to switch from an Infinity mini which I am currently working on to a terminator librarian that has been sitting on my desk for forever and at least painted the silver-y bits yesterday. It's the little things. It didn't really spark anything and didn't make me want to paint more, but at least I tried and got a little. it done in the process.

Oh, the luxury of having time to Hobby-procrastinate :)

And... sorry bout that I pushed he wrong button as I was saying I am going back to work two days from now and I’ve decided to paint my death army by hand although I could airbrush but it’s fun to hand paint too. So I’m going to paint them with a brush. Looking at this video sorta steered me back into focus. Thanks brother without you I’d be lost.

Thanks for this Vid Uncle Atom, I've been procrastinating really bad for the last 2 weeks. I really want to finish up my Shadespire models. Time to get painting!

just joined your channel... its easy to listen to you voice and way of taking. I also like your subject matters you bring up. I stopped painting little men months ago... working on designing a boardgame right now... but i will return at some point... maybe star saga when i get.

I usually end up cleaning my workspace when I'm procrastinating. At least I'm making things less aggravating for when I DO get work done.

This sounds like a really good idea for me. A year ago I got so sick of painting Skaven while feeling a pressure to get it done before moving on to anything else I just went back to videogames and stuff. Getting back into it now and bought some Adeptus Mechanicus I intended to get to after completing the horde of rats, but think I'll try this approach instead and shift between the two. Seems like a simple idea but one I'd forced myself away from even considering, so thanks.

Oh yes. Not only is every flat table in my basement covered in half-completed models, but those half-completed models keep multiplying. Let's start on my Krei....Ohhh, new Primaris Marines.

Very good advice, thank you!

In a pretty serious slump. I don’t have a dedicated gaming/painting space. So every time I want to paint I have to unpack everything from a bin, do my thing, and then pack everything back up. It’s a chore. Trying to find a work around, but with limited space available to me, it’s the best I can do.

For me, my problems with procrastination partly comes from work/home/hobby balance. Only so many hours in the day and a lot of people to please. I have found with myself its easier to say "I don't have time for that today" then committing to sitting down and have to step away because home life needs attending to. Something I try to do to combat this is have something, usually rank and file minis (atm Skull Pass Dwarf Warriors) and just put some layers on them whenever I have a chance to. Slow going, but progress is usually made.

I suffer from procrastination. I purchased my first Warhammer set in 1995, I was fascinated by the Ultramarines I had purchased but I couldn’t paint so I didn’t buy anymore miniatures. Then after staring at the poor paint job for 15 years I eventually purchased some new sets in 2010, but the next year I moved country and left the models at home. I then purchased some more sets in 2012 with the hope of painting them, which I did a basecoat but nothing else. I then moved back home and completely forgot about it for a few years, so it has basically taken me 23 years to apply a basecoat to two sets of miniatures. So now I have just started buying pro painted miniatures to play a bit of catch up. Lol. I expect I will be painting in the next 10 to 20 years.

My hobby room looks like a scale model of a junkyard with a real sized waste bin emptied over it.

I always have a small skirmish team (right now shadespire warbands) sitting next to my painting table so I can grab it if I get burnt out /bored /need a break from whatever main project I have.

You need to watch Shawn's (BTP) video about the "tomato timer method" for time management. It's been AWESOME!!

yes i have problems with procrastination, but its generally with stuff outside of the hobby, but one thing I have found to help, if that when i get kinda sick or bored of paining my own stuff, i paint some of my cousins army, since he plays another nation than mine, i find that a nice break, and vice versa, when im getting sick of painting his stuff, i paint some of my own.

Oh and we love ❤️ you Atom

For me it's more that I get tired of painting a certain thing and need to switch it up. I get tired painting Space Wolf power armor, I switch to painting Orks, get tired of that, switch to Eldar Jetbikes, get tired of that, it's Slaven's turn, and so on...

Unfortunately, the hobby is my current go-to when I *am* procrastinating... But an interesting video as always! These sorts of talks would make great podcasts.

Well, I'm sort of miracle in the procrastination field. I bought what I thought to be (at least at the time) lots of eldars (48 guardians, fire prism, etc...) in 2002 and never painted them, they where still on the sprue... until last year where I had an urge to paint something. And guess what, I've almost finished (and i'll repaint some miniatures as they don't use the same scheme as the new miniatures) painting my eldars. Yes it took time. But I managed to paint them, one miniature after another. What changed? I can't really tell you. Now I'm painting or doing terrain regularly, and I even started to buy new miniatures (as I almost painted everything I had...)

Just built my shadespire minis, dreading painting them as it's been a while. So, going to switch back to tweaking, customising Armada models...at least until I fill a few tiny gaps also in the Shadespire minis.

I've been using the hobby to procrastinate; probably a bit too much. I've been writing a novel for the past 3 years but for the last couple of months it's been on that back burner as I've been painting my minis and while watching this video I realised if I didn't do other things all the time I probably would have finished my novel about 2 years ago. So I think I'm going to try and write as much as I paint.

If you are bored, just don't do it. If you are overwhelmed then give yourself a break and slow down. Find a reason to be excited about what you are doing. Don't just do something because you think you want to do it, know why you want to do it.

I see the title: "This is exactly what I need!!!"

Apt video, I just finished a 10man intercessor squad..started a 5 man hellblaster squad and just got BURNT OUT... you can only paint red/black for so long. So I swapped to a Reiver...sorta the same thing..so that didn't work..so I watched a little netflix and read a bit. Still not back at it..but I can see it coming on the horizon

This is perfect timing for me

I always have different painting projects going on and I often switch between painting and building and I have different hobbies as well in which I also have some projects that I want to have done. I have a lot to switch to and I will always make some progress with something.

Man, it;s like uncle read my mind this week. I've been struggling to finish my first platoon of Imperial guard. i have my last 5 troopers to base and then move onto my chimera but i seriously lack any interest after painting up 5 heavy weapon teams, 3 sentinels, 1 leman russ a commissar and 15 other troopers. So yesterday i went to my local model store and picked up some space marines, and i'm so excited to start prepping and painting them. I've chosen the blood ravens as my chapter of choice. I will get my 5 platoons of cadians finished but the task is ALOT bigger than i thought, so when i lose interest I'll flick to a blood ravens army.

I've literally hit the point where I've ran out of steam with my Sylvaneth, I really want to paint some Primaris but I've already painted them all, and I've got no more anything left to build. I've hit an impasse that can only be filled by RU-vid until such a time as I decide to correct a mistake on a treelord and end up painting dryads for a whole weekend.

Excellent book indeed. :)

This advice works great with college! You will eventually wear totally down from studying and working,,,, then it's time to PAINT!

I love your videos! Thank you for sharing your experiences. Procrastination is a bain of all human existance. ^_^

I do it all time and works great. I am also allowed to do things like removing mouldlines at work so every single bit of time with free hands I procrastinate this way :D Thanks to it best part is for home :)

I really should finish painting Mortarion... but at least I'm working on my stormcast army

I keep meaning to watch this vid, but I'll add it to Watch Later.

"Cleanse your mental palate" - I like that! :) :) :)

I usually have the opposite problem where painting is my procrastination when I should be studying

The primary reason procratination occours, for me, is the fact that I paint black power armour. I love my black templars on the tabletop but painting them can be seriously boring. I usually work on my D&D campaign to get a little hobby variety, which often includes painting a lot of AoS models

My biggest issue is getting thematically burned out, and hating the idea of sitting back down to the slog of building and painting. The same colour schemes, the same type of figure, gear, etc. for weeks on end can really kill your motivation to keep going. In my case, the solution was to switch up my focus. If I get tired of fantasy, I work on some Sci-Fi. If I get tired of Sci-Fi, I work on some historicals. This tends to keep the process more compelling, as the topic, how I think about it, and my approach to it changes gears. Basically, keeping my interest fresh = less procrastination.

For my art, the thing that I procrastinate on the most is the fiddly bits of designing a first prototype. I get 3/4 of the way through, and all the ideas are fresh, then I get to all the little clips/flanges/chamfers/etc... that I put off and I want to stop.... forever....

It's taken me almost three years to paint HALF of a Blood Angels Tac Squad... and I find the BA range to be fun models to paint :(

Honestly, I don;t have procrastination issues with the hobby. I have time budgeting issues, there's just to many other things going on. I'm going to build a wet pallette to see if that helps, since I won't have to worry about leaving paint out to dry when I go to do something else.

Currently I don't face procrastination so much as only school.

Hey... This is my kind of video! It"s right up my particular vernacular... Patreon funding will follow next month... Yeh, seriously! 💸

Lots of issues, hehe! One thing I can do when I've those kind of issues is turn on my computer and play MWO with a stock Dragon battlemech and try to be a better kurita pilot. ;)