Dealing with Hobby Burnout

[Moonglum_]

I very much get this can’t relax in the space the day job occurs. During Covid when I first started working from home I just started using my computer on the same desk that I used for craft stuff. After a while I found that this was a problem as I couldn’t really switch off from work, seeing ‘work’ sitting there, nor did I do much hobby stuff as the same desk was used both.

Fortunately eldest went to Uni, so was able to move to her room!

I’d suggest moving your painting stuff en masse to the dining room - so it is at least to hand to paint on the dining room table, perhaps setup up some portable painting kits. And add a small light to help - I find good light essential. If we go away for a week, and I take some hobby stuff, I’ll nearly always take a light with me, the led ones are pretty compact.

I'm in the boat where I need to transport gear around the house to paint as I am currently in a very small space and try to paint away from my work desk, which typically means I end up on the kitchen counter or small living/dining room table. I'm actually curious how some people handle their setups in small spaces, portable kits etc, but that may warrant a new thread.

[Easy E]

I keep all my painting stuff stashed when not in use. 

I am surprised that this has not been a barrier for me to start painting.  Plus, the clean space the rest of the time is nice to look at. 

I find if I leave a project out, paradoxically; it is harder for me to sit down and work on it.  Unpacking the painting gear helps me switch gears and tell my brain that it is painting time.

[Moonglum_]

I keep all my painting stuff stashed when not in use. 

I am surprised that this has not been a barrier for me to start painting.  Plus, the clean space the rest of the time is nice to look at. 

I find if I leave a project out, paradoxically; it is harder for me to sit down and work on it.  Unpacking the painting gear helps me switch gears and tell my brain that it is painting time.

That's interesting. Any crafty hobby I've ever had I find that I always wish that I could leave things as they are for the night and just sit down and get back to it the next day. Having to stash everything has indeed always been a barrier for me.

I would hate to be able to see the mess, but I would only have this kind of setup in a space that is dedicated to it and not in a part of the house frequented by myself and others.

[syrinx0]

Tsundoku is the Japanese word for collecting reading material, piling it up for later but never getting around to it.

Didn't realize there was a name for that habit of mine. 

I have always had few hobbies and often rotate one to the back burner for months or longer. My basement office has a dedicated desk where I worked before I retired, a 6 ft folding table for my painting, multiple shelving units and two smaller fish tanks. My painted stuff has its own shelves in a storage area with my airbrush setup. Never realized how much stuff I had accumulated over 35 years until our gaming group shutdown and it all came home.  I have been cataloging and selling off stuff over the last year or two and that has energized my painting again.

Due to the maintenance, my fish keeping tends to have 5-10 year gaps between set ups and the tanks get smaller every time. For health reasons I doubt I will set up another tank after the fish in the ones I currently have die. That is one hobby where burnout is very real for me.

[HerbertTarkel]

When I face the anxiety of my pile, I sell it off. Just get rid of it.

Do I lose money? Yeah. Do I keep my sanity? I mean, maybe.

[zemjw]

I can't really say that I've faced hobby burnout.

Are there individual projects that I've soured on - definitely. Did I start to find excuses not to work on them - yes. However, I fixed that by giving myself permission to fail, shoved the project in a drawer and found something new on the pile.

The hobby itself is more of a refuge from the stuff happening in the real world, so I look forward to slapping paint on figures or gluing things together.

I try to cycle through fantasy, science fiction and modern/post apocalypse stuff, so if I find fantasy losing its pull, I just focus on one of the others for a bit.

I don't follow any of the big games, so, while I buy some figures from GW if I like them, there's no pressure to keep up to date. My hobby is buying, painting and, all too infrequently, playing, all at my own pace.

[Dubar]

My problem is I have too many hobbies!!!

Gaming, golfing, target shooting/gun collecting, O scale trains, just not enough time or money for them all.  The golfing and guns thing has cooled down a lot to the point that I don't do either to keep proficient.  Having achieved my "Holy Grail" in guns has caused a slow down for sure, always wanted a Luger.

[syrinx0]

I used to shoot as well.  Decided to sell off everything but my some old family revolvers due to age. Friend picked up a WWII luger with stock & holster from an estate sale. Beautiful gun but I almost couldn't chamber the damn thing!

[Elbows]

Shooting is a good way to realize how cheap wargaming is.  Thankfully I don't golf nor race cars.  I too have a Luger, a beautiful 1916 DWM model, even.

Regarding Herbert's post above...that's also a good idea for a lot of things.  I am fascinated by the local 40K gamers around my area who insist on asking for just-shy-of-MSRP for used 40K models, and then complaining that no one has bought them.

When I sell off something, I take a big a cut as I'm willing to, in order to simply get the box out of the house.  Waiting for five months to make an extra $5-10 on a box of miniatures is stupid.  Take the loss, get the box out of your house and the box off your brain, and move on.  If you're having to sell your used 40K models to afford to eat (and in some instances...I don't doubt that's the case) well then that's another story entirely.

It baffles me even more seeing guys go to conventions...bring a van-load of old games and minis, and then price themselves so high they don't sell anything, and they truck it all back to the van after the weekend is over, having sold three items and made $45...while paying $100 for the vendor space.  I'm not great at business, but that ain't it.

[syrinx0]

Regarding Herbert's post above...that's also a good idea for a lot of things.  I am fascinated by the local 40K gamers around my area who insist on asking for just-shy-of-MSRP for used 40K models, and then complaining that no one has bought them.

I rarely begin a listing for an assembled and painted 40K model less than MSRP unless it's really beat up. Depending on the rarity of the model it usually sells for quite a bit more. If the market ignores it for a few cycles then I begin lowering my price.  I don't mind waiting awhile for them to sell - after all they are resting on the same shelf they have been on for years. 

[Dubar]

Shooting is a good way to realize how cheap wargaming is.  Thankfully I don't golf nor race cars.  I too have a Luger, a beautiful 1916 DWM model, even.

It baffles me even more seeing guys go to conventions...bring a van-load of old games and minis, and then price themselves so high they don't sell anything, and they truck it all back to the van after the weekend is over, having sold three items and made $45...while paying $100 for the vendor space.  I'm not great at business, but that ain't it.

That is so true!  I managed to acquire a number of WW2 bolt-action rifles, ammo prices for an Arisaka, Carcano, Lee-Enfield, Mosins, even Springfields, has gone thru the roof.  It hits home every time I pull the trigger...$2.50 down range with each pull for some of those calibers.  I don't have the space or desire anymore to reload and some of those calibers is hard to find these days.  For a box of 20 rounds I can get a whole of of 28mm minis!!!

I'll go to model train shows if there's one here close in Virginia, I see the same ole dealers, same ole stuff every show.  They somehow think that stuff is rare and ask way more than it's worth.  Like you said they keep dragging it out and packing it up every couple of weeks making the show circuits.

[Mr. White]

I don't know if I'm feeling burnout at the moment, but certainly a lack of motivation. I think this is due to multiple factors.

I had a goal to paint 100% of my queue by end of the year. I'm gonna miss it by just one project (two sides for Lion/Dragon Rampant). I've already got the models assembled as well as the terrain I want to use for these games. However...

I've been feeling... "what's the point of it all" lately. I've been in this hobby for over 40 years. I have tons of models already painted. some never used and most are certainly not used enough. I feel like I already have too much.

Time is flying by at this age. My son graduates HS in a few months then is off. My daughter is about to enter HS. Neither of them are minis gamers. Maybe I don't put as much energy in this hobby atm and ensure I'm spending more time with them.

We're also thinking about a move across the country (from Texas to New England). It feels like a good opportunity to downsize. If I'm downsizing... do I need to paint up more? Maybe I should even get rid of some of what I have. I dunno. Previous spells of selling off painted models in the past have usually led to regret, but I dunno, maybe I'm feeling the weight of age or less confident in future prospects that time I spend painting little mens isn't as relaxing as it once was? Maybe I should just speak to a therapist...

[Moonglum_]

I don't know if I'm feeling burnout at the moment, but certainly a lack of motivation. I think this is due to multiple factors.

I had a goal to paint 100% of my queue by end of the year. I'm gonna miss it by just one project (two sides for Lion/Dragon Rampant). I've already got the models assembled as well as the terrain I want to use for these games. However...

I've been feeling... "what's the point of it all" lately. I've been in this hobby for over 40 years. I have tons of models already painted. some never used and most are certainly not used enough. I feel like I already have too much.

Time is flying by at this age. My son graduates HS in a few months then is off. My daughter is about to enter HS. Neither of them are minis gamers. Maybe I don't put as much energy in this hobby atm and ensure I'm spending more time with them.

We're also thinking about a move across the country (from Texas to New England). It feels like a good opportunity to downsize. If I'm downsizing... do I need to paint up more? Maybe I should even get rid of some of what I have. I dunno. Previous spells of selling off painted models in the past have usually led to regret, but I dunno, maybe I'm feeling the weight of age or less confident in future prospects that time I spend painting little mens isn't as relaxing as it once was? Maybe I should just speak to a therapist...

A therapist can never hurt. More generally though, it looks like maybe you're just at point where you should be putting as much time as you can into playing the game as you don't need to be painting much of anything at all anymore. That's a spot many people would like to be at. Sounds like you have enough inventory to create all kinds of games. If you don't have any regular opponents then perhaps the new challenge can be finding some likeminded folks to get games going with. The social interaction and being able to actually use all this stuff you put so much time, money and effort into is only going to be good for your mental health.

And as that may take some time, spin up some cool solo projects and put effort into documenting them for others to see. Show off all your stuff!

[Belligerentparrot]

I've been feeling... "what's the point of it all" lately. I've been in this hobby for over 40 years. I have tons of models already painted. some never used and most are certainly not used enough. I feel like I already have too much.

....
Maybe I should just speak to a therapist...

A therapist isn't necessarily a bad option if you can afford one, but I suspect this board can provide you with quite the support group. 

Your post made me realise more clearly what I'd been trying to say earlier in the thread. I've never suffered burnout, but I certainly have felt a kind of saturation. There was one point a few years ago where I was really, really enjoying converting small sci-fi warbands in the 40k setting, and looking at each new release for useful conversion ideas. Then it hit me - how many of these warbands do I actually need?* What is the point in yet another one? - and I lost the buzz for it pretty much immediately.

That wasn't burnout though, I came to see I was happy with what I had and didn't need more. I'd reached saturation point. If that's where you're at too, I hope it also feels like a good place to be. It worked for me, anyway.

*64 turned out to be the answer to this question.

[Arbedark]

I’d suggest moving your painting stuff en masse to the dining room - so it is at least to hand to paint on the dining room table, perhaps setup up some portable painting kits. And add a small light to help - I find good light essential. If we go away for a week, and I take some hobby stuff, I’ll nearly always take a light with me, the led ones are pretty compact.

I used to do all my painting on the dining room table pre covid but got threatened by the good lady wife to decamp all of it to the spare room or it would "be cleared away" for me!