Like – Just for an example – I want to play every video game, so I end up not playing none and instead just fucking around online with stuff that doesn’t require initiative. The only override I’ve found is involving other people, I always make time for an RPG session with my friends or for hanging out and such. But I have trouble starting stuff for myself.
What do?
Oh I just collect the things needed for the hobby. I don’t actually do the hobby.
I’m kind of the opposite, I’m surrounded by things to do, but the only time I think about doing them is when I can’t.
I put them all away except one per month. I rotate that each month (board game / book / CD).
On the computer I have a folder with a shortcut to one game, movie, TV show, audiobook, album and ebook. I delete the shortcuts when I’m done and make new ones next month. The folder lives on my taskbar/dock.
Hey, this is pretty good thinking, kind of an artificial limit that at least provides just enough friction so you don’t go off looking everything.
This could be useful for just about anything
Create artificial restrictions.
One year I decided I would only read ‘classics’ (pre-1950), one year I only read sci-fi, one year I only read Shakespeare’s plays, in chronological order as written.
In all of those years I read more than I did normally, with the added bonus that it pushed me to read things I might not have otherwise picked up.
For video games, something I’ve enjoyed in the past is a gaming alphabet: for a year, you keep a list of all 26 letters A-Z. Every time you start a game, it should be something you: A.) haven’t played before, and B.) the title should start with a letter you haven’t used yet.
It encourages you to scroll through your backlog and pick something different because it’s a letter you need. Plus, over the year you’ll build a list of all the games you played (you can add short reviews too!) which can be a fun look back later on.
I’m lucky, most of my interests are adjacent to each other and to what I do for a living. Its very easy for me to just pick something up to fuck with for a few minutes and then put down or sometimes let it develop into the new hyperfixation of the week. Really the lesson I learned is to keep those projects in front of me either figuratively or literally as much as I can and let my lizard brain munch on it for a while
I find it hard to jump between things too frequently. It’s all or nothing, more often. For video games I tried elite dangerous in VR and now that’s all I ever want to play. I needed a break from VR so I read books for most of a day, which restarted my drive to read a lot.
I guess it’s been, ‘make it somehow something that I have to tone down, instead of pushing myself to do more.’
Overwhelming choices and paralysis by analysis do that. You say you want to play EVERY game. That’s a huge amount of games. There are so many choices it’s overwhelming. Maybe try to at least narrow down to a genre? What usually works for me is that I’ll just pick something at random and start playing. After that I’m good.
It’s the same for me. Unluckily, I haven’t found a good solution yet.
