In one of the previous articles we explored the topic of Hobby Motivation: finding your inner reasons for the hobby, and getting clear vision of what do you actually want from miniature painting.

Then, when you've figured out your needs, and set your goals, comes the next part: what's the best way to achieve my hobby goals? Because, even when you have the motivation to do a hobby project, there's distractions on the way, and all kind of mistakes can happen.

You need to stay focused, organized, and manage your hobby well. This is a whole another topic, and today I'll give you my best tips and practices on achieving solid results in your hobby.

I know, there's a lot of new releases, and lots of unpainted miniatures already lying around, and new hobby ideas flood your head daily. Still, despite how tempting all the new stuff is...

Focus on one project at a time, until you complete it.

Because if you would switch to something else ("for just a couple of days"), the momentum would be lost, and you probably would never return to the initial project.

A lot of hobby folks (me included) have this little "hobby graveyard": stuff you've started, but never finished. Assembled and primed miniatures, half-painted units, and unfinished conversions.

Set a reasonable goal (paint 300 pts Nomad army, assemble and paint a set of terrain) and make it your focused project for the upcoming month or two.

It should fit into 2-3 month timeframe (for most people), otherwise there's a high risk that you would end up burned out, and the project would be dead. After those 2-3 month, you can carry on and set another similar goal (add these 7 blisters to my Nomad army) or switch to something different for the sake of variety (paint a unit of 20 Elven Archers).

While "2-3 month for a project" is a nice rule of thumb to determine adequate project length, this would vary greatly from person to person. That's why...

Know your burnout threshold.

This is the amount of time, spent on one hobby project, after which you will be burned out for sure.

This threshold is highly dependable on the amount of hobby time per week, and also on your nature, your temperament.

If you have, say, 1-2 hours of miniature painting per week, and you're calm and diligent person, then your project might easily take 4-6 months, or even a year. If you paint almost daily and have more of a hectic personality, then maybe 2-4 weeks is your absolute maximum.

Know your burnout threshold, an plan your projects UNDER that threshold. And if you realize that the task is too big — split it into smaller chunks.

While we dive into hobby for fun and relaxation, deadlines (as much as I hate them) are still a working tool to achieve results. But instead of slapping a random date and then trying to whip yourself into finishing a project in time...

Set a natural and fun deadline.

A natural deadline means there's some event existing in real world, contrary to a just a random date in your head. A fun deadline means you look forward to the occasion.

Gaming convention, tournament, a meetup with a friend from another city or country, a painting contest — are all examples of natural and fun deadlines. It's not that you have to paint your unit for a contest, but you would love to participate!

There are heaps of distractions that can took your attention away from miniature painting. A lot of them are nice and fun: movies, videogames, comic books, boardgames... you name it.

But these distractions can be used to bolster your hobby motivation, if you...

Immerse yourself into relevant media.

Are you painting Infinity or some other sci-fi? Then, for the time being, play X-Com / Deus Ex / Mass Effect, read Neuromancer, watch Altered Carbon and Ghost in the Shell, listen to White Noise and MayaCast.

Otherwise, if you would dabble into, say, Witcher 3, or re-reading Lord of the Rings, then suddenly you're all pumped up about orcs and elves and wizards... And those hackers and robots suddenly seem dull and distant.

Now, when you have your goal, deadline and relevant media to keep your imagination alive, it's time for the meaty part. And the first thing you should do is...

Plan the process.

Don't just dive into it, spend some time thinking. What color scheme would you use? What techniques best suit those miniatures and colors? What is the optimal sequence of steps you should take?

This definitely takes some experience to handle properly, and your first projects would be very underoptimized. Meaning, you'll make a lot of unnecessary steps, and spend a lot of time without getting any significant results.

LazyPainter Method is all about getting it right: optimizing the process and cutting down time costs. So hopefully the PSR Formula, the Speedpainting SAW, and the method itself would help you with your process. Check out this free PDF if you haven't done it already:

Since we're trying to optimize everything and bring timecosts down, it might be tempting to jump straight into it, and start painting your project as a batch paint process (doing 5-10-20 models at a time).

Don't.

Paint a test model first.

It takes a lot of experience to develop a cohesive paint scheme and efficient painting process. It's not easy to do it all in your head, without at least some experiments. So take one model, paint it to test your ideas, and then batch paint everything else.

And BTW, if you're unhappy with your experiments...

Don't strip your test model, just paint over. I really mean it. That Clipsos above was repainted 4-5 times. And you would never know that, if I wouldn't tell you myself.

How many times did you came back to painting your army, only to realize you don't remember the paints you've used? It's a pitfall we all encountered at least once. And if you don't want to fall into it again...

Write down the process.

It means just taking notes of steps, techniques and paints you've used. Any guide here on LazyPainter (like Ghulam Infantry Guide, or Combined Army Guide) is basically just a written down process.

You don't need anything fancy, you smartphone notes would do just fine (I do recommend Evernote app for that). Or, if you're really lazy (as I am), you can write down your processes like this:

That's why I like to put a big sheet of paper on my paintstation, and keep a pen somewhere around. Anytime I need it, I just take a pen and write, basically, ON my paintstation.

When you're happy with your test model, and when you got your process written down, it's time to take a pause and think. How can you...

Optimize the process.

Are there any unnecessary steps? Some techniques that don't bring much difference into the end result? Can this Layering be simplified into Washing? Can I forgo liquid masking and still do my airbrushing just right?

Take some time: it's better to spend 1 hour planning, than lose 10-20 hours due to a badly constructed process.

Again, LazyPainter Method is the right tool here, since you'll want to decrease Refining and improve Speedpainting (following the PSR Formula). In particular, pay attention to Speedpainting / Refining techniques list.

Finally, when you're painting miniatures and moving towards your goal, there's a small but important thing you should keep doing all the time:

Track time costs.

If you want to get better at miniature painting, and also improve your painting speed, you should track the time spent on your minis.

You could go Excel / Numbers / Google Sheets if you're a tech-geek like me, but simple paper notes would also do just fine. Anything like this should work:

Group of 5 Orcs
1 hour basecoating
2 hours airbrushing
1 hour washing
2 hours details
6 hours total, 1:12 per miniature

This practice would help you to optimize your painting. You'll notice your "time-eaters" in miniature painting — steps and techniques that take a lot of time, but produce barely noticeable difference.

Also, it's very satisfying to see progress: let's say, what took you 5-10 hours couple of years ago, is now doable in 2 - 2.5 hours. Or 1 hour. Or 30 minutes.

So this is my take on staying focused and organized in your hobby. I followed these practices throughout the years, and it helped me to finish hobby projects — despite me being a very lazy person.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!