I'm having trouble. I have plenty of project,s and the resources to do them. Many are small projects that wouldn't take more than a night, like adding ballast or making trees. However, I just cannot start them. Even projects I'm excited about, I can do little on them.

Everytime I truly have the free time to work on something, I get this feeling of anxiety, I just cannot sit down. I feel like I have something to do, even though I'm done with my chores, and have no college related obligations.

I feel like I can't make any use of my fleeting moments of free time. Its as if my time is valuable, and I shouldn't waste it on "fun" things, yet I have no "serious" things to do, so I end up doing absolutely nothing.

Even if i try to force myself down and finish a project, I'll collect all the tools and parts to do what I need to, but then it all just sits there, ready to go. I tend to just walk away and wander aimlessly or eat something, aka, being 100% unproductive (which hurts to admit).

Does anyone else have these feelings every once in a while? What do you do about them? the hobby is supposed to help me relax, but i can't bring myself to even begin enjoying it. :cry:

Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:Does anyone else have these feelings every once in a while? What do you do about them?

There's only one person who can live my life. Me.
When there's choices, I look at the benefits, and the consequences of each, and choose which thing I will do. Whether it is for me, or for others, the choices are mine.
Even if the choice ends up being the accomplishment of absolutely nothing at all, it's still my choice. I have taken ownership of the moments that I have been given, and live each one, as I see they should be lived.
Again, whether it turns out to be "me time" , or time to do for another, in the end, the choice was mine.
I do, seriously consider the consequence of my choices, and sometimes they outweighs the benefit, so what I do may not be exactly what I wanted at the moment, but it is the right choice when all is said and done. That, is what "I do about them", and it has worked reasonably well these last 68 years.

If you want to try to get past the current inertia you feel maybe you could plan the smallest project that would take little time to complete. Might get the ball rolling again. Sometimes my layout is a daily source of fun, recreation, and activity. Other times I don't look at it for several days. Life is full of disractions and changing priorities. I'm guessing that your life is pretty full with college and other things so maybe its OK to just go with the "down time" and take a little break for a while? I'll bet your interest in model railroading and focus on working on hobby projects will resurge again.

Best wishes!
Ralph

Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:.... aka, being 100% unproductive (which hurts to admit). ...

May be that is the misunderstanding. Doing your hobby is intended to be "unproductive". It may or may not result in something to show but that is not important. People that press them self to show remarkable achievements in hobby (or sport) are often compensating failure to success in the real life. Do not go into that trap. Manage the real life and be totally relaxed with your hobby. It is one of the very few area where achieving nothing might be just fine.

We all need a kick in the butt sometimes to get something done that we don't like, such as painting the house or just fixing a leaky faucet. Sometimes, these things happen even for things we love to do, our hobbies for one, traveling or even just watching our favorite TV show. This is called burnout. I've been there before and you have no idea why it's happening, just that you don't have the desire to do whatever it is you think you should want to do. Complacency and familiarity frequently are reasons things become routine, you've done this before and now it's boring and becomes work. Health issues are another reason why we back off doing what we like. Maybe we can't or maybe we just don't have the time or energy to put into things. We have all taken breaks from things that once were fun. Whatever the reason is, we can't force ourselves, we must want to go back to doing things that we like, not always doing things that we have to do. That's what hobbies are all about, doing something you enjoy doing.

Me, I love to create things, that's why I enjoyed my work so much, I designed, built and shipped control systems for a good 40 years, and that's one reason I'm into model railroading, I can create and see the results of my efforts. I've not done much on my layout for close to two years for a number of reasons, my health being a big factor there. I've participated in a number of challenges here, but frequently they were just a small part of the overall layout, or just a diorama. I've got some of my energy back and I want to move ahead, so that's why I joined the latest challenge here. My goal is to move ahead and get back to doing what I enjoy, creating my own miniature world.

You might want to try that, pick something you know you can do in the next few months and then take the challenge. It could be anything, just say what you're going to do, then get back to doing what you are capable in doing. Just be sure it isn't work, and just kick back and have fun....

The hardest part of doing anything is always getting started. I find when I feel the way you do now I just go in the train room and force myself to start on something (not important what) that is a small project that doesn't take long (the instant gratification thing I guess) and usually the next thing I know is I have been back there for an hour or more and got that project done and more as well.

I find after periods of extreme activity of any kind (remodeling the house for instance) that I just don't want to do anything. Now I'm retired it isn't a problem and I have found that it is better to wait until the mood hits you. It is harder to do something, and more chances to mess it up when you are not into it. Then suddenly the mood will hit you and all will be well.
Don't feel guilty. Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing at all.
Charlie

First of all don't worry about it. I'm in the same funk and it happens a lot more than you think, what you need to do is pick up another one of your hobbys and do that, once your more versed in it you'll eventually go back to mrr. You can get burned out in any hobby and the best thing to do is to back off for abit. PM me you want to talk more into it.

faraway Wrote:Doing your hobby is intended to be "unproductive". It may or may not result in something to show but that is not important. People that press them self to show remarkable achievements in hobby (or sport) are often compensating failure to success in the real life. Do not go into that trap. Manage the real life and be totally relaxed with your hobby. It is one of the very few area where achieving nothing might be just fine.

This might be one of the most wise things I've read about our hobby. Than you Reinhard, it was very helpful for me.

Dave

Thanks Guys, this has helped a lot.

I guess its just been killing me since I haven't been able to get much done in it since late September.

faraway Wrote:

Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:.... aka, being 100% unproductive (which hurts to admit). ...

May be that is the misunderstanding. Doing your hobby is intended to be "unproductive". It may or may not result in something to show but that is not important. People that press them self to show remarkable achievements in hobby (or sport) are often compensating failure to success in the real life. Do not go into that trap. Manage the real life and be totally relaxed with your hobby. It is one of the very few area where achieving nothing might be just fine.

You're definitely right on that one. Thats half of how I started the hobby when I was in the 7th-8th grade and stressed out. And I Definitely pick big projects that might be to much for me to handle.

Its just that when I mean unproductive, I mean in anything. I'm literally just sitting there. A few times I've picked up a video game and tinkered with that, but that is about it. The entire time I'm doing nothing, I'm thinking about fun things (model railroading or otherwise) I could be doing that moment. I want to do those things, but there is like some mental block in my head.

I'm guessing that last semester must have really burned me out!

It sounds like the last semester burned you out, as you said. The good news is it sounds like you're working on a degree that will get you someplace in life, so it's not all bad. Your best bet is to relax and let time do its thing, and you'll get back to the layout just fine.

When I find myself just frittering away time, I'll force the issue and start something - anything. Even if that's just reorganizing my modeling space. Most of the time I find myself getting involved with something I pick up, whether building, rolling stuff around, painting, taking care of that annoying chip in the bench that had been catching my shirt, etc.

The flip side is that this approach doesn't really accomplish things in priority order, but that's not the point at times like that.

Personally, I also find writing ideas or tasks on sticky notes and sticking them up helps focus my future self, as my time frittering times are sometimes caused by too many things to start leading to nothing starting. Some examples can be seen in these two photos:
Stickies where the work is - these point to tasks in specific places on the layout.


Board intended specifically for this purpose - the stickies have very, very small tasks all the way up to some gargantuan sized ones (they're actually sorted this way). I don't take a lot of time planning what goes on the stickies - formal planning slows me down. If I have any idea, it goes on a sticky for later action.

Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:... I'm guessing that last semester must have really burned me out!

How about getting your body (and you) up by some physical stress? Do some kind of sports like running or swimming until you are close to exhaustion. It might be helpful to stress the body and enjoy later on when the body (and the brain) recovers.

I certainly agree about incorporating physical activity into one's schedule, assuming that is an issue. I'm not into sports but do enjoy hiking, jogging, canoeing and going to the gym as well. I find that if I don't get exercise, I get "antsy" and restless. Exercise has a way of clearing the mind & helping you to relax.

Re my small layouts: I find that I "stagnate" if I'm not doing something new & creative. To get around this, I try to add more scenery, improve the track, fix problems, or (as I'm thinking of right now) either building a new switching layout or adding onto my existing small shelf layout. I have about 26 locos (and accompanying rolling stock) so that I can change regions and time periods, which creates some variety -- i.e. I can run locos/rolling stock from different regions of the UK or Canada, and even change time periods from the 1920s/'30s to the 1950/'60s.

Experimenting and adding new details or "tweaks" keeps me going!

Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:Thanks Guys, this has helped a lot.
I guess its just been killing me since I haven't been able to get much done in it since late September. .

Late September ? I'm maintaining a hand written build log, for the schooner Phantom, the entry on page 6 was dated January 3, 2010. :o :o the next entry on page 7, January 1, 2012

The build of the cutter "Sihaya" was started in 1970, and wasn't finished until 1978. Yes, that was eight years.

You're not alone, it happens!