Managing time for RPs

[Archie]

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Alright so I've had this problem for a while and I really need your guys help on this. Those of you who know me or RPed with me before know that making time for RPs has been a serious issue for me and I'd imagine a lot of us when we get older. When I was young RPs were an escape because real life was real boring, but as I get older it's harder and harder to find time for it. Just weeks ago when landed a new job that required regular trips to China I said I'd have to call it quits most likely for good, but I just keep coming back. Even though real life did get a lot more interesting, it's still boring compared to where my imagination can go, and it's been an addiction since I was 14. When I was 16 I opened a business and called it quits for a bit for the first time, but couldn't stay away by the time I went to college. For me RP isn't something I can talk about with people I know or something I can bring up as an excuse for not getting something done. My question for all of you who are in like your early 20s or older is how did you find time to keep RPing? Do you just kick back a lot or do you have a special way of making more time? Any help would be appreciated, thanks a lot.


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[kibou]

Personally I don't have a job or anything yet since I just graduated high school (although i'm being really pushed to get one lmao) and I am absolutely horrible at managing time because of my motivation/impulse control, but I've heard some advice from other people. Mostly when I was at church and people'd go on about how "you can make time for Jesus every day."


Any time you have 10 free minutes between doing things you should read your biblerps, think about your rps... pray to your rps....


Scheduling is the advice I've heard for getting some free time most often. Dividing your free time at home up between various chores/necessities (cleaning, showering, etc) and fun relaxation stuff. Maybe assign certain chores to certain days depending on how frequently they need to be done. Give yourself a certain amount of time each day for relaxation, which could include reading/writing rp posts.


This might be harder if you have an erratic work schedule.


And get all your home chores/etc for the day before you do fun things. Otherwise you might not have all your necessary stuff done. You can take small breaks if you're not like me and will lose complete track of time.


If you're traveling a lot you could write posts then. Assuming you don't have to do work or talk to anyone while in transit. If you don't have wi-fi, read posts right before you go to bed or something, and then write your own post in a writing program or in a note app on your phone.


Be unhealthy and rp when you're supposed to be asleep, and procrastinate your real work until you're really close to the deadline. Not actually advised, but that's what I always did lol.

 

[Cavil]

Well this is something I've thoighht about before since I'm in a spot similar to yours.


Generally speaking, I'm in a perpetual transitional period in my life and I did log off for a while only popping in on mobile for to just look around. I haven't had a definite time to just sit down and chill out in a while. But as things start winding down, I'm finding myself start to spend more time thinking about characters or really cool plots for RP. Luckily for me, my SO understands the point of RP and doesn't make me feel guilty about it so I can express my ideas to them freely. That sort of helps the creativity build up and releases the ideas I have and prevents me from commiting to something I can't keep up.


So you might try writing some character ideas or plotlines down somewhere in the meantime if you don't feel like you're in a position to commit to even a slow moving RP. And there's nothing wrong with perusing the forums here without posting in an RP.


As for actually making time for it? I don't as much as I used to. I'm trying to root myself and grow. RPing is not exactly a priority anymore. I don't feel bad about it because it's life.


I usually have to contact the GM of an RP personally to tell them that I don't post quickly. I don't want them to make an exception for me, just letting them know about my turbulent life and if it's going to be a slow moving RP or not.


Most of the time I post when I can get to a computer because posting from mobile is hard. I'm writing this post on mobile (lol).


Anyway I feel like I'm sort of rambling so I hope my response helped.

 

[White Masquerade]

@Archie


Good question. I'll go in this deep with you. Making more time is not the correct first step to take. What you have to do first, is make the time you already do have, more efficient. Say there are two people trying learn a new language. Person A spends 5 hours going over 5% of the material a day, while Person B spends 1 hour going over 25% of the material a day. Come day four, Person A will only have covered 20% of the material while Person B would have covered 100%. That is a very crude example, but shows the power of efficient time. If you don't see enough gains by increasing your time efficiency first, THEN you go about making more time. One to two good hours of focused, efficient time, is infinitely better than 4-5 hours of lazy, unfocused time.


^ There are two ways to make a car stay longer on the road in terms of gas. Making it more fuel efficient and giving it a bigger tank. Same concept here. Making sure there is maximized fuel efficiency comes first. Once the fuel efficiency gains are negligible going from gallon to gallon, THEN increasing the # of held gallons in the tank can be thought about. So basically, sign on with a purpose. If you have a post to make, do it. If you have posts to catch up on, do it. If you have lore to create, do it. Don't start perusing other things when you know you have something else to do.


^ --- This part deal with you, but there is another hidden piece to your dilemma. It is what I'll call them.


Them

You can manage your time all you want, but in some cases, even then, that might not give you the results you want. You are only half the equation. You can only do so much to make yourself more efficient. You see where I'm going with this? There is an efficient you cannot control. That is separate from you. And that is the structure/make-up of the RPs you join.


You may not have thought about it much, but I'm sure you innately understand why you can't join Simple-tagged Role-plays. Too fast. With limited time, you can't keep up. The same can go for most Casual-tagged RPs too. Guess what? They are not built for people like you. It's the Detailed-Tagged role-plays that cater to you. Due to their structure (in theory) they are supposed to (in theory) be slower and more geared toward people with limited time. Some Detailed RPs have maybe 3-4 posts a week. Sometimes even 1 a week. That is a very generous pace. If you truly want to be in that role-play, you will meet that pace and it won't be something to bend over backwards for. The second part of this Them-Section, is getting under a GM that understands your position. That is like a double-bonus.


^ That GM will know having something complex and hard to follow, might not be the best set-up for their time-limited players. They will know having something like a summary will help people catch and stay up to date. They will know that the players may need to have separate story-lines so they can move at their own pace. They highly aware of the situation of people, how that affects a story, and what needs to be done to counteract that. If you can find someone like that running an RP with an interesting enough story-line for you, you will be in good hands.

• Make your time more efficient.
  
• Find an RP that caters to your situation.
  
• Find a GM that understands your situation and knows how to apply it.
  

The logging on is not hard part, I hope you are aware. If you like RPN in general, there's no reason to stop visiting. The issue is the posting. If there's any conversation on this, it has to be around the posting. I can come here every day, but I literally cannot be doing 2+ posts a day. It's just not possible and will be even less going forward. What you can't do in depth, you do in breadth. I can't make 2 posts in one day, but I can make 2 posts in 2-3 days. Look to similar concepts in the real world and use them to help you here or wherever you need. Ever thought about financing a car? Sure maybe you can't pay $18,000 right on the spot, but you can pay $300/month for the next 6 years.


So you have a few options Archie. Think about how you want to approach it.

 

[Archie]

Woooah thanks guys this is great


@Ghost I'll try the 10 minute check thing, and type up posts on flights instead of watching the hunger games mockingjay part 7 lol, probably a better use of my time.


@Cavil thanks man I'll try the mobile app, will probably give me time in between things.

@Archie[/URL]
You may not have thought about it much, but I'm sure you innately understand why you can't join Simple-tagged Role-plays. Too fast. With limited time, you can't keep up. The same can go for most Casual-tagged RPs too. Guess what? They are not built for people like you. It's the Detailed-Tagged role-plays that cater to you. Due to their structure (in theory) they are supposed to (in theory) be slower and more geared toward people with limited time. Some Detailed RPs have maybe 3-4 posts a week. Sometimes even 1 a week. That is a very generous pace. If you truly want to be in that role-play, you will meet that pace and it won't be something to bend over backwards for. The second part of this Them-Section, is getting under a GM that understands your position. That is like a double-bonus.

!!!!!!


!!!!!!


I don't know why I never thought of this, this changes everything.


Anyway much appreciated everyone and happy independence day

 

[White Masquerade]

Woooah thanks guys this is great
@Ghost I'll try the 10 minute check thing, and type up posts on flights instead of watching the hunger games mockingjay part 7 lol, probably a better use of my time.


@Cavil thanks man I'll try the mobile app, will probably give me time in between things.


!!!!!!


!!!!!!


I don't know why I never thought of this, this changes everything.


Anyway much appreciated everyone and happy independence day

Happy Independence day to you too

 

[Primal Conundrum]

I work in a tech field, and so I'm at computers all day. I often find myself waiting on one thing or another, be it waiting on a build to finish, waiting while I take a video, waiting for a response from a team member, etc. RP gives me something to do in the slow periods.


For real though this build is taking foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[Archie]

[QUOTE="Primal Conundrum]I work in a tech field, and so I'm at computers all day. I often find myself waiting on one thing or another, be it waiting on a build to finish, waiting while I take a video, waiting for a response from a team member, etc. RP gives me something to do in the slow periods.
For real though this build is taking foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[/QUOTE]