Hello everyone!
Here is a question that has been bothering me lately.
As time goes on I find that I have less and less free time to spend on my leisure activities, be it sports, hobbies or just going out. When I was in school I had lots of free time and I could be playing a few heroes maps a week with no problem. Now, when I am studying my masters degree in a university, I find it impossible to play heroes without a negative impact on my studies/career. It just seems like these 5 hours/week (on average) that I spend on playing Heroes can be spent on something relevant to my future or simply on meeting other people.
The thing is - I really like playing Heroes, but I believe that I would not be able to afford it anymore time-wise.
I know that most of the forum users are not school students, so I would like to know:
1) How you integrate playing Heroes in your personal, professional and family lives.
2) If you would be a stereotypical busy business person with family and kids AND you would not have time to play heroes - would you still squeeze a couple of hours in your weekly schedule to play a half of a heroes scenario weekly? If you would - then at the expense of which activity (business, family, sports, etc) would you play Heroes?
Heroes and time-management
Unless you work for their team, playing Heroes won't garantee your future. Measure on a scale whether your family, your friends, your work is heavier than Heroes, then you'll see. I believe the answer for your question is not taking from those subjects you named. Perhaps you'd find more just to subtract those hours from you rest time. You sleep. Sleep less. If that reflects on your productivity, perhaps you ought to hold a bit. Sooner or later, you'll have a little time. But never neglect your health. Sports, family, friends and rest are things that keep you alive.
I'm one that have somewhat plenty of time to play Heroes, not anytime, but I have time here and there. So, what I said is what I feel like in your stead. I have not played Heroes games for a long time until recently, so I don't feel like I'd have difficulties choosing whether I play it or not.
I'm one that have somewhat plenty of time to play Heroes, not anytime, but I have time here and there. So, what I said is what I feel like in your stead. I have not played Heroes games for a long time until recently, so I don't feel like I'd have difficulties choosing whether I play it or not.
"There’s nothing to fear but fear itself and maybe some mild to moderate jellification of bones." Cave Johnson, Portal 2. 
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GreatEmerald
- CH Staff
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Funny, since I am in a similar position. I just started university, and the workload is much higher than I am used to. So far, my general strategy of going about that is:
1) Make a time schedule. It usually won't work well if you define certain time, since you will miss the goal time basically all the time, but having rough guidelines about what you are supposed to do during a day helps to manage time. It also helps when you start wondering about what you should do next as well as remind you about important events.
2) Rest is as important as work. As they say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. If you just work all the time, your productivity will plummet, since concentrating on a task is not easy. Sleep is a very important thing, too, since it improves your productivity during the whole day, but make sure you don't waste time sleeping too much during the weekends or so, since it both hinders your biological clock and wastes time you could be spending on something worthwhile.
3) Try to find what is the most enjoyable for you to spend free time on. If you enjoy sports more than video games, then spend more time doing sports. If being with your family is more of a chore than a delight, then spend less time on that. Also, you can experiment to find something that is both useful for you and you have fun doing it. For instance, activities like that for me are programming and doing game playthroughs on YouTube - the former is interesting to do, you get an actual result, you can share the result to get positive feedback and you learn more about programming on the whole in the process. The latter helps develop language skills and overall talking in public skills, allows you to share your gaming with others and receive positive input as well, plus you play a game in the process to begin with. The only downside of that is that editing can take a lot of time and it's usually a chore.
4) Mix free time and work. There is a good reason why an academic hour is 45 minutes, and not 60. However, Heroes is notorious for the "one more turn" syndrome. Probably the best way around that would be setting the amount of days you can spend in-game, but even then some breaks will be longer than others. With games like Super Mario Galaxy (that I'm playing through right now), it's a lot easier - you will usually take around 15 minutes to find one star, and after that you can go back to work. Same thing with most YouTube videos (although avoiding cliffhangers is a good idea, since you usually will want to see the next video just to see how the earlier one ends; then again, you can't tell if it's going to be a cliffhanger at the beginning of the video).
We also talk about things like that during our 'introduction to studies' seminar, and there is quite a bit of good information to get there.
1) Make a time schedule. It usually won't work well if you define certain time, since you will miss the goal time basically all the time, but having rough guidelines about what you are supposed to do during a day helps to manage time. It also helps when you start wondering about what you should do next as well as remind you about important events.
2) Rest is as important as work. As they say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. If you just work all the time, your productivity will plummet, since concentrating on a task is not easy. Sleep is a very important thing, too, since it improves your productivity during the whole day, but make sure you don't waste time sleeping too much during the weekends or so, since it both hinders your biological clock and wastes time you could be spending on something worthwhile.
3) Try to find what is the most enjoyable for you to spend free time on. If you enjoy sports more than video games, then spend more time doing sports. If being with your family is more of a chore than a delight, then spend less time on that. Also, you can experiment to find something that is both useful for you and you have fun doing it. For instance, activities like that for me are programming and doing game playthroughs on YouTube - the former is interesting to do, you get an actual result, you can share the result to get positive feedback and you learn more about programming on the whole in the process. The latter helps develop language skills and overall talking in public skills, allows you to share your gaming with others and receive positive input as well, plus you play a game in the process to begin with. The only downside of that is that editing can take a lot of time and it's usually a chore.
4) Mix free time and work. There is a good reason why an academic hour is 45 minutes, and not 60. However, Heroes is notorious for the "one more turn" syndrome. Probably the best way around that would be setting the amount of days you can spend in-game, but even then some breaks will be longer than others. With games like Super Mario Galaxy (that I'm playing through right now), it's a lot easier - you will usually take around 15 minutes to find one star, and after that you can go back to work. Same thing with most YouTube videos (although avoiding cliffhangers is a good idea, since you usually will want to see the next video just to see how the earlier one ends; then again, you can't tell if it's going to be a cliffhanger at the beginning of the video).
We also talk about things like that during our 'introduction to studies' seminar, and there is quite a bit of good information to get there.
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BoardGuest808888
- Round Table Knight
- Posts: 506
- Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Ha ha... playing is an important thing in life, but it's not the only one.
Especially if u gonna play something as intensive as Heroes. When a university student, I played perhaps once a week, each no more than several hours. To avoid getting hooked, just choose scenarios with fewer complication and smaller ones. If it's vacation time, more time can be spent on Heroes, like a couple times a week. U can also try other games too.
And don't forget sport. U don't want to end up losing shape just because playing too much, yes ?
Now though, since I've got jobs to do, I played only once or twice a months (if I can spare the time). But I also have other games which needs minimal attentions to compensate...
Responsibility comes first...
Especially if u gonna play something as intensive as Heroes. When a university student, I played perhaps once a week, each no more than several hours. To avoid getting hooked, just choose scenarios with fewer complication and smaller ones. If it's vacation time, more time can be spent on Heroes, like a couple times a week. U can also try other games too.
And don't forget sport. U don't want to end up losing shape just because playing too much, yes ?
Now though, since I've got jobs to do, I played only once or twice a months (if I can spare the time). But I also have other games which needs minimal attentions to compensate...
Responsibility comes first...
I also take large gaps of not playing for months but always come back to them every once and a while.
During university (I've graduated some years ago) I didn't play heroes that much but did play a few other games. One I remember in particular was Diablo 2.
I would often play pc games when I got home from the university and I'd also often have a few pints of beer at night to relax, de-stress, get my mind off things. I've never really been a very social or extroverted person so I've always done solitary type activities like playing video/computer games.
I never really liked doing any work from home and I get easily distracted and off-tracked so I used to do like over 90% of all my work and studying at the university. That being said I have spent a lot of time there, even slept there or stayed there some nights.
In general when I am not working and at home I do spend too much time playing pc games and it has impacted my life. I'm the kind of person that will try out every possibility/character build so I can end up spending loads of time on games. I don't really like the way the world is and the way most people are in general that much so I guess its like an escape. I don't get into other types of pc games and don't buy new ones because I'm scared to spend even more time wasted. So I usually stick to just a few pc games. In the last couple years it has been almost exclusively mm and homm games.
During university (I've graduated some years ago) I didn't play heroes that much but did play a few other games. One I remember in particular was Diablo 2.
I would often play pc games when I got home from the university and I'd also often have a few pints of beer at night to relax, de-stress, get my mind off things. I've never really been a very social or extroverted person so I've always done solitary type activities like playing video/computer games.
I never really liked doing any work from home and I get easily distracted and off-tracked so I used to do like over 90% of all my work and studying at the university. That being said I have spent a lot of time there, even slept there or stayed there some nights.
In general when I am not working and at home I do spend too much time playing pc games and it has impacted my life. I'm the kind of person that will try out every possibility/character build so I can end up spending loads of time on games. I don't really like the way the world is and the way most people are in general that much so I guess its like an escape. I don't get into other types of pc games and don't buy new ones because I'm scared to spend even more time wasted. So I usually stick to just a few pc games. In the last couple years it has been almost exclusively mm and homm games.
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darknessfood
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