Managing Your Aetolia Time?

Pilar

So since I've been playing again, I've found myself careening back into that spiral whirlpool of "omgomgomgImgettingtooinvolvedjesuswhathaveIdone" after the whole Three Widows event. I work completely for myself around the clock pretty much seven days a week. If I'm not sleeping, I'm working on something and right before the Three Widows event...I had two BIG clients cancel on me.

Which sent me in a panic to find two people to replace them. Immediately. While I was looking for someone to hire me so I can put food in my belly and a roof over my head for another month, Three Widows happened. So when I logged in after three days gone and saw all that I missed. I was so sad that I missed it...when I shouldn't be because I PUT FOOD ON MY TABLE.

I started to play Aet again because I got bored in between designing, exporting large files, editing videos, and talking on the phone. When you work from home, you just need something else to do in between but now I'm feeling like I got too...involved.

Which isn't totally bad because I love where Pilar is going, she was the baby sister and now she's forging her own path but it's getting bad for me. Back in the day I could just play for hours and not have to worry so much about work since I had a regular job. Now, I'm finding myself weighing my options before I just up and disappear because I'm too overwhelmed between Aet and managing my freelancing. Of course, freelancing comes first but with all the work I've put in I at least want to ask about some managing tips and then try them.

Do you use a timer? Only log in on certain days?
Someone out there must get me, what do you do to manage your Aet time?

Avishai

I have a busy school schedule and not a ton of time to play, but I am around often.

People -dont- mind if you get back to them later, and never think they will, even if you are a leader you have logs and other things you can get into, we have OOC clans and ways to say, HEY I AM GOING TO BE DOING -x- FOR A WHILE. Personally I have never had a huge problem with that being a decent enough course of action and if someone is pressuring you to put IC life before IRL then they are fussybutts.

Honestly though if you fear time management, say I wont log in until X is done, or usually what I do on my busy days is make sure all my important things are done then log in for the evening, since during weekdays about 3-4 days a week, I am in school mode from 8AM to about 7PM, and if I have reading I am fishing while reading and glancing between my book and notes to make sure I haven't been eaten by a shark.

I mean if anything else, never feel like you are letting down someone because you have RL things today, the text lines at the end of the day are just text lines in our happy funtime game, the best rewards you get as a player are from the interactions you can make when you have the time to make them. Nothing will collapse without you there, and things will continue when you return.

We all can say we want to see a happy and vibrant Pilar over a stressed one, from those you interact with to yourself.
You're doing magnificent and I enjoy our interactions, if you ever just need to vent about being busy, I am always game ^_^

Zsadist

I can relate a little bit to you Pilar. About 7 years ago, I was in college and had to balance my time between a full class load and playing games, of course back then I was playing Imperian. What I found that worked for me was doing my schoolwork for a few hours, log in and do something for maybe 1-2 hours, then go afk/logout again until I finished my schoolwork/required reading.

Doing that kind of time table really helped me keep up with both my in game duties and my OOC responsibilities. But I actually did use a timer back then to kind of let me know 'Hey man, you got work to do.' I'm not sure how time intensive videos are, except from what my girlfriend tells me, but I think taking a break every 3-5 hours for maybe 1-2 hours of play time would not hurt you that much.

If you want help with building a timer in Mudlet, let me know and I'll definitely help you out. However, you should never feel bad about not being able to play Aetolia when you have to do what you can to make money and keep yourself alive. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with that. We are all busy and at some point, we will miss an event. Its just the way games work. So keep doing what you do, take your breaks, and everything should be fine. Hope this advice helped.

Emelle

I sympathize! I don't have a ton of play time to start with, and RL responsibilities make my available times even more erratic and unpredictable. I was bummed about the timing of this event, too, because it was actually something I could have contributed to as a non-PKer, but the timing just didn't work out for me.

What's worked for me is just changing my mindset about the game. Just as in RL, no one person can be everywhere and do everything all the time, so for me now it's just about logging in when I can and doing what I can when I'm around. I don't think it has to be an all-or-nothing situation, even though it can feel that way sometimes because certain aspects of the game favor those who are capable of logging in more frequently.

In my experience, people are really understanding of the need to strike a balance between RL and the game!

ETA: I do get the impression that staff are really working to make events more accessible for players of all types, which gives me hope for future events.

Xenia

Pilar I empathize entirely. I'm sort of in a similar situation in that I contract, my work requires me to be on a computer because I'm a developer, and so I have stuff running in the background all the time, like Mudlet for Aetolia.

While it's not necessarily cutting into my ability to do work, I feel, if anything, it's lending towards not diverting my activities enough. Because rather than get up and leave the house or do something, when I'm taking a break from work, I'm just looking at a different window and then playing a game or whatever. Next thing I know my allotted break time is up and by the time I go to sleep I realize I've not even left the house to do anything other than walk my dog.

I'm still trying to figure out how to resolve that. I'm thinking of doing so through joining some club sport teams and a few other extra stuff. I had done that in the past and it worked, but during the winter they all subsid and I'm suddenly relapsing into a pattern I was maintaining a year ago.

Valingar

I definitely get where you are coming from. Balancing work and mudding and still having free time for other things can feel tricky. It's an issue a lot of players have now, since a good many of us are adults dealing with full time jobs, unlike what I hear about early days of IRE muds (who knew growing up would happen!). I don't think there's any solution that fits for everyone, but I think admin are starting to wake to realizing that players don't have as much time to log in as before.

Me, I think that like for every time-consuming hobby, it's pretty important to be comfortable with letting go at times. Did you get 15 in-game messages about you needing to do something and you're feeling burnt out or tired from work already? Brutally ignore the messages until (if ever) you feel like dealing with them or delegate them on. Is there a great event but it's at the middle of the night? Nope, don't stress about it and just sleep over the event and ask how it went afterwards.

This may not seem directly related, but working out in some way, physically, is pretty important if your job doesn't involve that and you have any hobby on a computer. Hit the gym sometimes, jog every morning, challenge hoboes to barfights, or whatever else floats your boat. You don't need to bench 200 kg, but some exercise really helps with life in general. You have more energy to do things, including hobbies, and most importantly, get more things done in the limited time you do spend.

Anyway. People in Aetolia will get it if you aren't always around. Don't feel you have to log in every day or for every event. If someone doesn't like it, rough for them, but real-life always takes priority. It's not a good idea for anyone to spend all their spare time on Aetolia, or anything involving computers.

Zsadist

Valingar said:

It's not a good idea for anyone to spend all their spare time on Aetolia, or anything involving computers.

I kind of disagree with this. Nowadays, I work from 730 AM - 430/6PM. After that, once I get home I'm on the laptop playing Aetolia. I think that it depends on your personality as to whether or not you can spend that much time on computers (for me, its 16-19 hr/day).

Trager

Zsadist said:

Valingar said:

It's not a good idea for anyone to spend all their spare time on Aetolia, or anything involving computers.

I kind of disagree with this. Nowadays, I work from 730 AM - 430/6PM. After that, once I get home I'm on the laptop playing Aetolia. I think that it depends on your personality as to whether or not you can spend that much time on computers (for me, its 16-19 hr/day).

Now we all know what's wrong with @Zsadist.

Ishin

I normally idle and chat during the week when I work. Then on my weekends I either play this or play xbone. Usually works out pretty well time-wise, but my job is also different than your own. I think that setting aside x time a day or giving yourself a couple of days as a 'weekend break' where you can do whatever you want EXCEPT work would be a really good idea.

Faerah

Learn to delegate.

I've gotten my org to the point where basically everyone is able to pitch in and do the every day stuff so I don't feel remotely guilty about not logging in whenever life gets busy.

Synne

Admittedly, I don't have very many in game responsibilities and part of that comes in knowing my online time is limited. Between working 60 hrs a week and taking time for my kid, and carnival season, online game time takes a hit.

What I do is fit Aet in when I can. I get up a bit earlier to be able to log in and mine in the mornings, check messages, read the news, etc. If I know I'm working late I take a long lunch and log in to bash, hit minors, etc. In the evenings, after the kid goes to sleep, I log in again. I average about 4 hours a day recently, which isn't much compared to some, but it still allows me to keep current on what is going on. During busy periods, you just have to recognise that this has to be enough.

Jensen

I have an unusual work schedule where I normally work travel shifts for about 10 days straight and I'm home for 4. That goes for roughly 8-10 months of the year. Whenever I'm home for breaks or just on hiatus from work projects, I don't log into Aetolia unless someone messages me on forums that I'm needed for something important. When I'm on the road I usually play for about 5 hours a night but will skip out logging in if I fall behind on sleep. I've been recently restricting myself from getting too involved in orgs because they can stress me out and make me feel obligated to work and no play. Always prioritize life.

Eydis

On my phone, you've been warned about spelling/grammar/formatting errors lol.

I get it, I take 5 classes as a graduating Senior and I work full time. Icly I help run Spines, I have a leadership position in the Syssin, and I have a crafting addiction. Um, I'm figuring out the balance. Recently I noticed that E's character development has...stopped, and I haven't done any personal RP because when I'm in Aetolia I'm constantly busy. I actively play Aetolia a lot so it's not that I don't have the time, it's that I'm not budgeting that time very well. I've learned to delegate projects for citizenship tasks so I can explore more personal RP. It's still a work in progress for me.

I also noticed that, as both Senator and Sec, I feel obligated to log in whenever an event is happening. I would log in but I would still be afk because I had to write a paper or do some other assignment. Even though I was technically there, I still wasn't a presence. There were times I was I was AFK and I would come back to see that the adminstration had approached me for rpz. Lol, I logged in to represent the Syssin and Spinesreach but I was too AFK to manage that in the first place. If I forced my way through the RP, my writing was crap and I didn't represent Syssin/Spinesreach very well anyway. I've had to learn that being a good leader doesn't mean I'm obligated to be there for every single thing and there are other Secretaries/Senators who lose out if I monopolize on the interactions. I took some time out to work on school stuff recently and I saw that a newer Senator got to have an interaction with admin, which is awesome! During the event I only collected - what - 115? Whatever, that's all I had time for so that's all I did.

The point I'm making is that it's not just imortant to have healthy boundaries, it's essential if you want to both help your org(s), as well as make the most of your time in Aetolia. Part of being a good leader, to me, is giving other people a shot at engaging. One of the ways you do that is prioritizing yourself and acknowledging that someone stepping up is a natural progression in the RP. We don't lead a city or help manage a guild alone. If the other person screws up, then you pick up the pieces with your organization, as a leader is expected to.

Pilar

Thanks everyone, this has been really encouraging and helpful and I also feel a lot less guilty.

I've never been a head city leader before all this and the last city leader Pi has to go off of is @Sibatti who is the Queen of multitasking as we all know. It's not really the messages or anything like that I feel gives me anxiety, it's I don't want to disappoint anyone, Duiran, especially - which in this game, is a virtually impossible lofty dream lol

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one feeling this way.

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it

Faerah

Oh. Well... You are going to disappoint people. So just realize that and move on. Being in leadership means making choices that are going to disappoint -someone- one way or another. Personally, I don't think leadership is about not disappointing the people you are leading, but instead, making the choices you feel is best for them regardless. If they vote you out after you tried your best to do your best for them, then they do. That's democracy. But I can tell you right now that trying to make everyone happy is just going to stress you out. Especially because there are a lot of people who will never be happy no matter what you do.

In other news, good luck with City Leader! Leading orgs in IREs can be the most rewarding experience in game if you are able to manage your time and develop a group of people under you that you trust and have fun working with.

Dristin

Speaking as someone who, in my player days, lead many an organization - you can't please everyone. Don't expect to. Try to do what you feel is best, with some guidance from your other leaders in the org, and push ahead. If they vote you out? That's their fault and problem. Some people, like Faerah said, will just never be pleased.

Now, to how to manage my time. I'm one of those lucky ones that gets to play at work - so I just leave the game running in the background. But, when I had limited time, I would do several things each time I logged in:

1. Check messages. See if any of them needed to be answered immediately or if any are super easy. If they can wait, message myself the #s to review later (probably could just mark them as unread, but I was lazy).
2. After messages are sorted, check logs and news. Verify nothing awry is going on.
3. Check in with fellow leaders or org to see how things are going. Ask if anything is needed.
4. Do any updating to help files, make news posts, and etc for the org that I need to get done. Feel free to delegate stuff - people love getting stuff to do.
5. If I have time, go back to those wait messages and get them done.
6. Do whatever I want for a while. Make sure I give myself some wrap-up time.
7. Wrap up whatever else the org needs.
8. Log out.

Then I rinse and repeat. Sometimes, I'd solely login just to do org stuff (because I'm a workaholic). Overall, though, I found the best use of my time was the delegation part. It really helped ease my stress, made sure things got done, and made people feel like they were contributing something. Since, as we all know, most sub-positions don't get as much attention as the head of the org. I did try to login once a day, unless I was on vacation or had something super time-crunchy going on. That login time may only be 10-15 minutes, but I made sure people knew I was checking in and around.

Xavin

I'm not going to lie, a lot of my down time is on aetolia. But I manage to do other things by having two monitors, so I'll be playing other vidya on one screen and aet on another, or chilling and watching a show on the tv with aetolia on the computer.

In leadership positions, delegating is important. It is also important to remember to focus on stuff that you -want- to do at least half of the time, not stuff you -have- to do.

Didi

thanks for all the tips nifty

Tenshyo

<_<

I don't want to talk about how much time I spend on Aetolia


[HINT]: A lot. I mean A LOT

Drestyn

I wake up. I play. I live. I die. I live again... oh, wait, wrong one.

Joking aside, I do literally just wake up, log in and play until I either have something else I need to do or go to sleep. I have no life.

Irae

I'm terrible at managing my Aetolia/MUD time. AND my real-life time. So I barely login until my unicorn's been taken care of or I feel that I'm on the top of my game. I've learned my lesson from high-school (and last year of uni).