take it easy guys

[Alistair Hosie]

how do you who are hobbiests do you work on one thing at a time or many things at a time .The older I get I find it very difficult to concentrate (keeping within the element of enjoyment) and do two projects side by side I much prefer to wait til I finish what I am doing then start on the new project.When I retired from Dentistry I was so busy organizing 12 things at a time I could not slow down and enjoy my hobby but now it is better.Alistair

[mklotz]

I generally focus on one hobby project at a time. Interruptions for home repairs and honey-dos are inevitable and generally must be dealt with as they arise but concentrating on one project allows me to focus all my conscious thought on solving the fabrication issues. Moreover, the unconscious, background-processing part of my mind can work on the problems. It's not unusual for a solution to some knotty setup to pop fully formed into my mind while taking a shower or pruning the roses.

(As an aside, I've never known anyone who had three or more hobby projects going at the same time who ever finished one of them. I'm sure there are exceptions but I've never encountered one.)

As I work, ideas for jigs, fixtures and tooling to make the job easier will occur to me and I note them on a sheet of paper stuck to the tool box. Most of my projects are small scale models so, when one is done I'm a bit tired of working with minuscule parts. I grab the list from the toolbox and work through it one by one. Thus, my mind and hands get a break from the minutiae and, by the time the next hobby project is started, the new tooling is ready and waiting to make things easier.

I also try to lay out my hobby projects in sequences of three so that I know, at least nominally, what my next two projects will probably be. That allows me to order materials and tools ahead of time so that, once a project is started, I won't be waiting around for some indispensable element. Admittedly, this system encounters many detours as attractive projects are discovered.

[lynnl]

Between home maintenance, multiple hobbies, etc. I'm always working on many things.
That's why I haven't completed anything since 1987.

...ah! I see I just confirmed Marv's theory.

[A.K. Boomer]

.
That's why I haven't completed anything since 1987.

.

LMAO! aint it the truth.

[RPease]

[QUOTE=lynnl]
That's why I haven't completed anything since 1987.

QUOTE]

I'm with you Lynnl........except I don't remember "completing 1987".........LOL

Rodg

[John R]

One at a time. Before retireing it was 100 things at once. Now for the good life.
John R

[IOWOLF]

1987, didn't discovery blow up in '87?

[rake60]

I'm about 20 years away from retirement.
Working the average 50hr week of a machinist's dream life and running a
small engine repair shop out of the garage to bring in the cash to support
my model building and antique engine collection, doesn't leave a lot of time.
Sometimes I just MAKE TIME. I'll take 2 days off and hide out in the
basement shop, bleeding and swearing. How can life get better than that? LOL

Rick

[lynnl]

1987, didn't discovery blow up in '87?

I had nothing to do with that!!

Actually I think it was '86. At any rate I was out there at Offutt AFB at the time, and I've got witnesses too.

[Tin Falcon]

I guess I must be the exception to Marv's Law. I know I jump around too much on projects. When I first started in the Model Engineering Hobby I started with a PM reasearch casting kit. I worked on it some while on Active Duty with the Air National guard after 911, working night shift in the fab shop. I broke a tap and the engine sat for a good year. Meanwhile started a little bar stock engine then let that sit. Then actualy started and finished a couple of engines in a weeks time. Then started a couple more that sat . Then started and finished another then went back and completed a couple. I like it much better when the projects flow. But I have 4 running engines that I started and did not finish until much later. I also have probably 6 engines in the works.
You can see my engines here http://www.floridaame.org/ look in the galley collection of engines page and click on the engine with the Green base.
Tin