How Many People Here Carefully Budget Their Hobby and Other Time? 1 1

[the blob]

Is this a normal thing for people here? Like budgeting 9 hours a day for your "job" and commuting, an hour for family time/checking homework, an hour to make/eat dinner, an hour of exercise, and then 1.5 hours of comic time -- organizing, selling, shopping, BSing here, an hour for art/reading, etc? I know I should have a financial budget, but basically my wife will not play along, but in my old age I feel like if I am going to do things I should be doing with my time, I need to organize that time better and can't just constantly push my life past midnight because, frankly, the lack of sleep is probably killing me. Is a time budget how some of you manage to get a lot of things done while also being comic nerds? You'd think that someone who used to religiously bill in 6 minute increments should be better at this, but I am not.

[Ryan.]

Multitask.

[Lightning55]

It will likely depend on the personality of the collector.  For some, scheduling time might seem more like work, a task, taking a lot of the enjoyment out of it.  Some will work on their hobby as time allows, others may prioritize it.

For me, the fun is buying stuff.  Anything else I am doing is in support of that - sorting, filing, moving boxes, surfing for deals, selling stuff, etc.  Those things I think of as work. 

I'm involved with comics frequently, unless interrupted by other things like eating, sleeping, watching sports...

No job now, retired, so comics is what I do.

[Cman429]

No I don’t because then my fun hobby would seem too much like work. 

[BlowUpTheMoon]

On 10/3/2023 at 4:25 PM, the blob said:

You'd think that someone who used to religiously bill in 6 minute increments

Did you retire? 

[Sigur Ros]

Budget.... budget....

I'll need to Google that.

[the blob]

On 10/3/2023 at 5:17 PM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

Did you retire? 

I work for the guvment now, i just need to say I worked the day

 

[Dr. Balls]

I have to cram hobby time in whenever I get a chance - some nights if it's slow at work, I get to leave early and I'll have an hour to watch Dueling Dealers on Wednesdays, but I may not be able to sit down and with my comics until Sunday or Monday. I've been trying to start a sales thread for two months now, but I only do that when I have two consecutive days that I don't have to be at work. The only time budget I have is for our business - everything else that comes after that just gets what it gets, hobbies or otherwise.

If you can put together a time budget, I say good for you - that means that your life is consistent enough to allow you to plan a schedule.

[Azkaban]

Budget what is this Budget you speak of 

[MattTheDuck]

Not really.  I have previously said to myself upon rising, "This is a comic day."  This normally coincides with the stack of unscanned, unboxed and/or occasionally unbagged/boarded comics becoming unreasonable or perhaps a "gentle" nudge from my spouse.  Like after a good weekend at Estate Sales, which as noted elsewhere have been pretty rare for me.  It could also include books I've set aside to read.  If it's scanning needed, I take my laptop in the comic room and scan until my battery runs down which makes the time commitment seem manageable instead of overwhelming.

[Beige]

I work 3 days a week - 10 hr days.

 

I devote one exclusive day for listing to ebay. Maybe 2 if I grab a really good haul - or something time sensitive such comics related to an upcoming movie

 

Sales get done as they come in. I get on average about 40 - 50 sales a week, so easily doable.

 

It's worked for the last 9 years.

[ExNihilo]

No budgeting.  I have a stack of comics to read that I'm behind on.  I have fullbacks that have been inserted into mylar and I re-bag whenever I feel like doing it.  At present, I have 4 full boxes of mylar waiting to be used.  Some days I have time and then I just end up playing video games.  Or I'll go for a run, come back, shower, and plop into bed.  I could certainly use some organization and better time management, but I just don't have the discipline.  I've determined the best place to start is to get to bed earlier.  I go to bed late and just wind up lethargic the following day.  If I had a better nights sleep, maybe i'd feel more energized to be productive at home.

[CAHokie]

I preferred to be on here while being paid by my job.  To deal with a few posters here, I figured it was well deserved. 

[the blob]

On 10/3/2023 at 7:18 PM, Dr. Balls said:

I have to cram hobby time in whenever I get a chance - some nights if it's slow at work, I get to leave early and I'll have an hour to watch Dueling Dealers on Wednesdays, but I may not be able to sit down and with my comics until Sunday or Monday. I've been trying to start a sales thread for two months now, but I only do that when I have two consecutive days that I don't have to be at work. The only time budget I have is for our business - everything else that comes after that just gets what it gets, hobbies or otherwise.

If you can put together a time budget, I say good for you - that means that your life is consistent enough to allow you to plan a schedule.

I am 51 and have never had a time budget, but there are a lot of things I want to do, but I am stuck with my job that will generally have me leaving at 7 am (when I get back to work next week after my disability is up) and probably ending at 4:30 if I am efficient and don't skrew around at work (I work from home 2 days a week thank the Lord). That is when my supervisor leaves, in theory, so it works out. My commute is 30-45 minutes. I want to start working out regularly, I want to get the comics biz back going again (I waited until the market tanked to do that...), I want to paint a few hours a week, learn another language... lots of stuff. Maybe it is a fantasy, I dunno, but it won't happen until I get control of my schedule. Was just curious if other folks here were regimented like this. I guess this is something I should have learned 30 years ago. Better late than never. I am a natural born procrastinator, so maybe this will help me in the 6 - 12 years I have left before I plan to retire.

[the blob]

On 10/3/2023 at 8:47 PM, ExNihilo said:

No budgeting.  I have a stack of comics to read that I'm behind on.  I have fullbacks that have been inserted into mylar and I re-bag whenever I feel like doing it.  At present, I have 4 full boxes of mylar waiting to be used.  Some days I have time and then I just end up playing video games.  Or I'll go for a run, come back, shower, and plop into bed.  I could certainly use some organization and better time management, but I just don't have the discipline.  I've determined the best place to start is to get to bed earlier.  I go to bed late and just wind up lethargic the following day.  If I had a better nights sleep, maybe i'd feel more energized to be productive at home.

One problem is that my wife is an academic with 4 or 5 different jobs who is getting some sort of degree or certification in AI (beyond her STEM doctorate) who  also works out (outside the home) about 15 hours a week who also wants to attend school events for the kids so she works insane hours and functions on 4 hours of sleep half the time so if I want to get to bed at 12 she is pissed. Half the time I am feeding her dinner at 10:30. Tonight she teaches until 10! So my attempts to have a regimented schedule will no doubt be in conflict with her insane one. And I understand this is getting into a "general" conversation, but I do see people here with jobs, active family lives, devoting a lot of time to this hobby/side biz, and have varied other interests, so I figured someone has it together.

Edited October 4, 2023 by the blob

[SkOw]

On 10/3/2023 at 4:25 PM, the blob said:

Is this a normal thing for people here? Like budgeting 9 hours a day for your "job" and commuting, an hour for family time/checking homework, an hour to make/eat dinner, an hour of exercise, and then 1.5 hours of comic time -- organizing, selling, shopping, BSing here, an hour for art/reading, etc? I know I should have a financial budget, but basically my wife will not play along, but in my old age I feel like if I am going to do things I should be doing with my time, I need to organize that time better and can't just constantly push my life past midnight because, frankly, the lack of sleep is probably killing me. Is a time budget how some of you manage to get a lot of things done while also being comic nerds? You'd think that someone who used to religiously bill in 6 minute increments should be better at this, but I am not.

You lost me with complicated terms like time and financial budgets for comics.......

[SkOw]

On 10/3/2023 at 4:43 PM, Ryan. said:

Multitask.

This!

"Sure honey, I'd love to watch that movie on netfilx with you.  I'm just going to bag and board while we watch."

[southern cross]

I'm retired and I help out at my lcs on Tuesdays getting new books for Wednesday. So Tuesdays all about comic books for me. Pulling books for subscriptions and selling comic books in between that, bagging boarding and pricing someone else's comic book stock.

I'm way behind in my reading and that is something I'll have to arrange.

Downside or upside to helping out at a lcs is I'm always buying books.

Just look what came into the store in the last four days.

Edited October 4, 2023 by southern cross

[Lightning55]

On 10/3/2023 at 9:54 PM, SkOw said:

This!

"Sure honey, I'd love to watch that movie on netfilx with you.  I'm just going to bag and board while we watch."

I HAVE done that. Was that wrong?

[The lips]

Saturday morning tends to be my comic time. Not specifically planned, just that’s how it tends to be. 
Im fortunate my 7 year old boy is at the age where he is obsessed with superhero’s so it’s something we do together. We get the comics out and play games such as ‘name the character’ of I’ll pull out 20 books and he attempts to put in order of value. 
Then we’ll read a few, education purposes of course !!

If time allows we’ll head out to a LCS also so I can buy him stuff he likes  

outside of that it’s mostly me looking for deals on internet when I get random spare time.