12-20-2014, 10:29 PM
Best of luck!
The following is going to sound harsh, but bear with me:
Sorry, but no: "Playing videogames only 2-3 hours a day, 25-30% of the time" isn't going to work as a goal.
First of all, prefer positively phrased goals (what you do want to do) to negatively phrased goals (what you don't want to do / what you want to limit / do less of). The reason is simple: you can sit around and procrastinate / waste time by some other means (anything but facebook and games), loose more time of your life, but still meet all your negatively phrased goals. (It is quite easy to accidentally replace one addiction with another in this way)
Secondly, you don't defeat an addiction by "doing less of it, most of the time". You either quit, or you don't. Nothing in between. "Quitting a little bit" doesn't work. If you want to defeat your game addiction, you will want to prevent yourself from starting to play games. Now this might not work 100% of the time. There might be setbacks. There might be times when you are weak. That's okay. If it happens, realize it and move on. But don't include excuses and exceptions into your plans and goals.
Lastly, what you have there aren't goals but timetables. You are very detailed in terms of how many hours you want to spend on what; but where do you actually want to go? What for do you want to do those 6 hours drawing a day? Where do you imagine yourself today if you hadn't lost those 4 years? That is your goal. If you can't answer that question, take a while to think about it (Take a look into goal setting, like SMART and the like. Maybe that helps). The reason I am emphasizing this is because 6 hours a day drawing are a long time if you don't know what you are doing it for.
Sorry again if all of this sounds harsh. The reason why I am writing all of this is that was in quite a similar situation not so long ago. I also was at a point where I realized that I had just lost several years of my life to the internet. So I made a timetable and a plan, surprisingly alike to the one you are presenting here ... and then I failed dramatically and lost another year or two because I couldn't make that plan to work and didn't quite know how to start to draw.
Making studies from other artists' work (in order to learn their secrets) is just as valuable as making studies of the real world. By extension, looking at others' work is as valuable as looking at reference.
One goal I had set for myself a while ago: "every time you look at pictures on the web, draw studies from it". I applied that to both photos and art - and it was quite successful for me (Not only because studies are good, but also because it turned "starting to surf the web aimlessly" into a cue to start drawing for me). Maybe something similar could be a good goal for you as well?
The following is going to sound harsh, but bear with me:
(12-19-2014, 10:53 PM)Misticblair Wrote: ...
- Using facebook only 2 times per day for 15-20 minutes, NO LONGER!!
...
- Playing games only 2-3 hours from Mon - Fri ; Weekend 4-5 (it's the most difficult thing I can imagine for me...)
...
GOALS!:
- My first goal would be to complete at least 25-30% of all of these rules in time minimum 1 month
- Second goal will be to keep those 25-30 % and add another 25% to it and keep it for next 1 month.
- Last goal is to add rest of rules and deal with it for another 1 month in a row.
...
Sorry, but no: "Playing videogames only 2-3 hours a day, 25-30% of the time" isn't going to work as a goal.
First of all, prefer positively phrased goals (what you do want to do) to negatively phrased goals (what you don't want to do / what you want to limit / do less of). The reason is simple: you can sit around and procrastinate / waste time by some other means (anything but facebook and games), loose more time of your life, but still meet all your negatively phrased goals. (It is quite easy to accidentally replace one addiction with another in this way)
Secondly, you don't defeat an addiction by "doing less of it, most of the time". You either quit, or you don't. Nothing in between. "Quitting a little bit" doesn't work. If you want to defeat your game addiction, you will want to prevent yourself from starting to play games. Now this might not work 100% of the time. There might be setbacks. There might be times when you are weak. That's okay. If it happens, realize it and move on. But don't include excuses and exceptions into your plans and goals.
Lastly, what you have there aren't goals but timetables. You are very detailed in terms of how many hours you want to spend on what; but where do you actually want to go? What for do you want to do those 6 hours drawing a day? Where do you imagine yourself today if you hadn't lost those 4 years? That is your goal. If you can't answer that question, take a while to think about it (Take a look into goal setting, like SMART and the like. Maybe that helps). The reason I am emphasizing this is because 6 hours a day drawing are a long time if you don't know what you are doing it for.
Sorry again if all of this sounds harsh. The reason why I am writing all of this is that was in quite a similar situation not so long ago. I also was at a point where I realized that I had just lost several years of my life to the internet. So I made a timetable and a plan, surprisingly alike to the one you are presenting here ... and then I failed dramatically and lost another year or two because I couldn't make that plan to work and didn't quite know how to start to draw.
(12-19-2014, 10:53 PM)Misticblair Wrote: - Don't look at other artists work, just do your own studies and illustrations!I think I understand what you are trying to achieve here - but I recommend you to do look at other artists' work.
Making studies from other artists' work (in order to learn their secrets) is just as valuable as making studies of the real world. By extension, looking at others' work is as valuable as looking at reference.
One goal I had set for myself a while ago: "every time you look at pictures on the web, draw studies from it". I applied that to both photos and art - and it was quite successful for me (Not only because studies are good, but also because it turned "starting to surf the web aimlessly" into a cue to start drawing for me). Maybe something similar could be a good goal for you as well?