Playing video games is an immersive and stimulating hobby, but it’s hard to find time to play if you’re juggling work, family responsibilities, and other obligations.
How can you make the time that you want to play video games? And how can you make sure that you can still enjoy this hobby the way you did in your youth?
The Demands of Daily Life
As an adult who has a passion for video games, you probably have a robust enough collection as it is. You might have dozens, or even hundreds of games in your library, many of which you haven’t even played yet. You might even be prepared for the next generation, with a Nintendo Switch 2 case and plenty of money saved up to buy the console when it releases.
But the demands of daily life can get in the way of your favorite hobbies. You work full-time, you need to spend time with your family and friends, and you might have peripheral obligations to be concerned with as well. Making time for your hobby requires a two-pronged approach; first, you should focus on freeing up more time that you can use engaging with your hobby, and second, you should choose the right video games to play.
Freeing Up More Time
These are some of the most valuable ways that you can free up time in your life:
- Schedule aggressively. First and most importantly, you need to be prepared to schedule your life aggressively. Scheduling is the most important skill when it comes to time management, as it allows you to estimate the time requirements for various tasks and prioritize them according to urgency and importance. When your schedule is fully blocked out and documented, you can see what’s taking most of your time, and you’ll generate more intuitive insights for how you can rearrange things more favorably in the future. This should also allow you to schedule small blocks of video game time, even if you only get 15 minutes at a time to play.
- Cut some obligations (if you can). See if there are any pseudo obligations that you can meaningfully cut. For example, can you delegate some of your professional responsibilities? Is there another competing hobby that’s taking over your life? Are you spending more time than you’d really like socializing with others?
- Wake up earlier. Waking up earlier is hard, especially if you’re not a morning person naturally. However, if you exercise the discipline necessary to wake up earlier, you’ll likely find yourself with more time throughout the day. You can take care of your most important tasks in relatively short order, and have some consistent time in the evenings to play games.
- Eliminate distractions and time waste. You probably spend more time than you realize on distractions and other forms of time waste. As a simple example, how often do you find yourself mindlessly scrolling on social media? You’re probably distracted or wasting time only in small chunks, but these small chunks can add up.
- Use automation. Today, we have access to a plethora of automation tools that can simplify our daily life in a number of ways. If you learn to take advantage of them, you can probably save a few hours a week.
- Delegate. At home, are there tasks that you could delegate to other members of your family? For example, could you have the kids wash the dishes at night or ask your spouse to cook a couple of meals a week?
- Play games with loved ones. Nobody should sacrifice quality family time for video game time, but there is a way that you can have both. See if you can turn video gaming into a family bonding opportunity.
- Consider reallocating your hobby time. Chances are, video games aren’t your only hobby or the only recreational activity that interests you. Can you reallocate your hobby time to favor more time with games?
Choosing the Right Games
You can also be more mindful of the video games you choose to play.
- Short indie games. Many indie games are designed to last only a few hours; they’re short and sweet.
- Repetitive, somewhat predictable games. Similarly, you can play repetitive and somewhat predictable games, like roguelites, which are easy to pick up and put down.
- Mobile and portable games. Mobile games are surprisingly popular. They may not be as deep or complex as other video games, but they’re always available.
- Narrative games. If you like longer, more involved narrative games, consider consuming them in a different format; for example, could you watch someone stream this type of game and still enjoy it?
You may never be in a position to play video games 12 hours a day, but you also don’t need to be. If you’re willing to be proactive and diligent in your time management, and you’re willing to try new types of video games, you can indulge in this entertaining and captivating hobby even while fulfilling all your other responsibilities.
