Pile of Shame
A "pile of shame" is a term used to describe a collection of games, books, or media that a person has acquired but has not yet had the time to consume or complete. The "shame" aspect of the term refers to the feeling of guilt or inadequacy that one may feel for not having consumed or completed the items in the pile.
In terms of Warhammer or miniature wargaming a pile of shame is: a collection of unpainted or unassembled miniatures and models that a player has acquired but has not yet found the time or motivation to finish working on.
Archon Studios Dungeons and Lasers I made a big order… And when I say big I mean… stupidly big… And it was all for terrain you may note many of these things are non terrain but…
What is this? More shame… well no actually that’s what we have done thus far…
That is what we have done thus far!
We have done a lot enough to cover four square feet of table…
How did we do it?
How did I lose that weight (past tense)
You know how I did. Just like I know what I have to do now…
Diet and Exercise
How can you reduce that pile of shame?
Painting the Models
We both know that’s not the advice you have come for, but I need to point it out because this is an article, not a clickbait YouTube video. You are going to need to work your way out of it…
I say this because none of the advice I am going to give you here will be new. There is no hidden revelation below but if you follow this advice. If you follow it.
It will work
First step
Start Now!!!
Do something, do literally anything. I am not joking this isn’t a gimmick. Start now. Stop reading this and assemble one miniature, base spray one miniature, set up your painting area, something!
No, I am not joking do it now!
Go
.
Do
.
It
.
Now
.
..
…
Did you do it?
Did you do something?
Good! Great.
The first part of tackling that pile of shame is to do something. Literally something anything. Why?!
Rumination: Rumination is the act of repeatedly thinking about the same thoughts or feelings, often in a negative or worried way. It can be a symptom of conditions such as depression and anxiety and can lead to negative effects on mental and physical health.
Now that you know that you can! You can do it. Now it is time for the real work to begin.
Your plan
Break down your project and turn it into manageable goals.
How many miniatures do you have? How are they grouped? Make these goals realistic.
Great you have done that? Okay now time for me to sound like a corporate robot again, BUT LIKE I SAID NOTHING HERE WILL BE NEW BUT IT WILL BE PROVEN
Start by setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. This will help you clearly define what you want to achieve and when you want to achieve it.
Now much like how I did speeches back at school don’t START at SMART.
Do the natural thing, I spoke my speech and then I wrote it, this stops you from having slip-ups because it is naturalistic. Split it up based on how you think not according to the method. If a squad has ten guys as the minimum troop size and you are motivated by playing but you think you can only paint five a week, set it to ten and give yourself two weeks to finish off these guys. Don’t just go the method says this and I must 100% stick to that, know your own limits and know what works for you. Know what motivates you.
Because you know who knows what motivates you better than anyone else?
YOU
Here is how my wife and I did it.
Specific: We want to make terrain. (That’s right I am not as worried about my pile of shame and you might not be either! It might be something else)
Measurable: You literally saw the boxes we completed at the very start of the article!
Attainable: We work on one project, city tiles, wooden cottage, Tudor house until it is done, not the whole box
Relevant: That’s right for us it's about terrain. Why do you want to reduce your pile of shame?
Time-Bound: We aim is to finish each project within one Friday if it is smaller if it is larger within two
Next thing
WHY?!
Why are you trying to get your pile of shame down? Why now?
This isn’t a rhetorical question I am asking you for a reason, because I am just text on a screen, but you… deep down you know why. Why are you trying to get your pile of shame down?
I am trying to understand your reason for painting your…
Motivation
Motivation in terms of psychology can be broken down in two ways.
Intrinsic
Intrinsic motivation, refers to the drive to engage in a behaviour because it is personally rewarding, such as the enjoyment of solving a puzzle or the sense of accomplishment from completing a difficult task.
Motivation in terms of psychology can be broken down in two ways.
Extrinsic
Extrinsic motivation, comes from external factors such as rewards or punishments, like getting a promotion or receiving a fine.
Intrinsic motivation is generally considered more sustainable and effective in the long term, while extrinsic motivation can be useful in certain situations to encourage certain behaviours.
Be honest with yourself. Why do you want to paint your pile of shame?
Heck let me answer you if you’re worried. I lost weight because I wanted to be with someone.
Be honest with yourself. What motivates you? What makes you happy? Don’t lie. Don’t you dare lie because lying to yourself is the worst sin you can do and I am not even religious!
When I lost weight, I knew what motivated me, social reward, I would talk to people about my run and I talk about the times of my runs. Social feedback. That was it for me. Is it for you? If that is the case. Show off your works in progress and keep yourself motivated. Where should you do that? Well, you should preferably do that in person that usually cuts through a lot of noise on the internet. Okay… you don’t have a friendly local game store well then here is the next best thing.
What are you painting now!? Why do I know there are good people there? Well, I run it! Unless you think I am a bad person in which case well done this is pretty far to get for someone you dislike.
Unfortunately, I can’t go over everything that motivates people, that is literally a whole college course as per the book not to mention a whole field of study… But what I can say is that one thing is likely.
You know what motivates you
Finally…
It’s okay to fail so long as you are trying
You want to know how long the city tiles took us?
Five weeks… we were meant to be done in two.
How long has the Tudor house taken… thus far… two weeks.
BUT
Sunny and I have both set aside time each and every week to work on our project together. Doing things together motivates her, and it motivates me too.
It’s okay if you buy that model and add it to your pile… so long as you set aside time to do it this week!
It’s okay not to get as much finished as you want… so long as you put in the time
It's okay…
You are allowed to fail.
What isn’t allowed is surrender
But you’re all burnt out?
Then we both know that it’s not the pile of shame that is the problem.
Article on Burnout
Video on Burnout
But there is one trick to keep your pile of shame down…