The Board Game Design Course

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been talking a lot about what you can do to advance your games, whether through physical prototypes or prototyping and playtesting online, if you find yourself at home with more time than usual.

It may be blasphemy to say this, but I do want to recognize that other things are important in life as well aside from board games. I know, shame on me for saying this. ?

This week, I want to talk about making the best use of your time to do other things you’ve been meaning to do.

We all put projects off sometimes, saying that we just don’t have the time to complete them. Now, you may be a situation where you’re working from home and having to look after the kids as well. I certainly understand and empathize with this (I’m also trying to balance and manage these responsibilities).

But if you either have time off or are working from home and have a lot more time due to lack of social engagements and reduced commute time, here are just a few of the things you could do with your time.

Repairs or minor renos around your house

If you own a home, you know the “joy of homeownership”. This roughly translates to “a heck of a lot of things you have to keep maintained or fix often.”

So, if you have some lights that could use replacing, you bought a ceiling fan but haven’t had the chance to get it installed or want to do some touch-up painting, this is the perfect opportunity to tackle some of those tasks.

Or, take this opportunity to start your own garden. Even if you live in an apartment, you could do this on your balcony or in a sunny spot inside. You may need to get a lighting system, but you could also save yourself some money in the long-run by growing some tasty foods yourself.

Finding ways to be more self-sufficient these days is a good thing.

Spring cleaning

We all have stuff around our place that we may no longer need. If you’re sitting around your house more than usual these days, this may become even more apparent.

What a great time to do a thorough cleaning of your house.

You can start by going through closets and giving away or donating any old clothes you never wear anymore, going outside and raking some leaves, or tackling any other areas around your house that need attention.

It could just be as simple as moving your fridge and stove out to give your floors a good cleaning (watch out for dust bunnies!).

Organizing things

Do you have a large collection of books, CDs, movies, or anything else? Now’s your chance to finally reorganize those bookshelves, personal belongings, or even tidy up your recipe collection.

If you have a lot of board game design materials, components, and old prototypes, it’s a great time to reorganize all this stuff and get rid of anything you no longer need or give away any games that no longer bring you joy.

I know I have a couple of shelving units that could really use my attention, especially the ones holding my prototypes and game components!

Taking an online class or reading that book you’ve been putting off reading

Remember when you signed up for that master class or that course and you never even logged in? Or maybe you have some e-books that have been sitting on your hard drive for months.

Why not take the time to read that book or take that course? You might learn something really helpful. I find that even if it isn’t something that I can apply immediately, I’ll often take something away from this that will help me out at some point later in life.

Never stop learning and improving upon yourself!

Next steps

So, what will you do today?

Hit the comment button and let me know.