How Do You Get Back into a Pattern?

Discussion in 'Discussion' started by Amaury, Apr 15, 2018.

  1. Amaury Legendary Hero

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    While I had uploads every single day in August 2017, I had failed to get at least 100 uploads for the month like I had done for January–July 2017, something I had wanted to go for the entire year—at least 100 uploads every month. When I failed to do that, I essentially lost the motivation to continue recording and uploading my projects.

    To give you an idea of just how much it affected my channel, here is the update and upload timeline from September 2017 until now:

    Timeline.PNG

    Then look at the YouTube timeline section of my Video Game Projects thread and compare what it was like before in 2017 for an obvious difference. I haven't been this scarce in content since I began regularly uploading in mid-late December 2010. At this point, I don't think it's really about motivation, just that I got out of the habit and can't seem to get back into it. And it's not like this time I have technical issues that are actually holding me back like has been the case a few times before. Getting back into the pattern of waking up early to get ready for college and get to the bus on time after, say, summer break is easier. It's really no different than this situation with my projects looking at the overall concept, however, so... This is also the reason why I haven't updated my Breath of Fire III project in a while. Just got out of the habit.

    So, how do you get back into a pattern you were really good with after you got out of it for various reasons?
     
  2. Calxiyn Keyblade Master

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    I have two answers. The first one is that if this is like, basically the equivalent of someone jogging every day for you but instead you’re uploading YouTube videos, I would treat it like jogging. When you stop running you can’t just jump right in at the same place you left off. For example I used to do 5K every day at school, now I don’t run. I can’t just go back to that 5K, I need to slowly get back there over time. So try one upload a week, then two, then three etc etc. You have to slowly reintroduce yourself into the habit


    My second answer is though why this habit needs to exist I guess? XD Like for example I play KH2 for fun, but I don’t force myself to play it every day if I don’t feel up to it because it’s just supposed to be a fun thing I do when I feel like. Same with writing or any other personal hobby. The only reason I can see for having a consistent schedule if you’re not doing it for yourself is for audience growth and what not. Like for jogging I have a consistent schedule because it improves my health but that doesn’t really apply here XD So instead of showing us how much you upload wouldn’t it be more valuable to show your audience growth or decline during this time and the time when you uploaded every day for a comparison?
     
  3. Amaury Legendary Hero

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    Except in 2014 when I was going for uploads every single day of 2014 with at least two or more uploads the majority of the time for my New Year's resolution, which I managed to do—so proud of myself!—I wasn't forcing myself to do anything as when I'm recording I'm obviously also playing the games which are fun for me. And even in 2014, it was fun, I just put more focus on it. I was subconsciously going for uploads every single day of last year as well, but it got ruined when I couldn't upload on April 29 due to the huge Charter Communications outage.

    Other than 2014, ever since I regularly started uploading in late December 2010, I have missed a day or several days in a row here and there, and it doesn't bother me because I've always looked at it as something I don't have to do. (Basically what you said.) Plus, I'm not a big channel. For example, in March 2011, I uploaded one video every day March 1–18 and March 28–31. However, for March 19–27, I intentionally did not upload as March 21–25 was my spring break during my junior year of high school. That year I just decided, "What the hell!? I'll take a YouTube break as well during this." Even though they don't count as part of the break since you have weekends off, anyway, I even included the two weekends before and after spring break as part of my YouTube break as you can see in my earlier sentence.

    The problem here is that it's not a pattern I wanted to get out of. I haven't regularly uploaded videos for about seven and a half months. If we count September 2017 as having semi-regular uploading, it's about six and a half months. Either way, that's a pretty long time without regular uploading, and it's a pattern I want to get back into. But lately I've been playing Dynasty Warriors and have been heavily involved in that. Although that's what I did before while I was in the pattern of regularly uploading: I would play games just because—as in, not part of my projects—and once it got to be about 8:00 PM, I'd take a break to record whatever projects I was doing then. And that's what I intend on doing again once I get back into the pattern of recording and uploading.

    The other problem is that I still have a lot open/on hiatus projects. I'm not too concerned about the general gameplay ones, but for the walkthroughs, while I know I'm not a big channel, it's not fair to the viewers to let a walkthrough go that long without progress. If it actually takes that long, that's one thing. Like the LPs I do with my friend: The recording sessions are based around his schedule. But for the walkthroughs I do solo, those are something I can record every day without having to work around another person's schedule. If I had finished my projects before the lack of motivation hit, I wouldn't feel quite as bad. I'd still want to get back into the pattern, of course, I just wouldn't feel as bad about getting out of the pattern in the first place.