There’s this strange moment between full focus and high adrenaline – when you’ve picked up a project, whatever it is. Maybe it’s fixing something at home, or building something for someone else. You’ve gone through all the stages: planning, buying the missing parts, starting, realizing you messed something up on step two and have to redo it, watching the deadline peek over the hill, hitting turbo mode… and finally finishing.

And then, for a few days, you just admire it – something made by your own hands. After that, there are a few days of rest. Or weeks. Who’s counting, really?
You look through your notebook full of ideas, trying to pick what to start next. But nothing quite clicks.

Project 1? I’d need that one tool I can’t afford right now.
Project 2? I can’t start it before finishing Project 6, because they’re connected.
Project 3? Honestly… boring.

And that’s where my brain starts spinning – while I’m scrolling through games to play after work. Lately (thankfully) I actually have games to play. For months, there was nothing that grabbed my attention. Now I switch between Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders, depending on the mood. Life’s good, at least for a while.

But during those months when nothing catches my interest – no projects, no games – that’s when I’m in trouble. Because I don’t have the energy to start something new, and nothing feels right for the mood I’m in.

It’s almost a paradox – when you’re in the middle of a project, you’re half-annoyed by it, can’t wait to finish, and it eats at you until it’s done.
But once it is done, there’s this empty space in your head.
You don’t know what to do with yourself.

I avoid TV shows for that very reason. Because if I really like one, it’s over – I can’t stop. I have to know everything. Which leads, of course, to a glorious binge.

We humans love to compare ourselves, and I’m no exception.
Sometimes I wonder if there are people who can finish something big and immediately jump into the next thing.
How do they do that?
How do they clear the mental cache so quickly – especially when the last thing still lingers in your mind?
When it was tough, when it took problem-solving and energy, your brain’s still processing, still trying to store it all.

Sure, if it’s part of your daily job, you don’t have a choice – but for hobbyists like me, who can afford little “gaps” in the schedule… it’s different.

I mentioned earlier that I’ve got new games to play – and if you’re a gamer, you know what that means.
When a new game is that good, the gap between projects can stretch for who-knows-how-long.
When will I get bored of it?
Will I?
Will I ever manage to step away from the screen long enough to build something useful – or at least satisfying?

I’d love to say I have some kind of “hard limit” – like, a 100 hours and I’m done – but no. That doesn’t exist.
A few months ago, before taking a break from Dune: Awakening, I had over 200 hours logged.
Last year, I had just under a 1000 hours in Satisfactory.
As of now, I’m at a modest 25 in ARC Raiders. Who knows when I’ll burn out – but I can already feel the itch to start fixing something around the house.

Which is a whole different story – every now and then I get this sudden urge to rearrange half the apartment, just because the old setup suddenly drives me insane.

So yeah… how do you deal with the gaps between your projects?

Stay safe out there.
Commodore Bo, out.