Do you ever have no idea what to do that would be enjoyable? Sometimes, I feel like work and the other responsibilities in life are so all-consuming that I truly cannot imagine something fun to do when I need to unwind. Which is weird, given how much of my life has been given over to gaming. But sometimes… yeah, I draw a blank.

Probably this is a symptom of running out of mental energy. In his book, “Tiny Habits“, BJ Fogg describes the five barriers to taking an action – what he calls breaks in the Ability Chain – and this is a big one for me. Time, money, physical energy, mental effort, and routine are the factors which are required for us to take action, but my Achilles’ Heel is definitely mental effort.

I’m not sure what to do with this but I certainly have the sense that it’s a big part of my reality. In terms of rescuing our lost roleplaying hobby, the antidote is going to be finding ways to make doing something fun with the hobby require lower levels of mental effort. Which is why I love adding just one more entry from the Pendulum table to my prep notes: flip a coin, answer the question, roll 1d20 for time. This is what I call tiny prep… and it works.

Game on!