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Hobby streak, which is most often seen as the hashtag #hobbystreak, is a way to enjoy your hobby consistently and develop good habits. To participate in hobby streak, the rules are very simple (and not very strict): do your hobby every day and then post about it on social media with the hashtag #hobbystreak. That’s it.
Some people are more particular: they say you should do your hobby for at least 30 minutes a day and post a picture on Instagram. But I have been unable to find a definitive beginning or originator of #hobbystreak, so it’s hard to say if there were original rules. (And honestly, this is just about getting more out of your hobby, so who cares if there are strict rules?)
Why Do #hobbystreak?
I learned about #hobbystreak from a Dana Howl video, which you can view here, in which she says the following:
“The point isn’t to show off the beautiful miniatures you’re painting. In fact the opposite is true. The point of #hobbystreak is to be accountable to one another. It’s saying ‘today I practiced my craft. I did something rather than nothing. I will do the same thing the next day and the next day and the next day, until the end of time’.”
Dana, at the time of the video (Jan 12, 2021), said that the hobby streak has been the most life-changing thing that she’s done in the last two years, or even the last five.
“It’s really changed the way I think about art or learning things or setting goals. By committing to just 30 minutes of hobby time each day, instead of saying you’re going to do something amazing this year, you are essentially kneeling before the altar of the art gods. You are saying ‘I suck, but I am willing to sit down at my art desk for 30 minutes a day and put in the time.’ And eventually, over time, the practice and the ritual of the thing becomes more fulfilling than whatever results you’re getting.”
#hobbystreak is about detaching yourself from the end results and focusing on the habits and ritual instead.
Has #hobbystreak Made Me a Better Painter?
It’s definitely has. I’m currently on day 273 of the hobby streak, and I usually do much more than 30 minutes a day (though there are some days I will do just a token amount to keep up the habit, but I’ll mention that more in a minute).
My morning consists of waking up at 4:30am (yes, I know this is super early) and going to the gym. Then I come home from the gym at about 5:30am, shower, and then #hobbystreak for the next two hours until I start work at 8:00am. This is easier because I work from home, because my hobby desk is the desk where I do my day job, and because I don’t mind getting up early. Your results may vary.
This was my very first day doing hobby streak. As you can see, it was nothing special. It was a picture of my setup for basing some Bolt Action US Rangers.
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And you can compare that humble beginning to my most recent post, which was posted yesterday evening after ten hours of hobbying on vacation day.
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Over the last 273 days I have had to put in a lot of effort to make sure that I maintained the hobby streak. The day that I picked up the Cursed City box from my FLGS, I had to go on an emergency trip because of a family member’s illness, and I painted my first mini in a hotel.
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Remember how I said that some days I post only token efforts? On #hobbystreak day 121 I was in a rollover accident on the freeway in which I got a traumatic brain injury. It messed me up physically, mentally and especially emotionally. But to make sure that the hobby streak didn’t end I base coated some of my Black Powder Epic Battles American Civil War miniatures, on the sprue with a can of spray paint. Yes, it was the bare minimum I could do to continue the streak, but that was a day where the bare minimum felt like a lot.
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There have been days where I have posted pictures of miniatures that have taken me several days to paint, such as this Seraphon Engine of the Gods, which was the product of my #hobbystreak for six days.
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And there are day where I post a miniature that I have painted from start to finish in a single morning, as I did with this Stormcast Eternal Annihilator from the Dominion box set.
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And #hobbystreak has really helped me because, as much as I paint, I really do struggle with it. I am not the best painter in the world, and I’m not even amazing after 273 days of painting every single day. I have tremors in my hands, and two of the fingers on my left hand are numb because of a pinched ulnar nerve in my elbow. I have no illusions that I’m going to win awards, ever. And I’m not trying to.
But what I am doing is creating good hobby habits and, even if I don’t get markedly better, I’m growing as a hobbyist. It’s what helped me paint the Mumak of Harad–the best model I ever painted–and it’s what gets me through on days when all I can manage to do is basecoat something.
I’m grateful for the #hobbystreak. I’m grateful that I saw Dana Howl’s video about it and that I dove in. She recently passed Day 1000. I’ll get there eventually. For now I’m happy just to paint.
