10min a day can make all the difference

How does the title relate to the photo?

I'm a firm believer in doing 'little and often', in regards to painting - although I'm not opposed to an all day session. My lifestyle and occupation often means that free time is a luxury, or plans have to change quickly - therefore, if I have a spare 10-30min, I will try and get a bit of painting done. You'd be surprised at how much you can achieve in that time - for instance you could smash out the line highlighting on five tactical marines, then the next chance you get, the bases could be painted. Now if you were able to do this every other day or so, you'd soon make some progress, rather than putting it off, and then in a week, those five miniatures are finished. Better than nothing!

So... here's the essential part, in my opinion: you need a dedicated hobby space for this to work. I recently moved from a house where I didn't have this, to one where I do, and my productivity is through the roof, all because the barrier to those quick painting sessions was having to unpack everything, paint, then repack it all - it hardly seemed worth it. Plus, it just makes it a more comfortable and pleasurable experience.

I'm always fascinated by other hobby spaces I've seen online, and a bit envious, so I'm proud to present mine, which is still in it's infancy, and definitely a work in progress:

The desk itself is an Alex from IKEA, which is sturdy and a good height, with handy built in drawers. I believe they also sell a shelf that fits onto it, which would go where my paints are.

The Games Workshop paints, brushes and other bits and pieces are stored in the Modular Workshop System from HobbyZone in Poland. I ordered them on a Saturday and they arrived on the Monday (if I remember correctly). Building them all took the majority of an afternoon, but it was time well spent. Every module has magnets, which keeps the whole thing tight.

Close up illumination is provided by two OTTLite desk lamps that I got for less than £30 each from Costco (sorry, no link, I did look) - these lights provide multiple 'temperatures' of realistic daylight - I always have them on the coolest setting.

Finally, two glass jars, that many years ago contained pickled mussels, and have since remained my water pots. I feel like they're a bit of a lucky charm, and wouldn't paint without them. If they ever got broken, I feel like my miniatures would spontaneously combust, much like the monarchy falling if the ravens fled the Tower of London.

I'll do a more in depth look at my hobby space in the future - if you've been putting off taking the plunge and setting one up for yourself, start small, and make it permanent, and you'll soon see your productivity increase.