S/O so what's your buzz kill?

I like have reasons to craft, like for a swap, a sketch or (back in the day) publications - but I really hate deadlines!! I struggle terribly with any self-imposed deadlines, which a lot of my crafting ones are, so those can be a huge buzz kill.

I find I get momentum when I see measured results of my efforts. I have an Etsy store where I sell handmade embellishments. When I get lots of sales in a short time frame, it tends to motivate me to put more effort into creating more for the store. When my sales are slower, the motivation wanes and my attention is easily pulled elsewhere.

Messiness and visual clutter is another thing that kills my mojo. The way my desk is arranged, the entire right side of my desk needs to be relatively cleaned off so when I look out into the house I have an unobstructed view (my craft room is what should be the dining room in an open concept floor plan). If things are piled up around me I feel overwhelmed. I also prefer to have supplies "hidden" for the same reason.

Stress, anxiety, sadness - all the "negative" emotions will do it, too!

A timely question since I finally figured out why I had no motivation to make all the birthday cards I need.  It was a clean room!  Every time I walked in there I remembered all the time I had spent cleaning, organizing and purging and the thought of having supplies and paper scattered everywhere made me turn around and walk out.  

I picked up DGS from school yesterday and he wanted to make valentine cards for his little friends so I dug out a large heart die and did 17 heart shaped cards for him. Now my room is a mess of pink and red scraps, stamps, markers and stickers all over the place and I’m itching to get in there as soon as he goes home to get my cards started.

I can’t stand a messy house but it’s obvious I need a messy craft room to motivate me.  Good thing I can just close the door and walk away when I’m done for the day. 

Linda - we are the same person! Right now my desk is messy and I have way too much stuff to choose from plus the amount of photos I want to scrap makes it so difficult for me to start. I know what I need to do to get started (clean my desk, make a kit to use so I don't overwhelm myself with options and print only 1 week's worth of photos) but I cannot seem to start!

Feeling overloaded with life makes is so hard for me to scrap. Like others have said, scrapping or card making doesn't "relax me" or get me into a better mood, I have to already be kind of relaxed and happy to scrap. So spending literal months (since October) dealing with family things, trying to work on cleaning out my MIL's home, inlaws, kids' needs, spouse needs, high stress at work, etc...I don't recharge from scrapbooking. I need to be full of charge to get there. I am just now finding some time to scrap. 

It's often self-inflicted, since scrapping is my hobby (ie I don't participate in design teams/crops/retreats/conventions, create gift albums, or have any actual deadlines). However, I have perfectionist tendencies that make me a painstakingly S-L-O-W scrapper who will rework/quit & restart as much as necessary to be completely satisfied with each step in the process. Frustratingly, it takes a ridiculous amount of time to complete a layout (& I'm woefully "behind"). UGH...

I'm the same. I have to have other things in order first. I'm going to attempt to break that rule this morning, since I am home alone until at least noon.

Time limits, because if I only have until XXX before I have to be somewhere, I don't want to stop while I'm in the middle of something, and I do this with all my hobbies not just scrapbooking...

Bigger sets of photos that need to be sorted into several pages which requires thinking and planning. I have our vacation from last summer, and Christmas to scrap and I keep avoiding both in favor of one photo, single layouts.

Not being able to find the thing I know I own because I "organized" it somewhere. Like I can't find that roll of washi because I put it in a page kit, or that paper with red stars on it, because it got filed under red instead of in the 4th of July stuff, that kind of thing. It will drive me nuts until I stop everything to find it. I am my own buzzkill

Life... I don't scrapbook when I'm super busy but if the house is a mess it doesn't bother me (although I'll usually start a load of laundry or run the dishwasher before I get started.)

When I’m not feeling well, I’m not likely to scrap. If I’m stressed or busy at work, I just want to veg on the couch and not scrap. Also when I feel forced to scrap something.

You gain momentum while processing orders... I gain momentum when I recieve happy mail... if we work together, we can be perpetually motivated! 😁

I only scrap at crops, but they are really the worst place for me to work because of what bugs me.  Noise.  I hate noise.  Loud talkers, constant talkers, phones, videos and music from tinny cell phone speakers, die cut machines, especially the old ones.  On the list but a bit more tolerable is visitors, the people that cruise around looking at your stuff, comment, get into discussions, socialize.  

Every one of those things cramps my mojo.  Without them I am incredibly productive.  I can't scrap at home.  My house is chaotic and if I was at home I would be compelled to deal with it.  

A small space to scrap is also on the list.  I scrapped yesterday at a 4 foot table, but only a few of us attended so there was some spread room.  I remember the olden days of paying for 2 feet of table space, 3 of us on a 6 ft table or 6 on a round table.  Now if there is less than 6 feet for free I have to have space around me for chairs to hold my stuff.  And I hardly bring anything, but I have to be able to access it.

I know I sound like a real drag, but I am great to scrap with.  I keep to myself, am very productive, take phone calls away from the crop area, am friendly but do not visit around.  The only thing I will do is ask the music to be turned down or to take a speaker phone call outside.

It's hard! I did do 3 loads of laundry at the same time. Is that cheating?

Nope. I do it too.