I've seen here many various guides how to train a certain skill, but not how to actually motivate yourself to train. I've also noticed how many people have set theirself goals which they never managed to achieve. These were the main reasons why I decided to write a guide how I've managed to get myself 1943 skill total+125combat (1.4k+110 at rsc). I hope this guide helps someone to achieve some of their goals.

 

 

 

1. Set yourself a goal

 

This is the most important thing. To achieve something, you must first something to achieve. The goal, whatever it is, it must be realistic. I personally laugh at these dudes who are shouting it loud how they are going to get 99 mining just by mining essences or something.

 

 

 

A good goal isn't something that takes you ages to reach. I for example have made my combat levels one by one; first set myself a goal of 123, after it trained some other stats, then 124, went back to other skills and then 125. I would have just burnt out if I had tried to go straight from 122 to 125. Just because you want to get 99 runecrafting, it doesn't mean you should set it as your main goal when you are 43 rcer. Just set smaller "checkpoint goals".

 

 

 

Make sure you are really ready to work to reach your goals. My own principle is that if I've promised something, even to just myself, I'll keep it. I've done 2 comebacks to RSC just because I wanted to reach goals I had set ages ago.

 

 

 

2. Balance your training

 

Title might be a bit misleading, but I hope you got the point from the text. First of all, you shouldn't do any overtraining. Training 12 hours nonstop might be good for few days, but I tell you it's not worth it in a long run. You'll just burn out.

 

 

 

The right amount of training per day depends on person. Some people can do that 12 hours/day without any problems, I personally can do max 6. Just because you have time to train X amount of hours, it doesn't mean you should train that much. For me, my training speed drops a lot if I do the same thing over and over. For example for me I get more xp by keeping few breaks once in a while than training non stop.

 

 

 

My only overtraining times are when I'm really close to the goal. Usually my training records are from the last days before reaching my goal. That's because I am so close to reaching my goal that it doesn't really matter if I don't feel like training it tomorrow and because I really want to reach my goal.

 

 

 

3. Get your thoughts away from training.

 

It's important to do other things while training. Watch movies, read books, do your homework, play guitar, listen to music, anything. Just because you are doing something else it doesn't mean you should be away from the keyboard. You can play guitar while killing abyssal demons, read while selling barrow armours and so on.

 

 

 

By concentrating too much on training, you'll just get bored. Boredom is the magic word for killing training motivation. To avoid that, do other things while training.

 

 

 

I personally like reading, watching movies, listening to music and talking at irc. For example when I went for 80 runecrafting, I watched probably tens of hours of different document movies. When I trained agility, I read Da Vinci Code. Point your tv right or resize your media player's window so watching a movie doesn't even slow down your training.

 

 

 

4. Right place and items.

 

Some might have put this higher on their lists, but I personally didn't feel like doing it. For me it's more important to actually train right than train at right place with right equipment.

 

 

 

To find the right place and items, compare the amount xp gotten in one hour, the item waste (food, runes, arrows, etc), risks and the amount of other players. Most of the really fast, nonrisky and "cheap" spots are totally filled up with other people. Some places are really fast, not crowded and not risky, but they waste a lot of supplies. It's up to you what do you prefer. Just make sure you are ready to face to convos at your place with your items. I personally laugh at those people who complain how they can't make profit at abyssal demons with the current whip price. I got 1 sentence for them: Learn to train or go away.

 

 

 

I personally did 87 slayer with really small amount of cannonballs. That was because I thought it's actually faster to train without it than with it and trying to earn enough money to supply the cannonballs.

 

 

 

5. Do some calculations.

 

For a while I though to put this before items&places. It's surprising how helpful some calculations actually are. Forgetting to calculate certain things have slowed me down so much that it's hard to believe.

 

 

 

The keywords are time, cost and profit. Some ways seem to be good money wise, but they take so long that in that time you could have earnt enough money to do the same xp with better items. I personally did this mistake with iron ores: I thought rings of forging were good as they were cheap and smithing them was rather fast xp. Well I didn't time the smelting part. As whips were 6m each and I had 85+ slay, I could have earnt enough money in that time to train my smithing with adamantite bars.

 

 

 

6. Keep a blog.

 

A blog can help you to motivate. You can make a public blog for example to these boards or keep the info on yourself. I personally counted every task I got and every rune (or better) drop I got while I went for 85 slayer. That way I could see which days were bad and why, did I need to do something on a different way and so on.

 

 

 

7. Remember that it's just a game

 

Many times I've seen people acting like RS is more than just a game. They rather stick at it doing nothing than take a total break from it. Some years ago I had this kind of a period. All I did was hang out at rs doing nothing. If rs had been my work, a doctor would have said I had a burnout. I stopped being a moderator at these boards, took a few month break and when I came back, I came with another character. After these steps, it was fun to play again with Hohto.

 

 

 

A few month break of course delays your goals, but sometimes it's a must. We play this game because it's fun to play, not because we have to. If it isn't fun, there's always an option: log out and do something else. That's a better choice than make yourself totally quit the game because it's anything but fun.

 

 

 

We can never be perfect, but if we stop trying, we have lost everything.

 

-Varg Vikernes

very very nice guide, tho im retired, i guess ill apply this to real life.

 

 

 

Roomate: Why are you just standing there?

 

Me: Im waiting for the earth warriors to attack me...

 

Roomate: oh.... right

Nice guide, I like it, personally i'm going for 85 mage atm, and im doing very well :) I am very motivated :)

very nice guide

 

 

 

blogs DO help. it might just be me, my blog makes me do 100 combat. if i take too long a break (1 day+) i... duno... force isnt the right word... make myself do training. the tipit IRC channel is very helpful too.

 

 

 

just my 2 cents :)

Perfect guide. =D> I'm happy that I quitted, otherwise I would be so addicted now. :P Anyways, it can also be a bit helpful for real life, like homework.

Nice guide man. Except the part where you wrote "I read the da vinci code". Now that's a nono :shame: :P .

Very nice guide !

 

I really needed something like this

 

Because im bored on playing rs

very nice guide i like it

Nice guide! Should help me with the runecrafting.

some good ideas there, i always play guitar while i train, and it really helps

Super Guide !

 

 

 

I set also goals for myself, and sometimes I'm demotivated.

 

Doing something on RS and in real life helps, for example I made my homework while I was fishing.

 

 

 

Nice :thumbsup:

This just proves that the "working" part of this "game" is sort of tedious and not enjoyable. Nonetheless, great guide. I skimmed it since I don't play RS anymore. You must really like that guy you quote all the time :D

Nice guide, you might want to write "short-term goal" here and "long-term goal" there in the first block.

Well, I believe that every word of this guide is for the most part true...just got 97 wc and without the help of my guitar(Gibson les paul standard) I'd still be 80 something.

 

(.../thekooshman\...)

 

97/99wc

 

proud to be f2p

nice guide and yea it's better to do random times then 12hrs a day

applause :) very nice guide! current skill and alwasy been working on is my ranged! i set my goals is to get 90 ranges in 1 month time i got it from 83 range to near 88 range im 2 and half :P i would away from 90 range! yay im so happy and knowing im close to my checkpoint !

Great guide, definitely one to read before all the others.

Nice guide man. Except the part where you wrote "I read the da vinci code". Now that's a nono :shame: :P .

 

And what exactly is wrong with the Da Vinci code?

 

 

 

Very nice guide, I'm going to apply it to training my pure (so dull!).

Nice guide, but it can't really apply to me because I never get bored of

 

setting myself long-term goals, my current goal is for 99wc and I started

 

that goal when I had 50wc, which wasn't that long ago....

 

Right now, I have 91wc and I'm still going, though the new interface

 

update is really something I dislike, so I might not be on as much as I

 

used to:( Well, very nice guide to the people that can't survive sticking

 

to looong-term goals:)

Nice guide, but it can't really apply to me because I never get bored of

 

setting myself long-term goals, my current goal is for 99wc and I started

 

that goal when I had 50wc, which wasn't that long ago....

 

Right now, I have 91wc and I'm still going, though the new interface

 

update is really something I dislike, so I might not be on as much as I

 

used to:( Well, very nice guide to the people that can't survive sticking

 

to looong-term goals:)

 

 

 

Of course everyone's an unique person. Some of us can play days nonstop to achieve something, some of us can't. Good thing if you've managed to survive that long without boredom, but watch out: you aren't even half way to 99 yet :P

nice guide, if i may say so.

 

 

 

goals do work, if reasonable. what i do is when i get bored, is to go and do something i like in rs, maybe mine a few or range a few fire giants and chatter away; so on and so forth. but then, i guess it works differently for different ppl.

 

 

 

but yea, nice guide. =D>