Life After Advents

We have spent the last few weeks devotedly visiting the same websites, playing ridiculously difficult games (Xigen's Ninja Santa Game anyone?) all in the hope of winning a little Christmas present for ourselves. Now that the advents are over, its coming up to a time of year where competitions seem few and far between, only exaggerated by the extreme amount that were available in December. So how do we prevent a loss of motivation during this time?

My first tip would be to use the time to organise your comping. Did you come up with new techniques to handle the sheer volume of advent competitions (if so please comment them below!) - I started using bookmarks and saving links on Facebook a lot more than I used to.  The first thing to do is not to delete all of these, as they may be useful next year, but instead to file them away somewhere (and then not forget where). Bookmark pages you visit every day such as an instant win list, free daily lotteries and any gleam competitions that you are particularly wanting to win, so that you can complete the daily entries. Other good sites to bookmark are Prizefinder, Loquax and Compers News (if you are a member). 

It's also the perfect time of year to go through photos from Christmas and pick out the funniest ones or ones that may fit a future competition such as Christmas jumper theme, family fun or Christmas crafts/baking. Put these away in a folder on your computer and you'll be thankful for it next year.

Another thing to do is to go through some of your advent wins and decide what to do with them. I had been comping for Christmas presents so my 'prize bookcase' isn't too full, but every so often I will go through and sort wins into boxes - presents, things to sell and spares for me (such as make up and toiletries for when mine run out). That way I can see what prizes I have won (cue motivation boost), and know what prizes to focus my time on! It is also a great opportunity to go through your wish list and tick anything off (a great feeling) and to make a new one. Wish lists are such a good way to keep motivated and to make the hobby more manageable. For more tips of wish lists, check out <this post>.

Another thing that I like to do when the quantity of competitions is not there, is to focus on 

quality - particularly effort competitions. I use competition forums to find creative competitions and spend the days between Christmas and New Year, when you don't even really know what day it is,  thinking up slogans, baking photogenic cakes and coming up with winning video ideas. With less daily competitions to enter now that advent is over, you can spend more time working on your entry. These competitions also tend to have bigger prizes, while often being low entry too, so really worth putting the time in. Also, it's nice to get a break from all the quick social media competitions and form filling that occupied my life during December.

What are your plans now that advents are done? Did you have a successful month? This was only my second year of really committing to advent and I really enjoyed it! Only 11 months and 3 days until next advent!