Finding Time For Your Pets When Life Gets Busy

Before things get busy

The first thing that you should do if you know that things are going to get busy is to ensure someone will care for your pets. If you’re not going to have time to feed and play with your pets, head down to the Neolodge and book your pets into a room. There are choices ranging from the inexpensive to the very extravagant, so there are many options that may fit the tastes of your pets!

There are other ways that you can ready your account. Make sure that you fully stock your shop before life gets in the way. If you are part of a guild or mall, let people know that you won’t be online as much, especially if there are activity requirements that might be relaxed in busy times. Finally, it might be worth checking the calendar at Pet Central to check upcoming events so that you don’t miss out on a chance to train a pet for free, or an annual avatar you’re still missing.

One other thing that may be helpful is to put together a list of dailies that can be done quickly. Unlike your ordinary dailies, this list should be short and sweet. What is on your list will depend on your own priorities. Make a list of your daily activities on Neopets and work out the ones that are most important to you, and stick to those when you don’t have much time. Doing your dailies will be even quicker if you put the links on a petpage so that you can quickly open the links up in different tabs.

Unfortunately, we don’t always have time to prepare, but that’s okay. You can always do these things when you have a chance to do them.

When things get busy

Obviously everyone is different and you may not be able to find time to do these things, or they may not be a priority for you. The key is to fit in your priorities in the time you have available. In making this list, I’m assuming you have fifteen to twenty minutes to get things done. It might not seem like much, but you will be surprised by how much you can get done, especially if you split the time up and spend some time in the morning and then at night. If you have less time available get as much done as you can.

As everyone has different goals, the best way to use this list is to pick and choose what works for you and what you have time to do. If you have extra time when you finish the things that are most important to you, try something else.

Collect bank interest (less than one minute)

The first thing you should do is collect your bank interest. It might not be much, but that interest does add up, so try to collect it straight away. While you’re at the bank, withdraw some neopoints if you need to. If Trudy has been kind, you may have NP on hand already. You’re going to need a hefty amount of neopoints on hand for stocks and food club, so prepare ahead.

Visit the stockmarket (one to two minutes)

Buy low and sell high is the rule here. It doesn’t matter what the shares are, as long as you buy at a fairly low price. My rule is to buy 1000 shares of whatever is at 15NP. It might not seem like something worth doing if you don’t have a lot of time on hand, but it will pay off in the long-run. While you’re there, be sure to check your portfolio and sell any shares that have reached a profitable price!

Put in your Food Club bets (up to five minutes)

This is one of the things that can take more time, so if you’re particularly short on time, it is worth avoiding it. There are many people that post their food club picks, so you should consider following those to save some time. Betting can be quicker if you use the command key on a Mac (or control on a PC) to submit the bets in a new tab.

Buy lottery tickets (one minute)

This isn’t a priority for everyone but is important to people who are hoping for the elusive avatar. It can be time-consuming, but can be done quickly if you choose to set up links to your number picks ahead of time.

Visit the lab ray (one minute)

If you’ve got a lab rat, make sure to fit in a visit to the lab ray. It doesn’t take long and might just give you the dream pet that you were never expecting!

Visit Forgotten Shore, Anchor Management, TDMBGPOP, The Fruit Machine, Coltzan’s Shrine, and other quick dailies (less than five minutes)

These will really depend on your own priorities. If you have TDMBPOP avatar already, you might five it a miss. If you’re hoping to get the Island Mystic avatar still, that might be something that you want to do. You may be surprised by how quickly you can get these things done, especially if you open them up in multiple tabs.

Spin the wheels (one minute)

Like above, this will largely depend on your goals. For me, I always try to spin the Wheel of Knowledge as I’m still trying to get the avatar but I skip the Wheel of Excitement as I already have that one. Make sure that you do whatever works for you.

Check shop till (less than one minute)

If you rely on your shop a lot, be sure to check your till and withdraw neopoints to add to your bank account tomorrow. It all adds up, and if you’re not going to have a chance to spend the NP, you might as well have it collect interest!

Train your pets (less than 5 minutes)

If you’re trying to train your pet so that they are an intimidating battledome foe, it is well worth trying to train your pet regularly, even when you are particularly busy. It doesn’t take long to enrol and pay for a training course, so try to get at least one done a day. If you are able to get online quickly a few times a day, try to finish and enrol in another course when you can.

Deposit Neopoints (less than one minute)

Before you log out for the day, be sure to deposit any neopoints that you still have on hand into your bank account so that your interest is higher tomorrow.

If you have a little extra time

Sometimes, even on busy days, you find a little extra time to relax and unwind. Maybe you get through your dailies a little quicker than usual or you just have some free time that you weren’t expecting. There are infinite things that you can do on Neopets, but if your time is limited and you’re anything like me, you’ll probably just end up chatting instead of putting your time to good use.

Respond to any messages or other notifications (time varies)

Depending on what you do on Neopets, you may have neomails to respond to, or offers on your trades to respond to. Be sure to get to those if you have time, especially when it comes to trading post offers as you don’t want to miss out on a great deal.

Work on longer-term goals and projects

Once you have finished your daily activities, you may find that you have time left. Use this time to work on things that you ordinarily wouldn’t be able to do with limited time, like spending some time restocking, chatting on your guild board, doing faerie quests, or searching through trades to add to your gallery.

Use the battledome

For me, this is something I try to do every day so that I can build up a nice stash of codestones to train my pets. It can take a little bit of time, so it’s not something that you can do if you’re in a rush, but doesn’t take so much time that it’s untenable for busy days.

Check the news

Checking out the news is the best way to know what’s going on in Neopia. It is often a quick read and worth checking, even if you’re busy, as you have no idea when the next big event will happen, or the next must-have-item hits the shelves of your favourite shop.

Making your time work for you

The vast majority of the listed tasks above can take less than ten minutes if you work quickly. Even at the busiest times, you can probably find a few minutes to get little bits and pieces done throughout your day. If you’re lucky, you’ll score big with just a few minutes of effort, but keep in mind that most of these dailies are largely luck based. Manage your expectations, because you’re probably not going to win millions from doing a few dailies each day, but you never know when lady luck will be in your favour. There’s a good chance that you might not get that Wheel of Knowledge avatar, but maybe you will.