How do you stay interested in something for a long time?

I think the secret is to not have ADHD

Came here to say this.
- same
Instructions unclear. Starting new hobby tomorrow.
well, shit.
Lol right? Came here to say, IDK I have ADHD. Spending 1000+ hours on anything not school or work ain't happening.

Take breaks.

A hobby is supposed to be fun, or relaxing. Step back for a bit when it stops. (This is why good hobbies frequently make bad jobs.)

ETA: it's also not important that hobbies be perfect or even useful, take the stress of perfection out of it. enjoy the imperfection.

Great point!!
I think we assume a lot of the +1000hr folks are better when in actuality they probably just enjoy doing it whether good or bad at it!

I've been a co creator on a game that's been in the works for about 10 years now, we finally started making real progress 3 years ago. It requires so much research, planning, and many many drafts let alone future fine tuning. I had to get better at drawing, developing designs, research many things about what and why characters look like.

It's something that I do because I want to bring to life this project, and it's an active part of my life.

It takes a lot of steps, so it naturally became time consuming. I am still passionate today as I was 10 years ago when the project was just a pipe dream. It was a place to escape to, something personal to grow. It was fun as it was difficult to create something, so I would say it naturally became something that takes many years to truly come to life.

I started working on my first game about 6 months ago and I am still far from done. Game Dev takes waaay longer than I expected. Just wondering what is the game that you're working on? And any advice when it comes to marketing? I haven't marketed shit yet and I procrastinate everyday.
- It's actually a different sort of game than usual, it's more like a novel. It's a kinetic visual novel, so it's fairly simple and we're using RenPy- issue being to create the plot itself as we are making a sort of episodic series.
  
  Marketing, well I've been trying to grow interest in my art and through that, interest in the novel by sharing the concept visual works as we go along. That way when we have something more firm I can share it with those who had already been interested in my art.
  
  We don't really plan to make money off the game per se, but would just want the visual novel to be played and appreciated. I plan on making some merch for it as a way of support but since it's just me and my partner doing the work, it's our side passion project that we do secondary to our jobs
  
  I think marketing wise, growing a community of interest is important, like whatever the type of game you're making, going in those spaces and getting familiar with fans of that type of game to generate interest

The key is to actually not care about the time spent, but rather what you do with it. If you're counting how long it's been, it's gonna be a grind, but if you're really focused in your goals, time flies and you get what you wanted.

Also, as others have mentioned, having multiple interests to jump back and forth to goes a long way in preventing burnout.

Have more than one interest/hobby! I can't imagine doing the same for months on end with no alternative. I naturally gravitate to a monthly rotation (not consciously, just kinda happens) of high interest in something, and then there's a few things I do whenever (read a book when I have a few minutes here or there, do some cross stitching while watching my husband play a game, etc).

it’s not continuous, it’s half a dozen different things intertwined – play for an hour in a game, add a paragraph to a book, get out into the garden for half an hour – cumulatively each individual item adds up (“a journey of a thousand miles”) but it’s an accumulation of a million steps …
when it’s a form of escapism, your mind will come up with all sorts of justifications – “I just listened to that client for a couple hours, I deserve a few minutes of game play”

I really want to know as well, I'm getting closer to cracking the code, but a LOT of it has to do with how you manage stress in your daily life.

I've been putting in lots of hours and lines of code, artwork, and writing in one of my recent projects, and the main reason I've been able to do that at all is that I not only do it when I'm the most relaxed, I also change up what I'm doing to keep things fresh.

Writing hitting a wall? Try drawing!
Can't draw worth shit because you lost your creative drive? Program something!
Can't program because you are giving yourself a migraine by calculating all that nonsense? Dunno, play Minecraft or Watch youtube!

Bored of the games? Try writing!

I've been basically rotating everything I do and that helps a whole lot with keeping stuff moving. It's better to just not focus on something for too long, only little bits at a time. And those bits all add up to the 1000's of hours.

I used to be very different.

As a kid, when Space Engineers came out, I played that shit so hard that I clocked 15,000 hours in no time. I would play during the day, after school, at night, during the summer, holidays, all the fucking time.

But the result? I burnt out on it so hard that even to this day I cannot fathom touching it again, and it's a game I love!

So take your time, be patient, and stay committed.

That’s the neat part, you don’t!

I've just accepted it's my personality type and I jump around hobbies. People are built different, I'm sure the people who can focus 1000 hours on a hobby have other things they wish they did different. Embrace yourself and how your brain works when it comes to your leisure time.

That being said if I have something I want to focus on for self-growth/productivity reasons I use bullet journaling to hold myself accountable and stay on track. It's helped a lot.

Well, if it's something you're just interested in, then at some point you might become no longer interested in it. That's fine, it's normal, it's why people end up with an attic full of supplies for old hobbies. I've had certain hobbies and interests for 30+ years but it's not literally doing the same thing over and over again, there's plenty of variation within a topic. Always new things to learn, techniques to try, tools to use. If that variety ever stops, yep, I'll probably lose interest.

But your question seems to be more about long-term projects, which aren't something you just happen to get lucky and stay interested in. You have to actually make the decision to do the thing, set the time aside, and have discipline even on the days the magical motivation fairy didn't happen to sprinkle her dust on you.

I have ongoing hobbies like training my dog and doing garden-stuff during summer but other than that, I switch between gaming, reading, writing, drawing and making pixel art. I've had the same hobbies for years and must have spent several 1000 hours doing all of them by now but suspect I'd have burned out on everything if I didn't switch around. I like making things but I'm not trying to make any of it into a side-hustle - I have plenty work at work - so there is no pressure to keep doing a particular hobby when it begins to feel stale.

The key is to do it frequently, but not for a long period of time. You will become exhausted if you play the same game for 6 hours every day.

I spend about two hours playing the same game every day or two. However, They constantly add new content. (TFT, WoW)

Or, when we are on a voice call, my friends may play a game (such as Tetris, Shapez, or Diablo) that is different from mine so that they don't have to try too hard to maintain focus.

My only game I think on steam with over 1000 hours is one I have played on and off with friends over the years. For the other examples, I can't say I have done those, but if I get hooked on something, I just kind of lose track of time and dont really pay attention to how much I am putting into it.