Grinding is a polarising part of gaming. Some players love to embed themselves into the grind, while others can’t stand it and simply feel like it’s a waste of time. Whichever camp you’re in, this article breaks down 10 tips to help make your gaming grind sessions way more efficient, getting you to your goals faster, with less effort. 

Understanding the Objective

Before even getting started, it’s worth really breaking down what your goal of the grind session is. Are you looking to level? Gather resources? Get equipment? Progress the main story? Having a clear goal at the start will help you break down the tasks you actually need to get there, while also keeping you away from distracting time-sinks in the process. 

For example, if you’re simply looking to level, perhaps gathering crafting materials can be shelved. Or if you’re looking to get gold, you can avoid side-quests until you get to a sufficiently high level location. Things like this will supercharge your grinding sessions in the long run!

Efficient Time Management

It may sound very boring, but having some sort of routine or schedule can really help your long term grind. Dedicating 10 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour a day to a grind will quickly get your to your goal.

These dedicated time-frames will both ensure that you don’t avoid or over-do the grind, both of which can quickly lead to frustration.

Utilize Boosts and Bonuses

Ah yes, boosts. Those things many players get, hoard and never actually use. Well I’m here to tell you to use them! If you’ve locked in a 30 minute grind session for getting resources, this is the time to use your resource gathering buffs. Similar buffs often exist in game for XP boosts, crafting bonuses and plenty of other bonuses. 

Bonuses like these often increase your effectiveness anywhere from 10 to 100 percent. Meaning that you can quite literally reach your goal twice as quickly with an effective use of buffs and bonuses.

That said, an even faster way to get ahead is to simply buy some boosting. If you’re playing WoW, you can buy WoW boosting at a very reasonable price!

Focus on High-Yield Tasks

Just like allocating your time well is important, focusing your attention during that time is also incredibly important. Thus, It’s worth that you find yourself the most rewarding activities, and focus on them. This will ensure that you maximize your time doing the most valuable activities, while minimizing your time on those which actually don’t bring you much value.

Team Up and Collaborate

This may sound obvious, but you won’t believe how many MMO players miss out on this. One of the best ways to beat the grind in online games is to simply split your resources with other players. For example, if you’re gathering materials you could spend your time mastering the gathering of one type while a friend or guild member could choose another. Then you could exchange some materials at the end of each session. Multiply this by ten or twenty players and you’ll probably be able to cover most of the major materials in the whole game, making them all a breeze to gather!

Research and Strategy

Before starting any grind, it’s worth doing some research. Even if you chose the best task to do, you might not yet have the best strategy for taking on that task. Explore forums, chat with other players or experiment with some novel methods to try and find the most efficient way to approach each challenge, and you’ll save yourself an incredible amount of time in the long run!

Minimize Distractions

Distractions are the bane of productivity, both in the real world and the virtual one. For this reason it’s crucial that you make your grind sessions distraction free. This includes turning off notifications from other applications and avoiding certain in-game actions. Simply focus on your grind for your dedicated session, and you’ll thank yourself later for it!

Plan Ahead 

While you may have planned what you want to do and how, it’s also worth planning your longer term goals. When you gather enough resources for that armour you’ve been wanting to craft, what next? What do you do with the surplus? To avoid wasting lots of time thinking about this during your grind session, it can be valuable to plan this out in advance.

Invest in Quality Gear or Upgrades

We’ve already talked about buffs, but gear and other items are also vital for maximizing your effectiveness during a grind session. Making sure your character is strong enough and well equipped enough to face the challenges ahead can save you lots of time down the line, where you would otherwise find yourself quitting the grind to go and pick up essential gear. Sometimes you need to invest your WoW gold to receive more in return over the long run.

Take Breaks and Avoid Burnout

Perhaps most importantly of all, it’s worth keeping your mental wellbeing in mind while grinding in games. While games can ask a lot of you, and have a lot of dopamine-rich tasks to complete or items to gather, your health is always going to be more important. If you’ve stopped enjoying the grind, perhaps it’s best to take a break, instead of pushing through. Either play the game another way, avoiding the grind, or take a break from the game altogether. 

While this may sound counter-productive, it can actually help your grind in the long run—as it will allow you to refresh and come back with a more focused and productive mind!

Grinding is a huge part of gaming. Whether you love it or hate it, these tips should help to streamline your grind sessions, helping you optimize your time and achieve your in-game goals far faster. Just remember to enjoy your journey along the way too!