I'm writing this today, because I set aside today to dress, however I'm entirely not in the mood so I'm here writing about it instead!
So as we know, dolling can take a long time and a lot of energy. So it is useful to make enough time available to do everything necessary to get yourself into doll form quickly and efficiently, so you can spend more time enjoying being dressed than struggling with it. I will often clear a night (and sometimes the day as well) in order to doll up. When I used to dress sporadically I would put on all the fun things first then struggle through the rest of the set up process while dressed or partially dressed, which ultimately ate up a ton of time and energy. So now I try to follow a basic procedure :
1) setting up lights, tripods, cameras, charging camera batteries, setting the area where I'll be taking pictures, setting up mirrors, shutting the blinds ;P
2) clearing the bathroom counter, preparing the dressing area by getting out all the make-up, brushes, wig caps, laying out the mask + padding + layers + outfit.
3) I sometimes put on makeup at this point, but I'm also terrible with make-up, so don't listen to me on when/how to do this. But I do generally eat at this point since I won't have access to my mouth for a while and need the calories for the evening!
4) I then set everything up so it will be as easy to access as possible, like computer, cameras, etc. So I won't need to fumble with plugging things in or rifling through bags while wearing gloves + mask.
5) put on pads + compression layer --> suit or body base --> outfit --> mask --> eye lashes --> shoes --> wig --> gloves (gloves always last!)
All told, I generally spend between 90 mins -150 mins hours in prep work. If wearing silicone it's on the longer side, if latex or casual clothing it's on the shorter side. I know this is probably common sense to many of us, but hey, just thought I'd share.
