I've been playing Skyrim since release and still play it regularly, though I'm on a break now. It sounds odd, but I have some methods to extenuate my time playing the game, and I'd like to share one of them.

In order to keep Skyrim interesting and foreign, I purposely avoid certain areas that I've never been to before. For example, if I see a certain cave that I've mentally marked as "reserved", I'll avoid it and walk away. I even have certain regions of Skyrim completely avoided, but they're not of tremendous proportion.

Am I alone in this?

On occasion, I just avoid some dungeons because I know I'll have a hard time.

Nope. your not. With my new character I am going to fully explore the reach, something I have never done before. Every cave, dwemer ruin, nordic ruin. forsworn camp. NO fast travel and no sprinting to get there as quick as I can either. Just the default jogging speed.

Sort of. What I do or should I say don't do is go into Dwemer ruins unless a quest takes me their. My explorer characters will go into caves and forts, but not Nordic or Dwemer ruins. I've purposely avoided doing the Pyrite quest, I just for the first time went into Kagrenzel, because I was sent their. I've been playing since release. Acording to my list, I haven't been in 5 of the Dwemer ruins and 3 Nordic ruins ( there actaully may be 4 though, I think I marked the wrong one once) Also 7 caves.