Since this was a fairly short challenge I took the time to do lots of practising. I ran through the various tasks multiple times each looking for ways to improve. Lots of thought was given not just to the tasks I picked, but also to what order to do them in, and how to best allocate them to the worlds I have.
From the optional tasks, collectibles and birthday cakes were easy picks because I knew I could make them happen quickly. Deciding between fishing, fitness, music and woohoo was harder but I ended up going with fitness. Fishing practice runs were sometimes faster and sometimes not, but I didn't want to count on getting lucky with it. Also fitness would provide a lot of satisfaction points which was necessary for my strategy.
I gave my sim the following likes & dislikes:
Likes - pop and blues music, painting, fitness, handiness
Dislikes - classical music
The tasks (in order):
Painting was first because we needed enough satisfaction points to get the always welcome reward before doing the birthday cakes task. Also because painting skill only needs to reach level 3 before you can do paint from reference - with very inspired, this only took a few hours. Brindleton Bay was picked for this task simply because it wouldn't be good for most of the other tasks. I mainly sent my sim to paint unoccupied lots as I didn't want sims distracting her by talking to her. We did however take a brief moment to meet one of the vets while painting the Brindleton Pawspital so that later she would be able to chat with him on the phone to raise social without raising charisma.
After we were done with this painting task when she needed to raise fun on her rest breaks I had her do some more of the painting aspiration for the satisfaction points. I put classical music on in her bathroom causing her fun need to drain while she was in there raising her other needs, so that then she would need to raise her fun need again.
Birthday cakes - Willow Creek and Windenberg were needed for later tasks so Oasis Springs was picked for this one because it has more population than any of the remaining worlds I had. My sim went to the Roomies household & baked all 6 cakes there, only pausing that to put birthday candles on them. The first 3 cakes were used to age up household members (Mitchell left the house before a cake was ready). Then when the rest of the cakes were ready I dragged them into her inventory and we popped over to the Caliente's. Conveniently, everyone except Katrina was home and as soon as they'd all finished their age up spins it was back to the home lot. This task was also used to help progress through part of the master chef aspiration to replace the satisfaction points spent on always welcome.
Fitness - I chose Newcrest for fitness so that I could add a gym with the bracing breezes and study spot lot traits. She got the new inspired explorer reward trait at this point which gives a bonus to skill raising when away from the home neighborhood - from the testing I did in practice runs, it seemed to save me about an hour or so on both the fitness and upgrades tasks. My sim also constantly asked the gym trainer to mentor her while she was working out. When she got a sprained muscle she read a fitness skill book instead until it was over. This task was also used to progess through part of the bodybuilder aspiration for satisfaction points.
Collectibles - plants. To make this work I had to pick a home lot with a community garden in the local neighborhood which is why we chose the empty lot in across from the Goth house in Willow Creek for our home lot. Collecting 6 different wild plants was a very quick matter once the community garden plants were ready for harvesting which happened naturally after a few days.
Upgrades - Windenberg was one of the few worlds with 6+ unique upgradeable items. My sim read a handiness book at the library until her very focused moodlet ran out. Then after another quick browse of simpedia it was off to the gym to upgrade a sink, toilet and shower. Next, over to the pub to upgrade a fireplace followed by 3/4 of a sink upgrade (not counted) to get her handiness skill up to level 5. Then for her final two upgrades she did the coffee machine upstairs at the pool followed by the stove at the cafe.
The loans task was left until last because charisma raises so much faster with great kisser but getting enough satisfaction points for it took a while. The remaining world I had left was Britchester so my sim went to visit Cameron Fletcher at his dorm and alternated kissing with flattering or complimenting him. As soon as my sim reached charisma level 7, she asked him for a loan then went to visit the Pleasants and the Elderberrys. It was quite late at that point but her always welcome trait meant they didn't mind. I made her befriend each of them with photos before asking for a loan. In practice I'd found that a sim would sometimes agree to give you a loan even if you weren't friends but I wanted to be sure they'd say yes.
That's about it I think but I'm happy to answer questions, if anyone has any.
Big thanks to all the team for organising this tournament! I had a great time participating and it pushed me to explore some aspects of the game that I hadn't played with before.
@Metro - sorry for the delay, things have been hectic here, I'll try to get back to you re your messages tomorrow
