I theoretically want to go through all the side quests and miscellaneous stories before I do the main mission, but I find that if I really dislike a game I'll just rush the main quest. Or if I'm somehow really caught up in the story I'll rush the main story. At that point I consider it completed. Because the main quest of Skyrim was mostly uninteresting (aside from Parthunaax who is awesome) I did as many side quests as possible and tried to stay away from the main quest. So that's a bit of a counter point.