Make Time for Hobbies and Leisure Activities
Having a hobby or engaging in a leisure activity you enjoy can improve your life. It can be good for your health, mind, and relationships. The right hobby can lead you to learn new skills, take pride in new accomplishments, and set aside—for a time—your day-to-day pressures and worries.
But how do you find a hobby if you don't have one? Here are some ideas!
Think broadly.
The range of potential hobbies and leisure activities is limitless. Consider these examples:
- Arts and crafts—woodworking, quilting, sewing, knitting, crocheting, weaving, origami, drawing, painting, photography, computer programs for graphics
- Food and drink—cooking (learning a new style of ethnic or regional cooking, or trying all the recipes from a cookbook), baking bread, fermentation, brewing beer, smoking meat and fish, canning and preserving
- Music, dance, and performance—playing an instrument, singing, dance, acting, exploring a particular genre of music
- Writing—writing short stories or poetry, documenting family history, journaling
- Nature and the out-of-doors—gardening, birding, plant and mushroom identification, spotting and identifying animal tracks, hiking, camping, boating, fishing, raising houseplants
- Physical activity—cycling, running, walking, swimming, yoga, lifting weights, playing basketball or tennis, rollerblading, golfing
- Puzzles and games—crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, card or board games, playing pool or billiards
- Collecting—coins, stamps, antiques, postcards, buttons, beach glass, or whatever strikes your fancy
- Animals and pets—horseback riding, animal grooming or training, keeping an aquarium or terrarium
- Volunteering—helping at an animal rescue center, your local library, a youth center, or a senior citizens' center; teaching English as a second language; helping recent immigrants with resettlement
- Exploring history—genealogy, re-enactment, visiting historic sites, learning about the history of your community
- Repair and restoration—furniture restoration, restoring a vintage motor vehicle, home repair and restoration, fixing old electronic equipment
- Personal growth—learning a foreign language, meditation, attending a religious study group or educational lectures
Give it a few tries.
The way to get started with any activity is to try it. Because picking up a new hobby or leisure activity typically involves learning new skills, give it a few tries. If, after three or four tries, the activity is still frustrating or boring, try something else. It can take a few tries before you find an activity you really enjoy and that fully absorbs your attention.
Think about what interests and engages you.
- Is there something you've always wanted to do? Now might be the time to try it.
- Did you have an interest or hobby as a child, teenager, or young adult—before the commitments of work and parenting took hold—that you could pick up again or that might be the inspiration for a new hobby?
- How do you like to spend your time? Are there activities that you settle into happily and can cause you to lose your sense of time? These might lead you to an enjoyable and absorbing hobby.
Try something new.
Another way to find a hobby is to take a leap into the unknown:
- Try something you've never done before. It's a sure way to open the door to new learning and skills, and you may discover new interests and new sides of yourself.
- Try something that's the opposite of what you think you're good at. If you tend to choose precise and neat activities, try something loose and messy. If you've always thought you had no ear for music, try learning to play an instrument. If you lead a mostly sedentary life, try something active and strenuous, like rock climbing.
Find an activity that makes you forget about your day.
As you consider and try different hobbies and leisure activities, look for one that fully absorbs your attention. The perfect activity is one that allows you to enter a state of flow, in which you're so intent on what you're doing that you lose track of time. When you're that involved in an activity you enjoy, your day-to-day worries melt away, and you free yourself from your normal stresses and tensions. That's one of the most important benefits of a good hobby.
Only you can tell what hobby or activity is right for you, and only you will know when you've found one that gives you that stress-relieving sense of enjoyment.
Morgan, H. (2021, November). How to find a hobby (Z. Meeker & B. Schuette, Eds.). Raleigh, NC: Workplace Options.