My way of taking inventory is an attempt to pick more healthy hobbies rather than dopamine trap hobbies. I work from home on a computer all day and I found that not even getting up from my chair...
My way of taking inventory is an attempt to pick more healthy hobbies rather than dopamine trap hobbies.
I work from home on a computer all day and I found that not even getting up from my chair when I switch from work to gaming was seriously impacting all aspects of my health.
So, now, instead of going straight to gaming after work, I do one of these things:
read some of my current book
do a small gardening task
cook a full meal, like one that takes longer than 30 mins and will have leftovers for meal prepping
some aerobic exercise, on Tuesdays I go rollerblading right after work.
If I do one of those things, then I find afterwards I can go back to gaming and feel more satisfied with my life. Some days the small task turns into a whole thing, and I get to spend all of my free time that day doing a healthy task instead of gaming, and thats fine.
oof I had this exact experience a while ago, and I seriously got depressed.
I work from home on a computer all day and I found that not even getting up from my chair when I switch from work to gaming was seriously impacting all aspects of my health.
oof I had this exact experience a while ago, and I seriously got depressed.
Right haha and in my infinite wisdom I was like, I know, I’ll wind down with a glass of wine! Which of course made it worse. Life is easier now, with the better hobbies, haha
Right haha and in my infinite wisdom I was like, I know, I’ll wind down with a glass of wine!
I have a commitment with myself to read from fiction or nonfiction books before I go to sleep. Not articles, books. This is part of my struggle to fight the quick dopamine from reddit etc or even...
I have a commitment with myself to read from fiction or nonfiction books before I go to sleep. Not articles, books. This is part of my struggle to fight the quick dopamine from reddit etc or even Tildes and to continue in continuity with who I have been for most of my life.
I would like to prioritize time for music. I love it, but I don't always spend my time that way. The same goes for film and theater.
Does playing with my cat count? I also play Spelling bee to relax. But I do have several projects going at once. I do them after work if I can. A big stylistic painting of my cat. Sculpting a...
Does playing with my cat count?
I also play Spelling bee to relax.
But I do have several projects going at once. I do them after work if I can.
A big stylistic painting of my cat.
Sculpting a creepy elephant creature or give up and just paint it instead
Abstract painting
Watch jet lag or dropout content.
Paint a bag.
I usually have very little energy after work and do literally nothing. I don't even scroll through social media. I just lie there. It helps that the cat comes to snuggle sometimes.
But I've been trying to get myself to do a small amount of any of my projects after work. So it's a struggle but sometimes I manage to do it.
I would really love to see your creepy elephant creature if/when you're ready to share. I haven't made a weird creature in a while, and nothing inspires me more than seeing what horrible things...
I would really love to see your creepy elephant creature if/when you're ready to share. I haven't made a weird creature in a while, and nothing inspires me more than seeing what horrible things other people are making! :)
Thank you! But it was really hard to make! I made it halfway and then destroyed so I could work with it in a better way, but it's been a while and I'm not done!
Thank you! But it was really hard to make! I made it halfway and then destroyed so I could work with it in a better way, but it's been a while and I'm not done!
I also struggle terribly with this complete lack of 'free time'. Having to work even a normal 40 hours a week leaves one with very little free time and hugely limits what one can accomplish...
I also struggle terribly with this complete lack of 'free time'. Having to work even a normal 40 hours a week leaves one with very little free time and hugely limits what one can accomplish outside of their career. I chose 1 thing that is the most important to me and I'm nearly religious about it. I read for 1-1.5 hours a day right after dinner. But between sleeping/working/commuting/making a home cooked meal every night/reading, I get maybe 2 more hours to chill with my partner and read Tildes/Reddit/HN and listen to some music. I need that time to wind down and keep my sleep patterns regular.
Weekends are mostly eaten up by a day of errands (not all day obviously, but between random errands, meal planning, groceries, maybe a meal out most of Saturday is gone). Sunday is a day for house chores and lunch meal prepping, some exercise. So when do I get to take on some big projects for myself? When do I have time for adventures, local or abroad? It's frustrating sometimes, and I don't even have any children, how do people with children find any time for themselves at all?
My goal is to try and retire as early as possible by moving somewhere with a significantly lower cost of living just so I can do what I want to do. None of the stuff I want to do is going to cost that much money, just time.
I meant to respond to this when you first posted, but got sidetracked - ironically, by one of my growing hobbies. I kind of keep a small list of things I do in the back of my mind, partially as a...
I meant to respond to this when you first posted, but got sidetracked - ironically, by one of my growing hobbies. I kind of keep a small list of things I do in the back of my mind, partially as a response to something interesting I read recently. When we are asked to introduce ourselves, when people ask what we do, we usually respond with our jobs as if those are what define us. That made me start thinking about what I do for my own fulfillment, which is a much more interesting list (even if some is job-adjacent).
So far, here's what I have for my hobbies/activities:
Blacksmithing - this one is newer for me, but it's something I've been dreaming about and researching for well over a decade. My forge is small and my projects are basic for now, but I've been enjoying it and already have so many projects stacked up.
Working out - For a long time I primarily did calisthenics, but after putting on weight (intentionally) and stalling out for half a year I have switched to weightlifting. I'm just doing the Stronglift 5x5, but my gains in the past 3 months have been huge. I'm probably hitting the end of newbie gains, but I still look forward to my workouts 3x a week (as long as I don't have to compete for the squat rack).
Reading - I read more in middle and high school than I do now, and I've fallen way behind on all the series I want to read, so I do try to make time to read every day. I'm currently in the middle of a re-read of The Fellowship of the Ring, but once I'm through the series then I'll wrap up a couple of Brandon Sanderson series I need to get through before venturing to other novels. I mainly read sci-fi and fantasy, but I do have some more technical reading that I enjoy - either tech stuff or blacksmithing related, usually.
Homelab - I have a decent homelab that I use to run services for myself and my friends. I have a DIY NAS running TrueNAS Core, a few micro PCs, and an old laptop running Proxmox and various VMs. The laptop is going to be shifted over to running GNS3 soon so I can do more network labs, which is where the work-adjacent part of my hobbies comes in. Coincidentally, I got interrupted while writing this up by one of the higher admins at work telling me that all the decommissioned gear taking up space at our datacenter location is up for grabs before it gets hauled away. I probably won't be getting any rack mount servers, but there may still be something good in there!
Tabletop gaming - I meet with coworkers weekly, usually for Frosthaven but occasionally other games when the guy who actually owns the game can't make it. I also have a D&D campaign that's been going roughly bi-weekly for the last 2.75 years, we finally foiled part of a big end-of-world scenario and now we're cleaning up all the trailing ends. I have no clue if this will continue afterwards, as life changes are making it harder to meet regularly, but I'm hoping to keep gaming with these guys for a while.
Video Games - I put this one last because it just seems right. I've fallen out of the competitive game space and focused on single-player and co-op gaming. I've loved Monster Hunter since Tri came out on the Wii so I consider that my longest-running favorite, and Wilds has been a blast so far. I also have a Cyberpunk 2077 playthrough that's fallen on the back burner, and I occasionally log into Helldivers 2 because I enjoy the gameplay there.
I have other activities - cooking, DIY repairs, light programming - that I do as well, but not to the point that I consider them to define me. Some of my hobbies are weekend-only things (blacksmithing) while others are kept moving via half-hour snippets every day or so (reading, homelab). Some things have taken more or less time of my day, but I feel like I've struck a good balance overall.
Wow. What a random thing. I so regret not buying Tri when it came out (I had a chance back then). It looked like such an amazing game. I haven’t had a chance to try out any other entry in the...
I've loved Monster Hunter since Tri came out on the Wii so I consider that my longest-running favorite...
Wow. What a random thing. I so regret not buying Tri when it came out (I had a chance back then). It looked like such an amazing game. I haven’t had a chance to try out any other entry in the series since.
I unfortunately am not out of the hopeless inescapable loop part. My only hobby that I get time for is vidya games. Only an hour or two each night. Other than that I’m doing the same stuff every...
I unfortunately am not out of the hopeless inescapable loop part. My only hobby that I get time for is vidya games. Only an hour or two each night. Other than that I’m doing the same stuff every day as you described 🙃
My way of taking inventory is an attempt to pick more healthy hobbies rather than dopamine trap hobbies.
I work from home on a computer all day and I found that not even getting up from my chair when I switch from work to gaming was seriously impacting all aspects of my health.
So, now, instead of going straight to gaming after work, I do one of these things:
If I do one of those things, then I find afterwards I can go back to gaming and feel more satisfied with my life. Some days the small task turns into a whole thing, and I get to spend all of my free time that day doing a healthy task instead of gaming, and thats fine.
oof I had this exact experience a while ago, and I seriously got depressed.
Right haha and in my infinite wisdom I was like, I know, I’ll wind down with a glass of wine!
Which of course made it worse.
Life is easier now, with the better hobbies, haha
I have a commitment with myself to read from fiction or nonfiction books before I go to sleep. Not articles, books. This is part of my struggle to fight the quick dopamine from reddit etc or even Tildes and to continue in continuity with who I have been for most of my life.
I would like to prioritize time for music. I love it, but I don't always spend my time that way. The same goes for film and theater.
I started watching documentaries for the same reason. No more phone in bed!
Does playing with my cat count?
I also play Spelling bee to relax.
But I do have several projects going at once. I do them after work if I can.
I usually have very little energy after work and do literally nothing. I don't even scroll through social media. I just lie there. It helps that the cat comes to snuggle sometimes.
But I've been trying to get myself to do a small amount of any of my projects after work. So it's a struggle but sometimes I manage to do it.
I would really love to see your creepy elephant creature if/when you're ready to share. I haven't made a weird creature in a while, and nothing inspires me more than seeing what horrible things other people are making! :)
Thank you! But it was really hard to make! I made it halfway and then destroyed so I could work with it in a better way, but it's been a while and I'm not done!
I also struggle terribly with this complete lack of 'free time'. Having to work even a normal 40 hours a week leaves one with very little free time and hugely limits what one can accomplish outside of their career. I chose 1 thing that is the most important to me and I'm nearly religious about it. I read for 1-1.5 hours a day right after dinner. But between sleeping/working/commuting/making a home cooked meal every night/reading, I get maybe 2 more hours to chill with my partner and read Tildes/Reddit/HN and listen to some music. I need that time to wind down and keep my sleep patterns regular.
Weekends are mostly eaten up by a day of errands (not all day obviously, but between random errands, meal planning, groceries, maybe a meal out most of Saturday is gone). Sunday is a day for house chores and lunch meal prepping, some exercise. So when do I get to take on some big projects for myself? When do I have time for adventures, local or abroad? It's frustrating sometimes, and I don't even have any children, how do people with children find any time for themselves at all?
My goal is to try and retire as early as possible by moving somewhere with a significantly lower cost of living just so I can do what I want to do. None of the stuff I want to do is going to cost that much money, just time.
I meant to respond to this when you first posted, but got sidetracked - ironically, by one of my growing hobbies. I kind of keep a small list of things I do in the back of my mind, partially as a response to something interesting I read recently. When we are asked to introduce ourselves, when people ask what we do, we usually respond with our jobs as if those are what define us. That made me start thinking about what I do for my own fulfillment, which is a much more interesting list (even if some is job-adjacent).
So far, here's what I have for my hobbies/activities:
I have other activities - cooking, DIY repairs, light programming - that I do as well, but not to the point that I consider them to define me. Some of my hobbies are weekend-only things (blacksmithing) while others are kept moving via half-hour snippets every day or so (reading, homelab). Some things have taken more or less time of my day, but I feel like I've struck a good balance overall.
Wow. What a random thing. I so regret not buying Tri when it came out (I had a chance back then). It looked like such an amazing game. I haven’t had a chance to try out any other entry in the series since.
I unfortunately am not out of the hopeless inescapable loop part. My only hobby that I get time for is vidya games. Only an hour or two each night. Other than that I’m doing the same stuff every day as you described 🙃