Have Hobbies That Do Three Or More Things

I love it when someone asks me “So, what hobbies do you have?”, but I also am a little scared of answering because the list can be intimidatingly long. “OK, I get it, you do things…”

I freaking love hobbies. I try to make hobbies my entire life. I mean, I like writing, and I write a lot! The main problem is how to pay for it all

Truthfully, I don’t have time for all my hobbies. So much so that I’ve had to abandon some of them! I just can’t get out there doing everything because some of the hobbies I have are time-consuming, expensive, and dangerous.

So I came up with a way of triaging them: Do hobbies that achieve more than one — and preferably more than two — criteria from the list below.

The Criteria for Hobbies

A hobby should be:

1. Physical — Involves movement or exercise. Anything from walking through to intense activity, whatever balance is appropriate for you.
2. Mental — Stimulating you to learn a new skill or improve one you have.
3. Social — Meeting and/or spending time with other people
4. Altruistic — Benefiting others. As simple as doing something for your neighbour, but it can involve being charitable.
5. Artistic — Tickling your creative bone. Either creating or expressing art.
6. Outdoors — Putting you out in nature. Yes, just going outside to garden counts!

Some people put “money making” in the list, but I think of that as optional. I don’t think money itself is an aspect of a hobby. It’s a social construct, and just something we need to do to live. If you enjoy hobbies that make money (e.g. crypto trading or buying and selling second-hand things), then I’d put the profitable aspects of it in the “mental stimulation / learning new things” category.

And as a counterpoint, I’d deprioritise hobbies that suck so much of your time or resources that they don’t let you do other things — unless they satisfy basically all of the criteria!

So for example, I really like motorcycles. Riding motorcycles does get me outdoors, and at times, it has been mentally stimulating. Riding motorcycles fast forces me to concentrate.

But every time I ride motorcycles I think… man, this is a lot of gear I have to wear. Does it even still count as being “outdoors” if I’m under a layer of leather a heavy helmet, and mostly am on roads, behind other cars (at least, in this part of the world)? Not sure. So I sold my motorcycles and bought a bicycle. Suddenly, I got a threefold improvement:

• I’m properly outdoors, on paths, even in nature, with more serenity
• It’s exercise! Quite a lot of it…
• It’s easier to socialise, as I can talk to other cyclists while riding

On top of that, I can go as fast as I want at much lower risk than when riding motorcycles, and it’s easier to do — I just hop onto my bike (with a helmet) and go, so it doesn’t suck up my time like motorcycling did.

Analysing My Hobbies

Let’s analyse all the hobbies I currently have.

Wow, looking at the above list, I really need to get some more altruistic endeavours! Yes, I bake cakes and give slices to others, but that barely counts…

Looking at a few hobbies I have, I can see that two that deserve to stay in the list are combat sports and dance. They have a lot of overlap — they’re physical movement, they’re social, and they force me to learn new things. In fact, dance combines another element — it’s artistic! (Combat sports can be artistic, too.)

Another thing I really like is learning languages (I speak a bunch). But sitting at home doing flashcards just tickles my brain without exposing me to new people. So this is making me reflect that I have to prioritise talking to people — which I can do while travelling. These hobbies should go hand in hand.

I do like cooking, but I have to think about how I can extend that hobby. Add an artistic element by baking beautiful cakes? Entering a cooking competition that’s social? Gardening I can take or leave — I just happen to have a garden, so I tend to it.

I’ve sometimes thought of the meditative aspect of some of the hobbies. But all my hobbies are meditative. In fact, that’s one of the core defining characteristics of a hobby — it’s nourishing! So I don’t think the fact that one is meditative is distinctive.

And then there are hobbies I’m considering adding to the list, like chess (which is a new skill and is social, plus, can be played outdoors with old people in a park), and painting (which is artistic and can also be done socially and outdoors).

It’s also interesting to think about hobbies that don’t make the cut. I like video games, but they’re a time suck that provides little to no benefit (I don’t find them very mentally stimulating). That doesn’t mean I can never do them. But I don’t consider them to be a good hobby.

This is an important point — just because a hobby isn’t that beneficial, you don’t have to totally exclude it from your life. Do what you like! Just don’t let it suck away time from the rest of the things that you might otherwise enjoy more.

Another one is reading books. It’s mentally stimulating, but that’s it. Maybe reading outdoors would help, or listening to audiobooks while going on walks, as some do.

Other thoughts

Another way I like to think about hobbies is focusing on those that you can do until old age. Dance is like this for me, as is hiking and cycling. But combat sports, I’ll have to give up at some point. I’ll use chess to take its place.

I’ve also always said you should prioritise things that you’re physically or mentally able to do. E.g. combat sports is a young person’s game — getting hit or thrown is a lot harder in your thirties or forties.

Similarly, learning difficult new concepts like music or languages is much harder when you’re older, and not just because of time. It’s good to have flexed those muscles when you were younger, so you know how to learn them and have some muscle memory.

It’s for that reason that I think we should all have foundations in everything from a young age. But that’s the point of school, I guess.

I’m curious to know how other people think about hobbies. If the above makes you rethink them, then let me know!