ALL WORK, NO PLAY
You’re busy – we get it. But as research indicates that doing activities just for fun can stave off depression, clarify your thinking and even rewire your brain, may we suggest you reconsider those things you’ve written off as trivial pursuits?
The case for becoming a hobbyist for your health
Remember that feeling of pedalling furiously through the park? What about the full-body exhilaration of watching that ball you just threw swoosh through a net? Perhaps you spent hours cutting up magazines, learning everything you could about dinosaurs or mimicking moves you learned from Top Of The Pops. They were the halcyon days of hobby-filled childhood; a time before exams, work and caring responsibilities clutched you in their grip, when pure absorption in a stream of activities was as much a part of your daily routine as email management and supermarket shops are now.
With the exception of that candlemaking kit you bought during lockdown that’s been gathering dust ever since, we’ll hazard a guess that acquiring a hobby has fallen further down your to-do list of late than renewing your rail season ticket. How can we be so sure? First, the data suggests that many wouldn’t have time, given the average desk worker grafting from their kitchen table clocked an extra two hours per day. Then there’s the theory, established via a handful of studies, that thinking about the threat of Covid has a negative impact on creative thinking and problem-solving – thus making it sensical to conserve your sub-optimal mental faculties for essential tasks. But while the push and pull of modern life directs you away from committing to anything that’s not for career glory, financial gain, caring for others or optimising your health, know this: for your happiness, your wellbeing, the strength of your relationships and, yes, even your professional success, it’s worth making time to do something you enjoy, just because. So, why did doing something you love entirely for its own sake become such a foreign concept? And how, among your myriad responsibilities, can you make the time for a hobby?
SOMETHING FOR NOTHING
The dictionary definition – ‘an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure’ – might sound like it could be twisted to fit ‘going to the pub’ or ‘deeply investigating the contents of the latest & Other Stories drop’. But to qualify as a legitimately good-for-you activity, your chosen pastime should really involve ‘doing’ something, be that making, building, collecting or learning; the place at which an interest (say, travel) intersects with an action (actually going somewhere and photographing and journalling your adventures). As to their origins? Hobbies are a by-product of post-industrial revolution life, cooked up at a time when people moved from villages to cities, and ‘work’ and ‘leisure’ time – traditionally hazily defined – became distinct entities. Over time, the phrase began to refer to activities like stamp collecting, woodwork and knitting – but their prominence has faded.
Today, the average hobby has a shelf life of just 16 months, according to a 2019 survey from the British Heart Foundation, with work and family life reported to be the main blockers that curtail an ongoing