How many hobbies is too many?

PostHow many hobbies is too many? by **Rubix** » Wed Dec 09, 2020 5:32 pm

As I get older I seem to be picking up or changing my hobbies and I don’t seem to be putting enough time into one or another and I feel it’s effecting one or all of my hobbies which I don’t seem to be using their full potential.

I will always have gaming as a hobby and honestly trying to cut down on it by only getting one game at a time. Plus me and the misses will probably look to adding to our numbers at some point so I know the time for that will be drastically reduce.

I have Football as another hobby, I don’t play as much now (age and stuff) but I still go and watch live games or at least I did pre COVID. That’s great as I get to spend time with my dad and grandfather too.

I run three times a week and I am now a Run Director at parkrun (which will take up a lot of time during the weeks I take control) Also once I feel comfortable I will be heading back to the gym.

I have added in Golf which I really haven’t had the chance to develop this year (again because of COVID)

And I have also added Photography which I am gradually improving on.

All these (maybe not football) need serious time given to them but I want to do them all. How many do you guys have and how do those with families manage it.

You can never have too many hobbies. Doing anything like you've said on your post is better than being a lazy fat banana split who does nothing but sit and watch tv.

My main hobby is playing, writing and recording music.
Secondary is gaming.
Third is running (although that's really gone to gooseberry fool in the last 4 or so months with various injuries and getting covid just as I was improving)
Fourth is nice long walks, I love them.

PostRe: How many hobbies is too many? by **Knoyleo** » Wed Dec 09, 2020 5:42 pm

My hobbies are sitting, and watching TV, after that, I don't have the energy for anything else.

PostRe: How many hobbies is too many? by **Tomous** » Wed Dec 09, 2020 5:44 pm

7

PostRe: How many hobbies is too many? by **That** » Wed Dec 09, 2020 5:45 pm

I sometimes have a videogame that I'm playing through (Dark Souls II right now). I also occasionally play D&D. Besides those I don't really have many hobbies.

I used to read a lot, and I was once able to draw and paint at a not-a-total-beginner level. I've tried to pick up various languages at points too. I find it tough to stick at them though. I'm just so exhausted from work all the time, I kind of veg out in the evenings and at the weekends.

Victor Mildew wrote:You can never have too many hobbies. Doing anything like you've said on your post is better than being a lazy fat banana split who does nothing but sit and watch tv.

My main hobby is playing, writing and recording music.
Secondary is gaming.
Third is running (although that's really gone to gooseberry fool in the last 4 or so months with various injuries and getting covid just as I was improving)
Fourth is nice long walks, I love them.

Also a hobby.

The more the better though, folk who have no hobbies do tend to be pretty boring.

Like you say, the time becomes the issue. Gamepass taking over my life at the mo.

Depends how much free time you have and what you want to achieve from each hobby. My circumstances: I'm 35 and married with a three year old son who I look after when I'm not working part time.

I've been trying to focus on one or two games during my gaming time which has let me maximise my efficiency so to speak when I'm playing games and actually start boxing off titles.

I do Ju-Jitsu but not as much as I used to. I usually only go once a week now as my wife doesn't like being dumped with bedtime twice a week on her own. if I'm in training for something specific I will go more often but I'm not at the moment so I don't. Even before Covid I felt a bit like I wasn't really getting what I wanted out of a lot of the sessions: too much syllabus work/coaching and not enough live sparring. Obviously as a senior coach that's kind of my job but the balance isn't quite right and we were struggling to attract new members. I think I need to go to a different club once a week or something to do a bit more sparring work before I'm too old to keep up!

I don't really play football anymore as I'm too gooseberry fool for 11-a-side and I don't have any casual football fwends anymore. I was in one group but it was really toxic and horrible so I left that. I follow all the Arsenal games on my phone but only watch the BT/Amazon ones as that's what I have (I did shell out a tenner for that shitshow at the weekend though

). I love football, and also follow/support England in the cricket and GBR in athletics. For me investment in about three sports is my limit, and football is very much number one.

I used to read loads but now I have to drive to work instead of getting the bus I have zero time to do it. I really miss reading to be honest, but then I want to play games as well which is just as valid a pastime.

I do a little bit of drawing and I have a project I'm working on. I struggle to motivate myself on that sometimes because in my head it's already gooseberry fool before I've drawn it. I was also getting into climbing before lockdown.

I'd say you can have as many interests as you like, but you have to be realistic with your goals for each hobby otherwise you're setting yourself up for failure/dissatisfaction. If you're planning a family it's important to make time for your hobbies when the young'un comes along, but you do need to have a think about what you really want to do. With the football/golf example - personally I would prioritise football now because you can play golf when you're old. Doesn't mean you have to burn your clubs though!

I am acutely aware that none of my hobbies are creative, which kind of gets me down. My hobbies seem kind of pointless because I'm not achieving anything with them.

Anyway, outside of walking the dog and being a parent:

Playing video games - most days
Watching TV/Film/Sports - most days
Listening to Music/Podcasts - most days
Reading - couple of days a week

PostRe: How many hobbies is too many? by **Moggy** » Wed Dec 09, 2020 6:30 pm

Misread the title as Hobbits and can confirm 3 was too many.

PostRe: How many hobbies is too many? by **Rubix** » Wed Dec 09, 2020 7:13 pm

Moggy wrote:Misread the title as Hobbits and can confirm 3 was too many.

Gaming is my main hobby, play around 8-10 hours a week. I like to read graphic novels as well although it’s been a while since I have read one.

As for outside, I’m getting back to the gym again tomorrow now it’s open again, since it’s been closed I have been going for a long walks listening to music/podcasts. I tend do this on weekends and non gym mornings anyway.

As long as your hobbies aren't impacting the normal aspects of life like living within your means, keeping yourself healthy and being able to maintain relationships, it's not really problematic to have lots of hobbies.

Having enough time or money to enjoy your hobbies (I often wonder how die hard football fans afford to travel abroad often or get time off work or permission from the wife!) is obviously much harder when you're raising young children.

And even if you don't have kids, but just live with your partner, ideally you have some shared hobbies to enjoy together or can have fun discovering new ones you might enjoy together!

As many as you can handle in terms of time and money.

I play games and do little music projects. I dunno which one takes priority. I flip between the two. I don't think I do anything else. I like sitting on my hole too much.

I have a decent spread of hobbies: reading, poker, video games and football being the key four. Writing has veered into the profession territory now, so can't earnestly count that any more.

I can neglect any one of those hobbies for months at a time, but reading is the only one that I suffer from if I neglect. My mental health and creative output is significantly worse when I'm not reading.

So too many is maybe when you are damaging your health by over/under indulging in one or more?

PostRe: How many hobbies is too many? by **Trelliz** » Thu Dec 10, 2020 6:38 am

Drumstick wrote:I am acutely aware that none of my hobbies are creative, which kind of gets me down. My hobbies seem kind of pointless because I'm not achieving anything with them.

For many years gaming was my hobby, the one thing I did. Looking back over past bought/played/completed threads I realise that I can barely remember a lot of the games I completed. A few years ago, after spending a LONG time working on a particularly detailed car skin in one of the Forza games I had an epiphany. I clearly enjoy doing something creative, but this stuff is intangible and locked within this incredibly specific system (the thread on the forza forums where I showed them off has broken links to the pictures, how ironic).

So I thought about this, that I clearly need some sort of artistic/creative outlet, and gradually remembered that tabletop wargaming existed - I was big into Warhammer as a kid and even though my paintjobs were terrible, I enjoyed it. The two have coexisted for a while now but recently I have begun to find that I can play a videogame for about 30 mins before thinking "I could be getting some stuff built/painted right now instead". Even stuff like Yakuza which I really like I just don't want to carry on with. I think the only things I might reasonably carry on playing are war/strategy and racing games where there is minimal overall plot vs something like The Witcher 3, Assassin's Creed etc, and that can be played in small bursts. I finished a squad of models last night and seeing my growing force on the shelf gives me more Pride and Accomplishment than ticking off events in a game or X time grinding away at some open world action game with RPG elements and crafting.

So I suppose I have one major hobby now which is a broad umbrella of sub-divisions; building/converting models with bits from other kits as well as painting, for different ranges/games at different scales.

This is turning into a TED Talk, but this article covers what i think is the broader problem:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/opinion/sunday/in-praise-of-mediocrity.html

TL;DR - social media has made every creative hobby into a competition and people are afraid to be average at something creative and enjoy it for the sake of doing because their results aren't the same as what they see on Instagram etc. so many don't bother.

I've been speaking with my therapist lately about the productivity issue as normally I feel as though I always have to be busy. It's important to realise that doing what you find fun can be inherently good in itself- something I've really struggled with, but am enjoying life more now that I'm starting to internalise that.

I personally like to be able to focus on certain hobbies so that I can see things through, set goals and measure my progress. At the moment for me this is playing the piano and weightlifting. Going from stuttering through a piece of music at 1/4 speed to being able to play it properly is hugely satisfying, as is gradually adding more plates to either end of a barbell.

Watching football, TV/films and playing video games are my other main hobbies. I wish I could still play football, but it's just too hard to properly organise and commit to it.

PostRe: How many hobbies is too many? by **Squinty** » Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:41 am

Trelliz wrote:TL;DR - social media has made every creative hobby into a competition and people are afraid to be average at something creative and enjoy it for the sake of doing because their results aren't the same as what they see on Instagram etc. so many don't bother.

This.

Trelliz wrote:TL;DR - social media has made every creative hobby into a competition and people are afraid to be average at something creative and enjoy it for the sake of doing because their results aren't the same as what they see on Instagram etc. so many don't bother.

I think it's overblown to suggest this is a social media problem rather than it simply being the case that we live in a world where having skills you don't monetise is deemed wasteful, coupled with the expense of most hobbies. People didn't only start curating personal portfolios from the advent of Flickr.

Social media at least allows for some greater diversity of voices (if not enough) than traditional media. Its main problem is the chasing of trends and the subsequent narrowing of creativity that creates.

The old adage "time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time" springs to mind. A hobby doesn't need to be productive to be worthwhile, in fact the word itself suggests otherwise, as does the synonymous "pastime".

Obviously we all have limited time, money and energy amongst other pressures so we can't do everything we'd like to do, but a hobby should carry no pressure to be done. I'd call reading a hobby although I don't often find time to read these days. When I do occasionally read a book I enjoy it.

How many hobbies is too many?

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