Ten Solo Hobbies

If the last year and a half have taught me much of anything, it’s that sometimes, to stay sane, we need hobbies that we can do by ourselves. Work-from-home can all-too-easily become a deeply unhealthy cycle of being inside all the time, simply switching from work applications to fun ones when the clock strikes the appropriate hour.

Instead, I want to suggest ten hobbies that I have used to try to balance work out with healthy living and keeping my mind engaged. While not all of these hobbies may be for you, hopefully, one or two of them sound like something that you might enjoy trying or, just as importantly, getting back into after a hiatus.

Running is one of those things that I hated as a kid, but love as an adult. The former probably had to do with the fact that it was turned into a timed test administered in groups, which isn’t much fun for anyone.

As an adult, though, I love putting down my phone and going for a run, even a short one. It’s great for you (in moderation, listen to your knees), takes just the investment in some running shoes, and is something that takes your full attention: that’s what I like so much about it now.

I’m fortunate to get to live by the water and I don’t make enough time to experience it. As someone who has been an avid boater and fisherman since I was a kid, kayaking has been an awesome way to get me back on the water.

For the kind of laying that I like to do, a relatively cheap, sit-on-top model that can be tossed into the water from the back of a pickup truck is exactly what I need, but some folks set up serious rigs for fishing and even long-distance ocean travel. What we all agree on is how awesome some quiet time on the water can be.

Many of us, in school, had the chance to participate in instrumental music programs. For me, at least, that meant fifteen years (including college) playing saxophone, which got put away as graduate school, work, and life got busy.

These days, I’ve been trying to get back at it. Not only is it, like running, something that takes my full attention, but in a world that’s trying to recover from some pretty serious stuff, the joy that can be found in music is valuable to all of us.

Insomnia is one of those things that’s usually fixable, but before you get a handle on it, makes your quality of life a whole lot worse My insomnia came from an imbalance of physical and mental activity. Days of studying and writing leave me mentally tired, but not physically.

Lifting weights isn’t usually rocket science (until you get into the dieting to maximize your gains), and the idea of putting on some headphones, shutting out the world, and doing curls until I can barely open a door is exactly what I need sometimes to get some good rest.

Apparently, sometimes we have to deal with life events that make it dangerous to go outside for months at a time. Not only is that terrifying in its own right, but it can also be deeply boring.

I’ve been a gamer my entire life, so much so that now I use video games as teaching tools, and they have some real benefits during times like these. Taking the time to learn something new and that you can experience by yourself, but that also can expose you to worlds and stories that are, in my view, truly art, is a great way to spend time when it might be too dangerous to explore our own world.

Skateboarding, with some exceptions, is a young person’s sport. I just don’t bounce like I used to, and now that I have to pay for my own health insurance, hitting the concrete just isn’t as fun as it used to be.

Instead, I think a skateboard’s bigger brother, a longboard, is an awesome way to cruise the local sidewalks and streets in a little slower, more controlled way. I say that knowing full well that some people put on full motorcycle gear and take hills as 70mph, but for me, a slow cruise by the beach is calming.

As you can hopefully tell by the cooking pieces I post here at ManLife, I love cooking. It’s been a part of my life since my grandmother taught me decades ago, and now it’s a part of my day that I can enjoy.

At first, I get that trying new things is intimidating and often frustrating, but with cooking the skills pay off in so many ways. After a while, you’ll notice that you can make consistently good food in your own home that you can be proud of, and it costs a lot less than what you get at most restaurants.

As an educator, I used to preach the gospel of in-person classes as being far superior to online ones, but being forced into online teaching has changed my perspective immensely. While living in the US, I was simultaneously teaching people in Russia, a little Pacific Island, and Italy, among my American students.

That crowd let us have discussions we otherwise would not have had. Nowadays, a lot of great universities offer free online courses on a wide range of subjects, some even leading to certificates, degrees, etc. If you’re so inclined, I think they can be a great benefit.

Along with cooking, mixology is something that I’ve grown to enjoy immensely over the last several years. There are tons of great YouTube channels that have cocktail tutorials that are totally free to watch.

Another great option is to find one of the many paid classes that send you all of the ingredients in a kit, and then have a class time where everyone learns together, then enjoys the cocktails as a happy hour after.

Though it’s not a hobby, many folks took the time to start small businesses during the last year and a half. In my case, I took my writing skills and became a freelancer, which has lead to some interesting experiences, and several long-term collaborations, like this one!

Those are ten things that have helped keep my mind occupied over the course of the last several years. I hope that you get something out of at least one of them, and try to make the most out of our hobby time.