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*ahem* You need a hobby.

 

Maybe putting this stat out there is counterproductive as there is a large chance you are currently reading this on your phone, but…

The average American spend somewhere between 3 and 5 HOURS a day on their PHONE.  I, me, you, we- we are all guilty of mindless doomscrolling and letting the time get away from us.  Coupled with emerging findings of mental health in relation to social media, et al, this is kind of scary yo.  3-5 hours DAILY to affect our mental health.  And what’s the number one thing I hear the most frequently when I speak of exercise, crafts, cooking, whatever- “I don’t have time.”  Well, according to research, you do. 

 

3 hours- that’s a lot of time.  That’s 12.5% of your day. That’s over a thousand hours a year.  Imagine- if you spent that much time on a skill in 9 years you’d be considered a bona fide 10,000 hour expert in the field. They say it takes around 480 hours to learn a new language- that’s three hours a day for 160 days.  If you spent even three hours a week in a garden or growing food you could save a tremendous amount of money and live a healthier life.  Take an hour out of that and exercise for an hour a day.  Take an extra 30 minutes or so out to cook meals and you still have an hour and a half left of time for whatever you so choose. Imagine all the good we could do for ourselves and the world if we spent three hours somewhere else other than deadbrained staring at our phone, arguing on social media, and stalking people that we don’t even talk to in real life.

 

You need a hobby.  Learn to knit.  Start a garden. Write a book.  SOMETHING to keep you learning, moving, enhancing your life and enriching yourself mentally.  Learning new skills helps to stave off mental decline as we age, and it adds to our intrinsic satisfaction.  We get a little serotonin boost with the “I did this” when we learn something new and create new things.  Maybe even make this into a side business- EVERYONE has a cricut these days and is selling vinyl everything online.  You can too! Even if it’s something as simple as reading more frequently- reading increases empathy, verbal skills, and mental clarity. You need a hobby.

 

How to choose a hobby?  Look deep down inside you- there is likely something you have always wanted to learn but “don’t have time for” and I just proved that second part wrong.  What is it?  One of mine in the last few years was learning to knit. Always wanted to learn to knit.  So, in my me fashion- I went to a craft store and asked if they had any knitting classes. They said no, but “there’s a group of ladies that sit up here and knit every Wednesday…” I downloaded a pattern for beginners, took it to them and asked for help finding the items I needed, bought the items, went back to them and asked “so can you also teach me how to knit?” They laughed and let me into their little circle and in a few weeks I made my first scarf and hat. With Youtube, TONS of websites with on-demand classes, and ME-YOUR BOY HERE AT CHRISTOPHERDOESEVERYTHING you really have no reason to not have a hobby.  Starting a hobby can be expensive though, so maybe start small.  A pair of knitting needles can be bought for $1 these days, and a cheap skein of yarn for $3.  Insta-hat, insta-gratification, insta-hobby. 

 

So next time you think “I’m bored”- I have a saying about that. There’s no such thing as being bored, if you’re bored you’re actually being boring and have the power to change that.  If you’re mindlessly scrolling for hours on end and lose track of the day, that’s your own fault and those are hours that you could have spent on a better quality of life.  Figure out something you’d like to do, and do it! Maybe even start writing a blog.  Be well.