As much as I enjoy computers and tech, I don’t interact with them outside of work very often. After working on a PC all day, I tend to stay away from them outside of work unless it’s a necessity. This allows me to take a break from the keyboard and screen and explore other things to fill in the remainder of my day, night, and weekends.
But due to my indecisiveness and curiosity, it’s led me to having many hobbies all at once. This can be a good thing, but it leads to limited time and money to invest in any single hobby, keeping me at the ‘beginner’ stages of basically everything I try. Then I’m apprehensive about spending more on a single hobby because I’m not sure I’m really interested enough to do so and fear it will be a waste of resources.
In 2025 I hope to fix this or at least come up with a plan to resolve it. First, I’ll look at hobbies I’ve dabbled in for 2024 and determine if it’s worth investing more time and money into them. Then with this information handy, I’ll “limit” the hobbies I engage in for 2025, allowing a better use of time and money.
Music
This is a hobby I plan on sticking with until further notice. I play a role in a local community band and recently changed from trombone to bass guitar. I enjoy it very much and I do hope to either purchase a new 4 string bass or fix up my 5 string to play with this group. I also may be tutoring young trombone players if it works out, so I don’t want to give this up and probably should prioritize this over other hobbies.
Video Games
I feel like I’ve cut back a lot on video games, but I do still spend a lot of time playing them. I tend to play them in the evening or between other tasks throughout the day as a break, usually with a cup of coffee or something. I plan on cutting back more this year and playing them only on the weekends. I don’t spend much money on them these days and I’m trying to replace it with more productive tasks.
Cooking
I’ve picked up the habit of cooking my lunches for work every Sunday. This has saved me a lot of money and sodium intake over the last few months since I don’t have to rely on takeout every day at work. I really enjoy spending time learning and trying new recipes and I’m at the point that everything I cook is edible at the least. I also received a dedicated chef knife for Christmas, so I intend on continuing this journey this year. I don’t really consider this a “hobby” but it’s something that I did put in time and money into this year that should be considered on this list.
Homebrewing
I really enjoy homebrewing but it’s very time consuming. With the cleaning of equipment and brew days reaching 5-6 hours of commitment, it’s just not something I have time for right now. I have all of the equipment I need so I only have to pay for the materials to make each batch. I also don’t really “need” 48 bottles of beer for myself. Friends are just as busy as I am these days so finding brewing buddies is also difficult. I’m not to the point of getting rid of my equipment but I think in 2024 I only brewed 2 or 3 times.
Instrument Repair
Despite my high level of interest in this topic, I don’t have a great shop setup to do this right now. This was supposed to be a solution to make some side money that wasn’t computer related, but it would take a considerable amount of time to learn and do, which I don’t have right now. I’d like to revisit this in the future once my shed is better equipped to handle the materials and tools needed to do this. Without a mentor on this topic near me, it’s going to be very difficult and time consuming to become proficient enough at this to make it worth the time and money involved.
Youtube
I guess I need to consider this a hobby with as much time as I’ve put into watching Youtube. I don’t watch much traditional TV other than the occasional game show, sports match, or old TV series that’s on just for noise while I play on my phone. Youtube engages me more and I do learn a lot from it, but I also spend a lot of time watching others play games, eat food, and do things that I should be doing myself. This year I want a lot less Youtube time and more doing time.
As I write these, I see is that a lot of these hobbies just didn’t fit my schedule or provide a true purpose other than a hit of dopamine. Most of my evenings spent on video games and Youtube can probably be easily replaced with something much more useful and meaningful. I enjoy learning new things, but I should be putting more into practice, not just learning about it and never doing it.
For this year I’m trying something different, by providing a meaning to what I’m doing instead of doing things just do it or out of habit.
Music (still)
With my transition to bass guitar as well as a potential idea to tutor on trombone, I want to continue putting in the effort to become more proficient in music. Music theory will probably take center stage this year as I continue to teach myself bass guitar. We also now have a nice keyboard in the house, so I’d like to learn enough to help my daughter along with that topic.
I should incorporate at least 15-30 minutes a day on music, whether it’s playing it or studying it, including weekends when time and duties allow it. I also want to spend some time on setting up my 5-string bass and get it playing sooner than later.
Reading
I really should read more. I have a Kindle that does not get used enough, and a new library near my house that I would like to utilize more. I listen to audiobooks daily, but I feel reading is such an important aspect that I should keep it high on the priority list. I can easily replace morning phone time and evening Youtube/video game time with reading. I should be reading more of both fiction and non-fiction.
Cooking
After getting the hang of the basics, I want to explore cooking more. I enjoy making things from scratch and need to more of that. This year I hope to learn more about sauces and get more practice with homemade bread and pasta. Maybe towards the end of the year I’ll buy the equipment to make my own homemade sausage and smoke it. But for now, the goal is to continue to make better food for myself and my family.
Exercise
I’m putting this as a “hobby” even though it should be in everyone’s standard list of things to do. I don’t exercise the way I should and as I get older, I am really starting to feel the effects of it. Cooking healthier meals and intermittent fasting is only going to get me so far, I simply need to move more. I plan on purchasing some sort of equipment that allows me to do some simple exercising from the comfort of my home. I tried the Total Gym, but I don’t like it, so I need to quickly move away from it and try something else. Walking falls into this category as well so I hope to add both to my routine.
House Maintenance
One of the things that stops me from making improvements in my home is lack of confidence that I can do it and make it look acceptable. The only way I’ll get to that point is if I continue to practice these skills. I need to put in shoe moldings, paint, and prepare for better kitchen countertops and a sink this year. I’d like to do as much as I can myself and learn along the way, so I am more confident in my abilities here.
Woodworking
I was going to group this House Maintenance but my goals with this are different. I want to learn enough about woodworking to create things I need, such as worktables, sawhorses, side tables, and other functional pieces of furniture and equipment. I also would like to find things that I can sell locally. This may scratch the itch of finding a non-computer hobby that could potentially pay for itself over time. This is what is motivating me to clean out and reorganize my shed to make a makeshift wood working shop.
Summary
This approach should eliminate some of the not so useful hobbies I got into in 2024 and replace them with more meaningful and useful hobbies in 2025. All of them should improve myself in some fashion, whether it’s by experience or knowledge. Some of these are low costs such as music and reading, allowing other funds to be put towards hobbies that do cost, such as exercise and woodworking.
I hope to check back on this post each quarter to see how these ideas have held up over time.
Happy New Year 2025!