[Closed] How do you manage your hobbies?

Work away. Have a lot of work to do when I am at home.

My dad once told me that I had to calm down and accept the fact that I could only do one or two things.

Consequently, I gave up on a number of ideas - not with a feeling of resignation, but of recognition and acceptance. And while I still admire them from afar, I make up for my inability to do them by concentrating harder on the things I *can* do.

Give up work.

Be good at one thing instead of average at three.

Its always hard to give up something you enjoy, but for me at least i can be quite obsessive about really trying to get the best out of myself. This typically means something falls away while i focus on the one i really want to do well at.

Then some years down the road if a hobby is beginning to get stale then i gradually transition to something else.

Combine shooting at mountain bikers whilst rallying around welsh fire roads.. Why compromise?

I'd really love to get into road cycling, but there's just no way I could commit the time nor probably the money for the gear. There are so many temptations and possibilities out there; you just have to focus on the things you can comfortably do and to enjoy them. 🙂

Never really had more than two, used to sail in the summer and mtb mainly in the winter. IMO with an expensive hobby like sailing (or rallying ?) the point comes where unless you have a new challenge or you are really mad keen on it gets harder to justify the expense. With my sailing I did a few different campaigns / projects and that came to a natural end, I decided to take a break. I miss it a bit (still 1 or 2 events a year as crew) but it was very time consuming and used up every other weekend 9 months of the year and 10-15 days of holiday.

I've packed in two or three things over the years. Track days was the big expensive one and I only dabbled in it. Sailing was another.

It's about priorities and choices at different times of life. I chose married life and children at a bit over thirty and a job that means I don't lie awake worrying about money. That means a bit less time for hobbies so I focus on the one that might as well be a crack addiction (disclaimer for the yogurt knitters - it clearly is not like a real crack addiction).

Before all that I spent lots of time sailing, more time riding and track days etc. I drank more beer too.

The bike is the one thing that's not really negotiable for change. The kids love riding, I love riding, it keeps me fit and it's probably one way or another half my social life and a great brain cleanser.

In fairness the rally car would fit the play bike and all my guns in the back......

Rallying has been a passion since I was a kid and my main focus for 20 years, I live in a motorsport heavy area, a lot of my friend group are motorsport people, I'm a council member of my club. It's just got bloody expensive and frustrating to compete recently. That's 'in my blood' more than anything, but the least good for my health, finances and relationships.

Biking, hill walking and fishing. They compliment each other so don't feel the need to prioritise one over the others. A perfect weekend will involve all 3 with a bit of camping thrown in. Not that expensive or high maintenance so none are a burden and I enjoy them all equally. Recently gave up boats as they consumed too much time and money and impacted the time I spent on other interests. I like the balance I have now, don't think I'd add anything else but do find myself looking at photo/film gear from time to time as well as woodworking setups. I think they'd involve too much learning and again would impact the others. Keeping it simple is the key for me.

I've not got any kids, nearing thirty, guess that would/will force my hand if/when the time comes.

Part time here. A lot easier to combine biking, sea fishing & doing naff all else!

Biking for thrills, fishing to chill.

I've only ever done a couple of things at a time. Put in as much as I could to get to a certain level, had to make a choice to commit more time, effort and money to take it to the next level, and if I didn't fancy the commitment, packed it in and tried something else.

Bit like relationships really. But longer lasting and more satisfying.

I have kids. So no hobbies as all my time is pretty much spent with them. Cycling here and there. Wouldn't change it though as they aren't kids forever and when they aren't I'll be glad that I've spent so much time with them.

This comes up on here from time to time and I can never understand how people have jobs, kids and loads of hobbies. They are either a bit selfish or their days contain a lot more hours than mine do.

Delete: that post was no use at all!

I think part of my issue is all of my hobbies are gear heavy, you can't just 'do' any of them. Running, guitar and stone skimming would be much easier.

I more or less settle it with fights. Motorbiking and pushbiking was a total conflict for me, I essentially did exactly the same things and spent exactly the same lumps of time on both. So I just spent a while figuring out which one I enjoyed and missed the most and which one I thought "wish I was doing the other one" least, spent about 3 months just mulling it over and working it all out. Tried to ignore money but it could have been a consideration if circumstances were different.

(in the end I found I prefer the [i]act[/i] of mountain biking... But damn, I miss the social side of the motorbiking. I'll never get 100 friends together in a field for pushbikes)

My other hobby/half-assed side business (toy refurbishing/building/selling) conflicts with bike mechanicking (which I pretty much consider a separate hobby to the riding) but not too drastically so they can coexist. Sometimes one gets pushed aside by the other- when I'm building a new bike or fixing something or filling an order- but they don't have to. And it helps that one of them actually makes money rather than eating it. (not that it's recouped the setup costs, but it will, probably...)

It really does seem to be as simple and as complicated as deciding what's important to you and then acting on that.

By not having kids.

I'd rather do three things mediocre than one thing well, plus another five badly.

Nobody ever warns you: If you turn your hobby into your job . . . you have to find new hobbies.

Not sure where you get the time, last year I had 250 hours cycling that included a week away abroad and a two weekends here for events and 100 hours running.

Then most of us will be doing 2000 hours a year paid work and a couple of hundred unpaid mowing the lawn or whatever.

Then socialising and maintaining freindships and family a few hundred.

Maybe a family holiday that isnt about your hobby a few hundred hours?

You will need to sleep less than 4 hours a night to have several time consuming hobbies.

mtb'ing, shooting and rallying

I reckon the key is to have things that complement one another. I only [i]really[/i] ride bikes as a serious, proper "hobby" involving equipment. But riding means I've a basic set of outdoor gear, which means that hiking, camping, birdwatching, going for a wander with my good camera or to find something to sketch, bivvying out etc. are all able to be bolted on with minimal additional expense or hassle.

I've hardly taken anything up in 20 years though. Just got steadily, incrementally fitter and more competent at the biking.

🙂

Used to do karting, MTB and RC cars in my youth. The karting had to go as it was just burning through far too much money, RC went when most of my friends stopped so it just left the bikes. Happened naturally so I've never had to face your dilemma directly!

Suggest you make up a list of pros and cons (financial and time commitment etc) for each then sit on it for a week or two before making a decision. Then reassess after a few months, you can always go back to one and drop another.

guitar

n+1 applies here too @core 8)

If rallying is in your blood then it's the priority. What I found with sailing looking back at 15 years running boats was that the biggest boat gave the least pleasure, the smallest where the easiest to move around and so do events abroad. I think also doing it competitvely to get into top 1/4 is reasonably achievable, going fro (say) 4th to 1st can be very time and money expensive. I imagine rallying is the same and that can suck the fun out of it. If I went back to owning a boat it would be small/medium and focused on the events I enjoy and not get too fussed on winning, if it happens then great if not I did the events I really like.

OP based on my world view now I am 50+ and current situation I would step back from rallying and build some savings / pension, invest in some more property etc.

my hobby seems to be collecting hobbies. I've done everything, mastered none of it.

Give up work.

A few years ago I saw the quote "you can do anything, not everything". After that I've started to really focus on my main hobbies of mtb'ing and weightlifting instead of trying to balance sailing, climbing etc as well as I find these the most fun and the most challenging/rewarding.

Spin - Member

By not having kids.

loddrik - Member

This comes up on here from time to time and I can never understand how people have jobs, kids and loads of hobbies. They are either a bit selfish or their days contain a lot more hours than mine do.

This and this....!

I managed to do the things I wanted to fairly easily BC (Before Child)....now I can only just about keep on top of the chores around the house with a couple of hour long turbo trainer sessions a week just starting to creep in.

I used to do quite a bit of photography - never very good at it, but enjoyed taking the camera out trying to be bit creative. Haven't wafted my camera at anything in a 'hobby' sense for ages.

Decided I was going to get into woodworking - I think it would be a really therapeutic hobby. So far I have bought a book and read it a few times....oh, I got some chisels & a wooden mallet but have only attacked floorboards & skirting boards with them so far.

The other thing was wheelbuilding - got a pair of wheels in the garage on old WTB hubs with a split rim on the rear wheel. Thought I'd build a wheel truing stand (tie in with the whole woodworking thing), get some cheap rims & get the wheels running again - so far I have read the Roger Musson book about 5 times & worked out the material I would need to build his suggested trueing stand....

Hmmmph....

I think its healthy to maintain at least a couple of hobbies. Even if you only spend a limited time doing each.

The people I know who are REALLY into cycling are boring ****ers. Literally nothing else to talk about other than riding. Then they wonder why they don't get invited out socially...

my hobby seems to be collecting hobbies. I've done everything, mastered none of it.

I can never understand how people have jobs, kids and loads of hobbies.

Get kids to share your hobbies, no? I thought that was one of the perks of breeding.

Cougar - Moderator

Get kids to share your hobbies, no? I thought that was one of the perks of breeding

Woodworking & photography don't sounds like the perfect hobbies for a 15month old girl, but I'll bear it in mind! 😉

orangespyderman - Member

Wife encourages me to go out on the bike at least once, and if shopping is well in hand, then sometimes twice a weekend. She likes it because I'm less stressed when I get back from a good blast round.

Your Wife needs to explain this to my Wife....preferably in simple terms with pictures.....

now I can only just about keep on top of the chores around the house

I'm less stressed when I get back from a good blast round

I've come to the conclusion that you can never get on top of the chores. So do some (essential) chores but spend some time with the family and spend some time on hobbies. If I didn't choose to leave some chores waiting I would spend all my time on them, and I'd be even worse to live with!

I think part of my issue is all of my hobbies are gear heavy, you can't just 'do' any of them. ...[b]guitar [/b]... would be much easier.

Ha!

I've struggled since we had the kid. Used to do gym, climbing and mtb. Now don't do any of them. Between work and family commitments there just isn't the time or money.

Going to get the suspension trainers up in the garden and try do half hour per day on these. My stomach has started jiggling when I walk and I've gained two stone. Wouldn't lose the family time and can't afford ever financial strain of cutting hours at work. Only really miss the mtb though.

stumpy01 - Member

orangespyderman - Member

Wife encourages me to go out on the bike at least once, and if shopping is well in hand, then sometimes twice a weekend. She likes it because I'm less stressed when I get back from a good blast round.

Your Wife needs to explain this to my Wife....preferably in simple terms with pictures..

Guess I'm lucky as my wife and I share our love of biking, kayaking and hillwalking/climbing ...LOL...it was part of the selection process!!

Children have been encouraged to take an interest too. They haven't taken to everything and kicked back a bit as teenagers, but by and large we can either find time to do things together or at least never feel guilty or resent if one or the other of us can't join in.

 

Woodworking & photography don't sounds like the perfect hobbies for a 15month old girl, but I'll bear it in mind!

Start 'em young! (-:

(I do hope that her gender was merely for information and doesn't preclude you from including her in your hobbies when she's older...)

i have kids and hobbies. snowboarding in winter , cycling in summer.

I dont count going to the gym as a hobby, more of an essential maintenance task. I work four days a week, 32 hours max. Then you have time for all of it. no money to indulge in anything fancy mind

Difficult one this

My hobbies are fairly kit intensive and take me away from home - cycling, motorbikes, outdoorsy activities (bikepacking, hiking, wild camping etc)

I also have 2 young kids so most of the time I don't have time for the hobbies. Motorbikes have fallen off a cliff, though I'd like to change that this year

I can get the kids involved to a point, but the wife isn't keen on those hobbies so it's still not ideal

It's just a balancing act I guess. I find cycle commuting helps a lot, even if that's just to keep fitness up. Extending cycle commutess or taking the kids out of on the bike are very satisfying!

mark90 - Member

I've come to the conclusion that you can never get on top of the chores. So do some (essential) chores but spend some time with the family and spend some time on hobbies. If I didn't choose to leave some chores waiting I would spend all my time on them, and I'd be even worse to live with!

Oh, don't worry! It's only the essential chores that get done!! I've got 2 pages of A4 of 'jobs that need doing', but new ones pop up to the top before these ones get done!

Cougar - Moderator

(I do hope that her gender was merely for information and doesn't preclude you from including her in your hobbies when she's older...)

No way she'd getting involved in manly activities. She'll be baking cakes with mummy & learning how the washing machine works.....
HA HA! Only joking - I hope we find a balance with her where she can do her own things (girlie if she wants) but equally feels comfortable going for a cycle with me or helping me in the garden/garage. Whatever she wants to do, really.
We got her a Toot Toot sit & ride race car for Christmas that I guess is more boy oriented, than girlie but she loves it....
Likewise with clothing - if something looks like it'll suit her better & it's in the boys section - we'll get her it. Generally, it seems the boys get dinosaurs & exciting stuff like that - the girls get t-shirts that say 'I love mummy'.....

I gave up motorsport (never could afford to go stage rallying, but used to do a few autotests and nav rallies) when I had my firstborn.

I do miss it, but I've been commuting further and really enjoying the increased fitness, MTBing is now fully a hobby and not an essential exercise regime, and kept up my climbing to some degree too.

There is some balance to be struck, my thinking for now is I'll probably go back to at least autotesting at some point (probably when kids are old enough to have a go), and if I end up with some spare cash might do something a bit more serious when I'm too old to race bikes etc.

I don't know any children of my age who've actually suffered at all from parents having hobbies - to the contrary they've benefited from the experience of these and often taken them up.

Get kids to share your hobbies, no? I thought that was one of the perks of breeding.

Now my 2 are older it gets easier. Daughter is 18 and pretty much does her own thing now. Son is 12 and we do lots together. He loves playing rugby so I got involved with helping out with the team. I enjoy running so I spelled out the benefits of additional training and he does Parkrun every weekend with me and the occasional 5K race. He got a bike at Christmas so he will help me to get out and ride more.

Aside from that my other hobbies are the gym which I do before work, so no impact on family time there; cooking, we all need to eat 8) and reading which helps me unwind at the end of the day, so again no impact.

If my hobbies were impacting on other areas of my life or I felt like I was stretching myself too thin, then one would go. Simple.

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I hope we find a balance with her where she can do her own things (girlie if she wants) but equally feels comfortable going for a cycle with me or helping me in the garden/garage. Whatever she wants to do, really.

Awesome. (-:

If my hobbies were impacting on other areas of my life or I felt like I was stretching myself too thin, then one would go. Simple.

Black market or adoption?

Too many hobbies going on for me, but meh, I sometimes struggle to stay focused on any one thing so it's good to have other stuff to move on to. As far as sport goes, main thing for me is triathlon, which is all about being bad at 3 things anyway. Other than that it's photography, guitars, scuba and wargaming stuff.

I've started to really struggle with this, moved to Norfolk from a great MTB area as it is where my wife was from and wanted to move back, lovely area but it means i have to travel to see old friends or ride mountain bike properly, not helped by the fact that i love cycling of any sort, hiking and camping, but my wife does not and my daughter is a real "girlie" girl who has no interest either.

I struggle now to get away for weekends, as my daughter is Type 1 diabetic too, so i feel i go away i leave my wife to do everything all weekend.

But there are ways, if we go some where for the day, i stick bike rack on wife's car and i'll cycle there, meet them there and cycle back, so still spend the day with them.

Extended lunch at work, so i take 90 minutes, so quick spin on bike or to the gym.

Other than that, you have to really sit down and decide which events you'd like to do that year and try and tie them in as best as possible.

One thing that did help, was riding a series of events to raise money for Diabetes UK, gave me a reason to train and a justification to my wife to be out on the bike at 5am on a saturday!

It's just got bloody expensive and frustrating to compete recently. That's 'in my blood' more than anything, but the least good for my health, finances and relationships.

I'm in the same boat although I was doing sprints & hillclimbs not rallying, getting to my mid thirties and deciding that was the time for children meant one hobby was always going to suffer. I've still got the race car and will go back to it at some point, my daughter is nearly 2 so things are getting a bit less hectic.

It was hard to chose between racing and mountain biking but riding is just easier (and a lot cheaper!) and I live 10 mins from the Quantocks which helps. I'm also lucky that I work in motorsport and get to work on cars a lot nicer than I was racing so in one way it doesn't really feel like I've given up that hobby as I do it for a job 😆

I have a toddler.

She has removed all spare time that was otherwise spent on hobbies. She's also solved the problem of what to do with the spare money that was freed up by not having those hobbies any more.

Still, only 20 years or so until she moves out and life goes back to normal...

Hmmm, the common theme here seems to be the arrival of children dictating how much time and money are available. Kids aren't on the horizon, and I'm in a relatively fortunate, (if not quite complicated) stable position as far as finances/living arrangements go at present.

Thing is, my bikes aren't really worth selling as they're not last year's T130C RS or the latest Orange Five whatever, they're all built from bits, 2 of them to suit a now obsolete wheel size.

The guns, well, I'll always want/have to have guns, we live on a farm, a lot of my friends (and my other half) shoot and I enjoy it, we don't actually shoot much (in terms of numbers, not frequency) so it doesn't cost me a lot in cartridges. The guns aren't hugely valuable, one was given to me, one was a couple of hundred quid, the last is probably worth getting on for a grand on a good day, but it's appreciated since I've had it. I suspect as I get older more shooting will be done.

The rally car - I am emotionally attached to it having had it so long and had some good results, though it's a turbulent relationship. Competing is ace, the most fun, but it nearly always needs something doing at fair expense, and it's not like I race on nice dry tarmac in the summer, it's generally on loose surfaces in crap weather, so working on it isn't the most pleasant. I reckon it costs me £2k a year to store/tax/MOT/insure it, before it turns a wheel. It's worth about the same as a top spec'd Stanton hardtail I'd say......

Clearly, having typed all of the above, I'm not really ready to get rid of anything. They're all really things that don't cost money if you don't use them, with the exception of the rally car, which would be £200 or so a year just to insure if it was SORN'd and I kept it at home.

A thought has crossed my mind though, that perhaps in some people the need to keep oneself occupied and partake in hobbies arises due to there being something lacking in other areas of life?

I may fall into that category to some degree though I'd have to have a hobby of some sort whatever was going on in my life, I never have and don't think I ever will be the sort of person to sit around, happily doing nothing, though I can appreciate time to do that, when I need it. I put a hammock up in the garden last year.

Let me know when you find out will you? I can run at a moment's notice on great offroad, so that needs no planning and I can't just jump on that with a spare 30 mins+. Great biking too. Just getting back into climbing again after not having enough time when the kids were young. Wish I had time for more cross riding/racing. That pile of unread Singletracks says I'm probably not really an MTBer any more. Those bikes in the shed mean I can easily go back to it though. Quite fancy a trials m/bike...

In addition to the above, I really want a road bike, to replace my full sus, replace one gun, get another 2 guns. Then motorbikes - I want an enduro and a trials bike and to build a street tracker/scrambler from an 80's Yamaha.

I've also always longed for a classic mini. Though always talk myself out of it because I couldn't be doing with the constant rot-chasing and having to spend £5k to buy a nail that needs a new roll of mig wire putting in to it. That definitely won't ever happen.

Oh, and I really could do with a more pratical vehicle instead of/in addition to my DS3 for biking and shooting.

When's the lottery on?

In addition to the above, I really want to buy an road bike, replace my full sus, replace one gun, get another 2 guns. Then motorbikes - I want an enduro and a trials bike and to build a street tracker/scrambler from an 80's Yamaha.

I've also always longed for a classic mini. Though always talk myself out of it because I couldn't be doing with the constant rot-chasing and having to spend £5k to buy a nail that needs a new roll of mig wire putting in to it.

Oh, and I really could do with a more pratical vehicle instead of/in addition to my DS3 for biking and shooting.

When's the lottery on?

The troll in me wants to suggest that your favourite hobby might in fact be buying stuff...

😳

You might be right!

But on second thoughts, I've got access to the land and terrain to do all of those things, and friends who do then all, so they're accessible.

Wish I had time for hobbies and I'm single, kid free. Running a business takes up so much time that even on my day off there is catching up to do, shopping etc that by the time that's done there is only time for a quick bike ride.

Suppose my only daily hobby is walking the dog.

Looks like bikes are recreation, shooting is social and rallying a passion. You can only really have one passion, and for you that is motorsport. Mine is cycling. For others it is shooting. I like shooting, but have little talent and am just happy to dabble n he odd social occasion. My stepfather competes nationally in small bore. You can't really dabble in competitive motorsport, nor bike racing. Former will be cost, the latter time (15 hrs a week training!)

You do need to make a choice, But don't need our blessing to accept that your passion is rallying. My son's is flying. And he's a much better shot than me!

I am still trying to work this one out - and at the same time failing to do any of them properly! Slowly starting to mountain bike again, motorbike is mainly the lighter months (March - October) and mostly consists of a few social weekends for the moment. Guitar... utter backboiler at the moment, has been for a long time - although if we ever do get either the band back together, or form that supergroup I keep threatening to do....

Which just leaves photography. I squeeze that in everyday, but there are vague plans afoot to switch that to the career and not bother too much about earning more than I need to raise the family.

Oh... and surfing... lets just not go there eh! I am absolutely shocking at it, but do have a lovely longboard just waiting for me to find time to master it!

Since kids (and previous life falling apart) I haven't really had much time or inclination to do anything properly. Hopefully this is the year all that starts to change.

I think part of my problem is I get bored too easily and spend too much time on the internet. Genuinely, I see something I like, that is achievable and I start making plans.

Whilst it's good, it also fuels my (unrealistic) fantasies living in an area where there's so much to do, and so many people who can make it happen, I know a lot of people who are in to different things and have the talents to build/modify/procure stuff easily.

In any case, I think this thread has made me have a think about it all. I've already talked myself out of several things. And found a rally to enter in the summer, just need a navigator now!