Scrolling and working are not hobbies. (I had to find out the hard way.)

I was 26 when someone asked me what I do for fun and I genuinely had to think about it. Yikes!

That’s when I realized that all I did outside of work was scroll.

I remember laughing it off in the moment and changing the subject, but the question stuck because the truth was, if you removed my job from my identity and my phone from my hands, I wasn’t sure who was left.

When your whole identity is just… your job

Something happens to a lot of us in our early-to-mid 20s: we get really good at achieving things. First we go through school, then we get a job and go straight into competing for career milestones. Achievement becomes the structure our whole identity hangs on. We know how to work and we know how to hustle.

Aaaaand that’s it.

What we sometimes forget to learn is how to just… be. How to spend a Saturday afternoon doing something with our hands that produces nothing useful (my biggest nightmare). How to be bad at something and do it anyway, purely because it brings us joy (can’t relate). How to exist outside of productivity (next, please).

And in the meantime, the phone fills the gap beautifully because it’s always there. Before you know it, two hours have passed and you haven’t really done anything, but at least you weren’t bored.

What I actually did about it

I didn’t wake up one day and spontaneously develop hobbies. As much as I hate to admit it, I had to intentionally get off my phone, and find something else to fill my time.

So here are some things I’ve tried:

Making journals

After two months of my For You page incessantly drilling traveler’s journals and Louise Carmen notebooks into my head, I went into CharmedLA to make one of my own! You get to pick out the leather color, grommets, elastics, and charms. Honestly it was kind of a nightmare for an indecisive gal like myself, but we made it through and actually had so much fun. 

You can watch my full vlog here!

Now I have a cutie lil journal with three notebooks to write in. I may or may not use one of the notebooks as my work to-do list, but I’m planning on using the other two for journaling and scrapbooking.

You can’t change me overnight okay! I’m trying my best!

Embroidery

On a random trip to Paper Source, I bought a Christmas-themed embroidery set and I absolutely loved it! I don’t pull it out as often as I should but I can see this becoming more of a hobby. 

Cooking

I should’ve known cooking wasn’t going to stick, since I hate nothing more than cooking for myself at home, but I still took a class with @ginothechef. 

He was amazing, and I had a lot of fun, but the pasta I made was atrocious and so I will not be pursuing this one any further.

Painting

Similarly, I went to a paint & sip. It was all fun and games until I found out we’d be learning to mix the colors. 

And that was the end of my painting career.

A few other things that are genuinely helping me:

Make it inconvenient to scroll. 

– Get a Brick! Set the limits. 
– Put the phone in another room 

Protect the time like it’s a meeting

If you wait until you “have free time,” you will never have free time. Take it from me. Block an hour on Sunday mornings, call it non-negotiable, and treat it with the same seriousness you give your work because it actually is serious! 

Sorry to get deep, but it’s essentially personal maintenance for a long fulfilling life. 

Let yourself be bad at it

I haven’t gotten the hang of this one quite yet, but the discomfort of beginner-ness is the whole point. Hobbies are not supposed to feel productive, they’re supposed to feel fulfilling. Personally, those two are one and the same but I’m learning to separate them. 

Let yourself play!

Repeat after me: you are not just your job and you are not the carefully curated version of yourself that exists online. You are also the person who goes on random side quests and does things simply because they’re fun.

And she deserves more of your time!

So close this tab, put your phone down, and go do something you enjoy!