WEBVTT - Busy people need hobbies 

0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:06.680
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:13.880
<v Speaker 1>Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:17.400
<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is to find a hobby, or, if you

0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:19.960
<v Speaker 1>already have one, to schedule some more time for it.

0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.239
<v Speaker 1>This is especially true if you feel like you have

0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:27.400
<v Speaker 1>no time at all, because time is all about perception,

0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:32.519
<v Speaker 1>and consciously choosing to spend time on leisurely activities can

0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.320
<v Speaker 1>make you feel like you do have time for leisure.

0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:41.080
<v Speaker 1>I recently read Celeste Hedley's new book, Do Nothing Now.

0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:45.080
<v Speaker 1>To be clear, Hedley doesn't want people to actually do nothing,

0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.560
<v Speaker 1>nor has this public radio host and speaker ever spent

0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:52.280
<v Speaker 1>a day doing nothing in her life. However, she does

0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.400
<v Speaker 1>argue that many of us could use some higher quality leisure.

0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.480
<v Speaker 1>In general, people work less than they think they do.

0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.760
<v Speaker 1>We have free time, even busy people like Hedley. But

0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:04.920
<v Speaker 1>when we tell ourselves a story that we have no

0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.840
<v Speaker 1>free time, when we get a spare moment, we don't

0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:12.000
<v Speaker 1>have anything particularly purposeful ready to do with it, and

0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.640
<v Speaker 1>so we spend this leisure time in the most effortless

0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:18.760
<v Speaker 1>ways possible, such as scrolling through social media, or we

0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:23.520
<v Speaker 1>do fake productive activities like deleting email so one thing

0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:27.880
<v Speaker 1>Hedley suggests is pursuing an actual hobby. There are all

0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:30.600
<v Speaker 1>kinds of interesting things you can do that use entirely

0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:33.880
<v Speaker 1>different parts of your brain or that require less intense

0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:38.800
<v Speaker 1>thinking than your job. Headley has a moss garden. You

0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.200
<v Speaker 1>can do crossword puzzles or jigsaw puzzles. You can cross

0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.840
<v Speaker 1>stitch or knit, or do other sorts of needlework. Legos

0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:49.520
<v Speaker 1>are great, or building model trains or dollhouses. My ten

0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:51.600
<v Speaker 1>year old son and I are building a ship in

0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:56.160
<v Speaker 1>a bottle. You can plan an elaborate garden. Anything artistic

0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.360
<v Speaker 1>is great. I just read an article about someone who

0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:03.840
<v Speaker 1>makes lodges out of illustrations from old books, which sounds

0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:08.760
<v Speaker 1>both fascinating and time consuming. Now I know my listeners

0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:10.760
<v Speaker 1>are doing great things in the world, and so you

0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.000
<v Speaker 1>may be listening to this and thinking that you do

0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.240
<v Speaker 1>not have time for making collages out of old books.

0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:19.440
<v Speaker 1>I get it, but I'm guessing that this is not

0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:24.120
<v Speaker 1>entirely true. If someone offered to start paying you a

0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:28.120
<v Speaker 1>hundred thousand dollars apiece for those collages, you'd probably find

0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.960
<v Speaker 1>the time somewhere. It's more that this is not a

0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:36.440
<v Speaker 1>priority for you, and that's okay too, But scheduling just

0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.240
<v Speaker 1>twenty minutes for a hobby a few times a week

0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.000
<v Speaker 1>can do a lot for you at the cost of

0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:47.480
<v Speaker 1>one of your one sixty eight weekly hours. First, most

0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:52.200
<v Speaker 1>hobbies are kind of fun. That's why people do them. Second,

0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:56.040
<v Speaker 1>a good hobby gets you off your phone. Sure, you

0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.480
<v Speaker 1>can use your phone for reference, but you may be

0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:02.120
<v Speaker 1>marginally less inclined to scroll on Twitter while you're using

0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:06.400
<v Speaker 1>your hands to knit. And most importantly, a good hobby

0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:10.400
<v Speaker 1>changes the story you tell yourself. You can tell yourself

0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.520
<v Speaker 1>that you have no free time whatsoever if you scroll

0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:16.720
<v Speaker 1>through Twitter for three hours a day because it's adjacent

0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.760
<v Speaker 1>to your inbox. But it's hard to tell that story.

0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:22.960
<v Speaker 1>If you spend an equivalent quantity of time building a

0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:27.240
<v Speaker 1>ship in a bottle, you are forced to acknowledge that, yes,

0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.160
<v Speaker 1>I have some free time. Maybe not as much free

0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:35.800
<v Speaker 1>time as I want, but some, and that is a

0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.360
<v Speaker 1>very different story. It puts us back in control of

0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:43.240
<v Speaker 1>our time, so we can start living the lives we want.

0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:46.520
<v Speaker 1>If you make time for a hobby, I would love

0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:49.040
<v Speaker 1>to hear about it. You can send me pictures of

0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.840
<v Speaker 1>your moss gardens or ships in a bottle at Before

0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:56.640
<v Speaker 1>Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com. In the meantime,

0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:01.000
<v Speaker 1>this is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making

0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:10.040
<v Speaker 1>the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.040
<v Speaker 1>hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.880
<v Speaker 1>or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:22.480
<v Speaker 1>and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four,

0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.520
<v Speaker 1>then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me

0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:30.200
<v Speaker 1>an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media

0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:32.920
<v Speaker 1>dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all

0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.760
<v Speaker 1>the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying

0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:44.400
<v Speaker 1>in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio.

0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.919
<v Speaker 1>For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i

0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.520
<v Speaker 1>heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

0:04:51.520 --> 0:05:00.280
<v Speaker 1>your favorite shows. One