August is national fishing month and this got me thinking, how big an impact are hobbies on our productivity?
In an article for Fast Company Aytekin Tank (founder and CEO of Jotform) considers how the rise of the workaholic has led to burnout culture, and discusses how actively moving away from your occupation and dedicating time to your hobbies and interests can not only increase happiness but also professional performance.
Quoting Professor Root-Bernstein’s findings in the 1950’s, Tank demonstrates how different hobbies will grant varying rewards “People who read books have more activity in the part of the brain associated with language and intelligence“. And so, if you want to improve memory, doodle. If you want better cognition and mental performance, choose a hobby based on cardiovascular exercises. And according to a study from San Francisco State University if you want to improve your performance and problem solving abilities choose a creative hobby.
So we know that the benefits of hobbies are great, but why do we struggle to make time for them?
When we are children we are encouraged to succeed in hobbies to discover who we are, what we like and what we are good at. As we age our focus for fulfilment shifts as we strive for success in our education, in our relationships and eventually in our careers. Modern culture encourages us to utilise work for more than just a source of income, now we are encouraged to devote ourselves to work so that we may succeed and find self worth in the identity of our occupation. Research undertaken by Gallup in 2014 found “seven in 10 college graduates get a sense of identity from their job”.
Welcome to workplace “enmeshment”, a term used by psychologists to describe the merging of a person’s occupation with their personal identity. In an article for the Harvard Business Review Janna Koretz (Psychologist and founder of Azimuth) discusses workplace enmeshment and asks “what happens if you identify so closely with your work that hating your job means hating yourself?”
A big issue is that for many of us we want to work, we love it. We have been fortunate enough to choose careers in industries that thrill us and give us great pride in the work we produce. So maybe we need to stop thinking of “me time” and our hobbies as something that takes us away from our careers but instead as an active strategy to enhance our work life; bringing new perspectives which will positively impact our output.
So how do you get started? How do you choose your next hobby?
Returning to the Harvard Business Review article by Janna Koretz, they advise thinking of the following:
Start small – consider trying something you’ve been thinking about doing and which doesn’t commit you long term.
Rebuild your network – get in contact with friends and family and arrange to meet or talk on the phone. Human connection will not only be revitalising but also may remind you of something you enjoyed in your youth that you would like to pick up again.
Decide what’s important to you – consider what is most important to you. Knowing what you value the most, and what you value the least, will help you plan how you can increase the time you spend on your interests.
Look beyond your job title – an article by Sheffield University’s Dr Ciara Kelly (a Lecturer in Work Psychology) reflected that “if an outdoor pursuit instructor intensively trains as a triathlete in their spare time, they may find that their work and leisure present the same mental and physical demands in a way that leaves them feeling drained.” Choose something which will open you to alternative methods of thought, build skills you don’t engage daily and raise your confidence as you learn something new.
Free up time – only you can generate the motivation to grant yourself the time and attention to start a new hobby, but we can help. By delegating time consuming tasks to us you can free up your evenings and weekends and discover your next great passion, which may in turn boost your performance at work and get you a life again outside of it!