Let’s Talk Bookish: The Hobby Balancing Act

I’m back this Friday participating in another Let’s Talk Bookish post, as always hosted by the amazing Rukky @ Eternity Books and awesome Dani @ The Literary Lion! For this week, our topic is: The Hobby Balancing Act, recommended by Dani! This is a topic I could talk about all day, any day, so I’m excited to share my thoughts with you this Friday. (And I actually posted this on time again? Who am I?!)

Let’s discuss!

The Hobby Balancing Act

The actual prompt for this post is attempting to balance reading blogging versus any and all other hobbies. Dani asked questions like: Do you force yourself to prioritize reading even when you want to be doing X hobby? Has another hobby ever made you miss a reading goal? What is your strategy to balance reading among your other hobbies? All seriously valid questions and all questions I’ve been struggling with for…a while, now? I honestly don’t remember how long, but I do know that I talk about it a lot on the blog.

I have a lot of hobbies! Most namely:

• Writing
• Reading
• Blogging
• Playing video games
• Writing letters
• My doggo, Dovahkiin

And honestly, prolly more. There are so many amazing things you can do and I have so many interests.

Issues

The issues with trying to solve the great hobby balancing act are not surprising. Time is always the most fickle of beasts and one I don’t think I’ll ever truly tame. I personally also deal with a lot of guilt, feeling like I should be doing X hobby (usually reading, writing, blogging or playing with Dovah) instead of doing Y hobby (honestly video games, which is currently my main one). Spending 9 hours at a day job every day in order to pay my bills obviously puts a damper on this. Mental health struggles can, too!

But, to answer Dani’s question and bring it back to a blogging and reading focus: I do tend to do other hobbies before reading. Getting more into video games have made me miss my overarching reading goals for the past couple of years. (Okay, not entirely, as day job and other aforementioned issues helped, too.)

Solutions

My strategy is that I currently have no strategy and need help. 😅 (I wish I was kidding.)

But seriously: guilt is something I deal with a lot. I have a lot of passions I want to pursue. The above isn’t even a complete list! No matter what I’m doing, I always feel like I should be doing something else. And the pressure to either monetize my hobbies or only work on things that have the ability to make money is a constant presence. (That’s a whole ‘nother blog post, but one I’d be curious to hear others thought on, if you feel this pressure or have noticed a trend with this, in side hustles and the like.) Sometimes, I even deal with imposter syndrome, in my “titles” as a blogger, reader and writer, especially when I pursue other passions in lieu of these things.

So, I don’t have any magical solutions on how to balance hobbies and commitments. I’m hoping everyone else who participates this week does. 😂

In Sum

What about you? How to balance your hobbies? Do you deal with guilt as much as I do? Do you ever feel the pressure to “prioritize” your hobbies (or, the pressure to monetize them)? Let me know in the comments. Thank you for reading!