I Tried 7 New Hobbies During Quarantine. Here’s What Stuck.

Quarantining with my wife was a dramatic change in our lives. I am constantly on the road as an airline pilot, and she is a preschool teacher.

Our world quickly changed in March when she was sent home from school, and I was sent home from training. Neither of us would return to work for months.

We are used to having lots of alone time. I think some distance is usually a good thing in our relationship. However, early on in quarantine I could tell I was going to drive her nuts if I didn’t start getting into some new hobbies.

Quarantine Changed the Hobbies I Had

Before quarantine I considered my primary hobbies to be:

• Cooking
• Playing and Listening to Music
• Reading
• Lifting Weights

Reading and lifting worked well while I was traveling, the others I enjoyed while I was home.

I have found it tough during the changing times to really relax and just watch TV. I would say since quarantine I have watched less TV than I ever have. The lack of work has made it feel like I shouldn’t be able to just relax and enjoy myself. I think some people can relate to this feeling.

During quarantine, I kept doing all these hobbies except for lifting because the gyms were closed.

I’m used to traveling, how did I adjust to constantly being at home?

I was not used to spending so much time at home. It was a great thing to spend so much time at home and was fortunate I didn’t have to leave the house. Especially in the Spring and early Summer when the restrictions were most severe.

That said, I was starting to drive my wife nuts while sulking around the house in pajamas trying to make a plan. So I started trying some new hobbies and skills. She did her best to encourage me, however as a preschool teacher that often involved structured playtime.

While I appreciated the effort I don’t think the preschool tactics work on me, even though I often act like a child. So, I had to create ideas and hobbies for myself.

I decided to try any activities that caught my interest.

Here’s What I Tried:

1. Painting 👎

My wife enjoys painting watercolor and early in quarantine also started using pastels. In the afternoons she would encourage me to paint with her. I started to enjoy it. We watched Bob Ross videos from youtube for motivation.

It was not destined to be.

I did not like to leave something half done, so I found it difficult to stop until it was the way I wanted it. This made it take too long, and it started to discourage me from painting more. Overall, this hobby was not for me. I’m glad my wife likes it, but I gave it up after a few masterpieces.

2. Learning Spanish 👎

Estudié durante dos meses y luego dejé. I studied Spanish for two whole months, nearly every single day. I would spend usually one hour per day with a journal, DuoLingo, and some websites to learn vocabulary and phrases. Travel is a big part of my life, so learning a language helped fill that gap when we were only allowed to be at home.

I learned a decent amount of German in the past during high school and as an exchange student. I tried to learn by immersion and even spoke it some at home with my wife who has a decent level of Spanish ability.

It went well, however, after about two months I slowly stopped. Having a trip planned to Mexico would have helped. I like to have a specific purpose for learning a language. That said, I look at it from time to time and hope I can travel to Mexico or another Spanish speaking country soon and put it to use.

3. Decluttering and Re-arranging the House

Maybe this doesn’t technically count as a hobby, but it is something I enjoy doing. With all the free time during quarantine, I had no excuse to not get work done around the house. I have previously used the KonMari method for my place, but since getting married and moving things accumulated again.

Over the last year, a couple of rooms have become storage areas. We made a plan and now have removed all the clutter and get to enjoy these areas fully.

We created a classroom in our study for her online teaching. We updated the guest bedroom and worked on clearing excess out of the garage and basement. We continue to do little bits of tidying here and there.

4. Gardening 👍

I enjoyed getting to see Spring start. Every day on our neighborhood walks we could see the trees start to bloom, and the world become greener after a dark winter.

We did some gardening last year, but this year got very intense. I’m talking major internet research, scouring plant stores, and visiting Lowes and Home Depot became a common activity.

We used our back deck, it had over individual plant containers at its peak.

Taking care of plants as the weather warmed became a favorite activity. It involved getting outside, putting my hands in the dirt. Plus it has the satisfaction of seeing the progress of plants growing and making our space more beautiful.

Everything we learned has been fun, and I am very excited about the gardening starting again next Spring.

5. Running 👍

I tried to do at home bodyweight workouts with the premium paid apps that became free. It worked a little bit, and I have used them before while traveling. But I quickly got discouraged not being able to go to a gym. That led to some laziness and I knew I had to do something about my quarantine 15.

I never have run more than 2 miles before. I gave myself the challenge of running a 5k. To my surprise, it only took a few weeks of consistent running. So I started another challenge of a 10k and beyond.

It made me much happier and less stressed. I started to fall in love with it.

I completely changed my viewpoint towards it. I got out an old fitbit and started geeking out on tracking all my numbers on Strava.

I still love running and pair it with lifting since the gyms are open again. This Fall I was able to run 9 miles and reached some goals of 5ks, and 10k time trials. I am looking forward to races starting again.

I am very excited to resume serious training next Spring again.

6. Baking 👍

I have never really baked anything sweet before. Sometimes I have made biscuits. That is the extent of my baking. I am an avid cook and am always trying new recipes so I jumped on the baking bandwagon.

I got really into Sourdough bread. Like, in a weird way. I would watch videos, read books, and browse subreddits dedicated to bread baking. My wife saw me as I would read for over an hour a night about bread.

This one has gone great. I still have my sourdough starter from April and enjoy making loaves a few times a month for myself and friends and family.

7. Camping 👍

I would say that camping was a hobby before quarantine, but it became a much more intense one as most other forms of travel and leisure were not available.

For the entire season, we spent 19 nights total in our tent.

I love the simplicity of bringing only what we need to a remote campsite and being lost in nature for a few days.

We explored so much of Michigan. We did the trips we had always talked and dreamed about doing but usually never had time for before.

We have a lot of ideas in store for next season. We hope to get better gear and have made a promise to get each other better gear as our Christmas presents.

So, What Stuck?

8 months since the start of quarantine. I now have at least three new hobbies! I have kept all my original ones, plus added baking, running, and gardening.

Running has been the most transformative for me. It was just what I needed as the days dragged on and the stress from everything in the world grew. I am excited to continue my running journey and use it as a way to explore more cities as we resume traveling again.

What hobbies have you tried? Which ones stuck?