ESSAY | FLINT & STEEL

Making Time For Hobbies

Why I need better time management skills

When I was a child, my only hobby was reading. I read about a hundred books every summer. These were mostly children’s books and then later on books appropriate for young tweens — this was the 70s and early 80s. By the time I was a teenager, I’d read every book available to me at my school and local libraries in the ‘appropriate age’ section and wanted to move on to books for adults. The local library had a policy. I needed a parent’s consent to read the adult books. Thankfully, my mother consented. Of all the things she’d denied me, reading was not one of them. She encouraged all of us to be readers.

I am still an avid reader. I cannot read hundreds of books now, but I still read about twenty books a year. Some books are on a yearly rotation. I’ve read and reread The House of Breath by William Goyen at least twenty-five times. Each time I read it, I discover something new within its pages. I read a classic at least once a year. And each time Orson Scott Card is about to release a new book related to the Enderverse, I reread most of the books in the series.

I guess I could consider my book collecting a hobby, or maybe an obsession. I collect short story anthologies, books of poetry, and books of my favorite writers. I’ve had to decrease my collecting in recent years because I no longer have the room for all of them. At last count, my collection of books had reached a staggering level of over 2000. Most are now in storage.

My current hobby is art — pencil sketching, charcoal sketching, soft and oil pastels, watercolors, and acrylics. I studied art in high school and college. However, I never made art a hobby. It was just courses for academic credit. That didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it because I did. However, reading and writing were my first passions and art took a backseat to both. After college in 1999, I stopped doing art completely. From moving around so much, I’d lost most of my art supplies. They were just too expensive for me to replace.

Early last year, I got the spark for art back. I’d struggled with writers’ block for months, but my soul still cried out for expression. I’d also chosen Contentment as my word for the year. I did not know that art would be the road toward contentment, but it was. You can view some of my art here:

I also explain what this ‘Word for a year’ concept is in the following essay that includes the word I chose for this year — Detachment

And now, I have digressed completely from the topic at hand — Hobbies.

Since I opened my publication in October 2021, I have only completed one piece of art and a couple of sketches. I have focused so much on being an editor that all three of my passions — reading, writing, and art — have taken a backseat. I have an enormous stack of books that I want to read and do reviews on. I have writing projects I’ve begun, but currently sit in my writing queue unfinished. And I have art projects that I want to begin and some that I began but have yet to finish.

Reading, writing and art have all become ‘hobbies’ now — though often unfulfilled.

As the new year approached, I reached out to some amazing friends on Medium to join my editorial team. Along with my two part-time editors, Alyse Rowe and Katrina D., I have added Marcus aka Gregory Maidman as a part-time weekly editor and full-time weekend editor. Christine Graves and Joanne Olivieri now help with prompts and Joanne is now helping with editing and publishing as well. Charlie Cole curates underappreciated stories for us and has also been helping with editing and publishing. And Cendrine Marrouat is lending her expertise on Twitter matters.

With all of this help, you’d think I’d have enough free time to pursue my passions, right? I have more time for writing. This alone has been invaluable to me. Reading and art still take a backseat.

The burning question is why?

The number one reason that prevents me from pursuing my other two passions is my health. For the past five months, migraine flair-ups have intensified. They have plagued me since childhood, but never constantly. In October 2021, after a CT scan for vein blockage in my neck, I received the harrowing news that I had a small mass on the base of my skull. I’ve wondered since that diagnosis if it could be the culprit for the migraines. All of my doctors were more concerned about my heart health that they’d completely dropped the ball on the migraines. It has taken me all of this time to get my PCP to order more tests and refer me to a neurologist. I am hoping for a better solution soon and the end to these persistent migraines.

The other reason that prevents me from pursuing all of my passions, my hobbies, is poor time management. I despise being held accountable to time constraints. I prefer to do things when the mood strikes me, or as I am fond of saying, when Catharine, my muse, is persistent in demanding my time. Obviously, this is not a good use of my time. If I want to integrate all of my hobbies into my daily life, I need better time management. I need to stop waiting on whims and be more proactive.

This will be one of my goals moving forward through 2022. Since being an editor is now my ‘job’, and reading, writing, and art are now my hobbies, I need to focus on planning out my days. Setting aside time to accomplish something weekly in each of my hobbies. While I love being an editor, and it was once my dream job, my soul still screams out for expression. It is now time to honor my soul’s calling and focus on my hobbies.

©2022 Lori Carlson. All Rights Reserved.

This essay is in response to Ellie Jacobson’s prompt — Sparks №22: What Are Your Distractions, I Mean, Hobbies?

Lori Carlson writes Poetry, Fiction, Articles, Creative Non-Fiction, and Personal Essays. Most of her topics are centered around Relationships, Spirituality, Life Lessons, Mental Health, Nature, Loss, Death, and the LGBTQ+ community. She is the Owner/Editor of Promptly Written and Not For Bedtime Stories. Check out her personal Medium blog here.