More Answers... (09/17/26 Newsletter): The Value of Hobbies

Hi Everyone, 

Here are More Answers... to help you head into the work week. Remember, you can see previous newsletters at askchrista.com/MoreAnswers.

(Life is busy!! My newsletters will be 2-4 per month going forward!)

Today's Topic: The Value of a Hobby

Hobbies. Who has time for that, right? (or maybe you've been working so hard and so much for so long that you've forgotten what you actually enjoy beyond the usual wake up, work, go home, work, watch TV or go online, bed... next day rinse repeat...)

Christa's Personal Take

I have to admit that I envy those who knit or are part of a book club, or even read various books as part of their leisure time-- their hobby time. Some take dance lessons, some learn chess, some go to the gym and workout or run... Part of why I envy them is that my "leisure time," and what I consider a big hobby of mine, is analyzing businesses (gulp... yeah, I know, I know...). The other part is listening to podcasts, though, and my favorites aren't about businesses, at least not directly. They are about people: what motivates them, want changes them, what moves them... and less as individual pscyhology, although I do love some of that, but more about team and group behavior: the sociology side.

And yes, sure, it's still related to business. Management and all the business work I have done and do, including my research and even what I do in service of supporting others, is a social science. Some would argue, "Christa, that is SO NOT a hobby," and I can accept that, but I feel like it's a hobby because I have an exceptionally curious mind bubbly with various theses at any given time, and I read about and study business problems and solutions not just for work, but also in my free time. It refreshes me and relaxes me and gives me pause to learn.

(my other hobby has to do with outside work: yard prep in the Spring, mowing and gardening throughout the Summer, raking leaves in the Fall, and shoveling / keeping my yard in good shape during the Winter-- and I recognize, once again, how that might not sound like fun for most, but I simply love it...)

So now I ask you: how many of you have a hobby?

Hobbies Don't Have to Be Hobby-Hobbies

Let's start with what a hobby actually is.

Oxford defines a hobby as "an activity that you do for pleasure when you are not working" (Oxford University Press, n.d.). 

I love how simple that is. No specific requirements or a list of criteria. 

And the distinction between a hobby and an interest is useful here. An interest can be something we enjoy learning about, while a hobby tends to involve spending time actually doing or pursuing something for pleasure (Oxford University Press, n.d.). 

So if you spend your Saturday afternoon reading about medieval architecture because you are fascinated by it, then guess what? (it's a hobby)

The same goes for the person who spends three hours watching videos about how to restore a vintage motorcycle or how to sell a 400 year old home in London. 

A hobby merely needs to be something that gives you some pleasure outside the things you are required to do.

What Hobbies Do for Us

Here's an observation I think you'll all agree with: we push ourselves to do things based on a purpose or that feels like work, then we'll question whether it's a good use of time if we do something simply because we enjoy it.

The thing with a hobby is this: the personal satisfaction, enjoyment, and "feel-good" nature of them is why we should be doing them.

Isn't that enough? 

(yeah, I know... I know...)

Here's what the research says: a meta-analysis found that leisure engagement is associated with greater subjective well-being, with leisure satisfaction appearing to be an important part of that relationship (Kuykendall et al., 2015). A more recent scoping review focused specifically on hobbies found connections between hobby engagement and lower depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as better quality of life, well-being, relaxation, pleasure, and social connection (Cleary et al., 2025).

And a very large longitudinal (over time) study of more than 93K adults age 65+ across 16 countries found that having a hobby was associated with fewer depressive symptoms and higher levels of self-reported health, happiness, and life satisfaction (Mak et al., 2023). I would not take that to mean that everyone needs a hobby or that having one magically solves the problems of life. It doesn't. But the consistency of the relationship is interesting.

There is another part of this that I think is particularly relevant for those of us who live very utilitarian lives.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2024, full-time employed people worked an average of 8.4 hours on an average weekday when they worked. Adults ages 35 to 44, meanwhile, averaged only 3.8 hours a day in leisure and sports activities, the lowest of any age group in the survey (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).

And before you say, "Who has time for almost FOUR hours of leisure time???," remember this: watching television, socializing, playing games, using a computer for leisure, exercising, reading, and other activities was measured as leisure. 

What Hobbies Do for Our Work at Work

And now it's time to focus on why *I* want you all to find, make time for, and participate in a hobby: it is one of the best ways to recover from the workday, and this is something I write about often.

Work, particularly cognitively demanding work, consumes psychological resources. We need periods in which we are not thinking about the problem, responding to the customer, managing the team, making the decision, answering the email, or worrying about what tomorrow's meeting is going to bring.

Research on work recovery has identified several experiences that help people recover from work demands, including psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery, and a sense of control over one's free time (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2007). A hobby can provide several of those things at once; different places, different physical activity, different mental activity, different ways of being ourselves-- or being MORE of ourselves. 

It's about restoring, recovering, rejuivating...

A systematic review of workplace break research found that breaks can support well-being and recovery, although the relationship with performance is more nuanced (Lyubykh et al., 2022). Another meta-analysis found that micro-breaks produced small but significant improvements in vigor and reductions in fatigue, while the evidence for overall performance improvement was less conclusive (Albulescu et al., 2022).

You see, the evidence suggests that recovery, micro-breaks, and pursuing leisure time means we become less depleted, and that matters. A lot.

Research with employees has also found that relaxation, socialization, and cognitive activities during brief work breaks can increase positive affect, which was associated with better sales performance in the study (Kim et al., 2018). Other research has found that certain break activities can help employees restore energy and attention after demanding tasks (Bennett et al., 2020).

There's so much benefit to having a hobby. 

(and hopefully all the evidence I have provided can convince you to spend more time doing one)  :)

References

Albulescu, P., Macsinga, I., Rusu, A., Sulea, C., Bodnaru, A., & Tulbure, B. T. (2022). "Give me a break!" A systematic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy of micro-breaks for increasing well-being and performance. PLOS ONE, 17(8), e0272460. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272460

Bennett, A. A., Gabriel, A. S., & Calderwood, C. (2020). Examining the interplay of micro-break durations and activities for employee recovery: A mixed-methods investigation. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 25(2), 126–142. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000168

Cleary, M., Le Lagadec, D., Thapa, D. K., & Kornhaber, R. (2025). Exploring the impact of hobbies on mental health and well-being: A scoping review. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 46(8), 804–814. https://doi.org/10.1080/01612840.2025.2512006

Kim, S., Park, Y., & Headrick, L. (2018). Daily micro-breaks and job performance: General work engagement as a cross-level moderator. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(7), 772–786. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000308

Kuykendall, L., Tay, L., & Ng, V. (2015). Leisure engagement and subjective well-being: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 141(2), 364–403. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038508

Lyubykh, Z., Gulseren, D., Premji, Z., Wingate, T. G., Deng, C., Bélanger, L. J., & Turner, N. (2022). Role of work breaks in well-being and performance: A systematic review and future research agenda. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 27(5), 470–487. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000337

Mak, H. W., Noguchi, T., Bone, J. K., Wels, J., Fancourt, D., & Steptoe, A. (2023). Hobby engagement and mental wellbeing among people aged 65 years and older in 16 countries. Nature Medicine, 29, 2233–2241. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02506-1

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Hobby. In Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/hobby

Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2007). The recovery experience questionnaire: Development and validation of a measure for assessing recuperation and unwinding from work. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 12(3), 204–221. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.3.204

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025, June 26). American Time Use Survey—2024 results. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/atus_06262025.htm

(remember: most public libraries in the USA offer access to academic papers; however, if yours does not, then Google these papers or chapters to see where they are listed, how you can learn more about them, and how you can find similar papers to learn more about this topic)