Redeem your Life and Reboot Self, through Creative Hobbies

You wake up in the morning, put your clothes on, and go to college or workplace where you forcefully do what you’re supposed to, monotonously tend to not think creatively until it’s time to leave.

You might try to have a conversation with a colleague or classmate, but you have nothing to say and you don't really feel like talking. You don’t do anything mentionable. So, you say, “How was your weekend?” or “What did you think about…?”

And then?

Awkward silence.

As you commute back home, you look at all the people around you who seem to actually enjoy their lives, and think, you’re definitely missing out on something. "What’s wrong with me?”

You’re at home, you change into your pajamas and browse the internet, spend time on social media or watch TV to pass the time until it’s late enough for you to fall asleep.

And the next day? You do the exact same thing all over again, having a few more tedious daily chores added during the week.

You can relate, can’t you?

Wouldn’t it be nice to;                                              

• Have something to look forward to?
• Feel like your life is worth something?
• Be more interesting and not stutter when people ask you about your hobbies?

 Hobbies force you to take a break from your day to day stresses and carve out some time for yourself whilst juggling with family and work commitments. It gives one a sense of purpose and achievement, de-cluttering your mind and practicing mindfulness.

While you are working hard as a student or as a professional one needs to open up their world and stretch their limits of imagination to think outside the box.  Side projects motivate one to learn new ways to self-improve, puts one in the touch of the community, and broaden life experiences.

Mark Z. rightly said that hobbies and side projects are one of the best ways for people to show their passions and leadership qualities which reflect on their professional front as well. Multi-skilled employees manage stress better and have the ability to think creatively at work as they have a life outside of work. They help in overall image and identity building that maintain a healthy work-life balance. Educational and business organizations view the concept of work-life balance as significant and have included this component of work-place culture in their formal politics.

We often say me-time, what exactly is me-time?

It’s a time where you immensely focus on something other than that of work allowing you to relax and recharge yourself giving you a sense of fulfillment and personal satisfaction which is very imperative for one’s mental health. These little amounts of me-time when used resourcefully makes you a polymath having an expertise which spans a different number of subject areas. The textbook meaning of a polymath is simply someone who may have one area of depth, but who has a broad range of expertise in other areas as well that they can pull from to make enlightened decisions. There's no certificate or ceremony, it's more about learning to think critically and seeing the world through curious eyes.

Expanding your knowledge and building your circle will eventually give you better networks and opportunities. Being able to make rational decisions you get a wider perspective of things broadening your vision and overall thought process.

People want to be around those with passions, with a sense of curiosity and with stories to tell making you an interesting person, this not only makes you feel inspired but others around you as well. The characteristic quality of having such layers to your identity adds richness to your self-concept and the benefits often spill over into other aspects of your life.

Often hobbies or quality niche times you spend with yourself, for yourself help you structure your time. According to Parkinson’s Law “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. If you had some dedicated time for personal experiences then the daily tasks would have got completed earlier verses you spending much more time otherwise. Speaking of fragments of time you get between work and daily chores, we tend to rely on the use of social media which keeps us well exposed to the world but it too has its boundaries. Social media gives you an illusion of busyness and added screen time, Research claims that people are more energetic, happier, and enthusiastic who engage in other activities rather than the use of media to vent and relax.

 

THE ULTIMATE LIST OF CREATIVE HOBBIES

Communication is key as we in the design community are visual learners, visual thinkers and conceptual presentation is basically our career, justifying each of these traits along the way will give you a hard time. As a design student or a professional in design one must grasp onto a few side projects which back your design and justify your decisions to give it an alternate edge amongst the others. Reading and writing are essential side aids that provide a design vocabulary to build up a design language and individuality. Honing to these skillsets and having side projects juxtaposed to this area will elaborate your intellectual level in design. Appearance is critical, no matter what the content is, how it looks, and how it is presented is important and therefore, the structure is important.                                                                                                                     We as a community are visual thinkers and so we can imagine thus reading, writing, and representation skills can stimulate the designer's understanding of the users we design for. Clients are not visual people in most cases they are more verbal and if you are able to describe the features in words they most probably will get a picture of it. Elaborate models and renderings, yes, they are vital but will not always help if you are unable to put it into description and stories of spatial experiences which eventually sell the design idea. Spatial experience stories portraying function and aesthetics can at times have a greater impact than a usual rendering which is a mandatory skill taught at an early stage. The designer’s vocabulary here will give an additional advantage to the design idea and explain the narrative of user experience. The same goes for honing the skill of graphic designing, laying out the design idea through a combination of infographics and representation will make the design project complete in all aspects.

Along with sharpening specific skills some mandatory skills known as soft skills are also very important to develop individual personality traits and overall character. To be taken seriously and to be heard is as important as having good skillsets. Soft skills include interpersonal (people) skills, communication skills, listening skills, time management, and empathy, among others.

Soft skills are personality traits and behaviors. Unlike technical or ‘hard’ skills, soft skills are not about the knowledge you possess but the behaviors you display in different situations.

Sharing ideas with the community and brainstorming whilst writing and reading gives you a certain maturity in design which otherwise takes years to build, thus, polishing these skills can help you gain those extra brownie points. You can follow and write blogs on various design topics and their side niches to be a part of the larger community these days and put forward your thoughts and opinions, learning about new trends and the industry along the way. You can grab onto other significant hobby ideas including art mediums and digital skills which cater to your rendering and representation needs in design. Making efficient use of the vast reservoir of social media to find the right source of knowledge and skill is very crucial, one such way of getting exposed to skillsets, ideas, design industry trends, trending representation, and design rendering techniques are platforms like Pinterest, Houzz and Instagram which fills in your daily dose of inspiration and thoughtful approaches. Working on these skillsets is what will make you distinct from the jargon of design enthusiasts.

In many cases we see around and often hear stories of people who have followed their passion and gone way ahead whirling their side endeavors into money-making ventures. Do what you love, the saying goes, and you'll never work a day in your life, If you want to swap your current 9-to-5 or start-up fresh after graduation for a business based on your favorite hobby, you need a plan to monetize your passion. There are numerous examples out there who have successfully transformed their side activities into revenue businesses cause it’s never too late to start right? Hence, having such passions is a must especially during these times when social media is at its peak and getting through shall ensue.

- Ar. Devanshi Choksi

(Asst. Prof. TSAP, B.Voc)

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