How to get around to your hobby with limited time

Find yourself time-crunched and not geting around to your hobby? Start here.

Recently, a Hobbyisms reader shared that what challenges them to get around to their hobby is having limited time. This commonly prevents hobbies from starting and sustaining, so today’s post will provide ways to continue doing what you enjoy most amid various life obligations. If this is something you also continue to find yourself up against, here is what you can do.

Plan Ahead in a Task Manager

With limited time, managing the time you can direct at your discretion is a must. One way to go about this is with a task manager, where you can pinpoint and prioritize everything that you need to get around to. Plan a week, a couple weeks, or a month in advance, keeping track of all your deadlines and upcoming tasks. Put all the cards on the table; it is much easier to start spacing out your life load and find time to do your hobbies when you know the totality of what needs to happen. Manage your tasks to manage your time, and then redirect where that time goes from there.

Complete Obligations Earlier

Another step you can take to get around to your hobbies with limited time is to take a “sooner than later” approach in multiple respects. This could include completing your obligations in the morning as opposed to the evening (and on weekdays versus weekends), that way it is out of the way. If there are also ways you can expedite what you need to do without sacrificing the quality of the outcome, those are worth implementing as well. Find ways to enhance your approach and/or technique if it will reduce the amount of time directed toward mundane tasks. Complete obligations earlier so you have the peace of mind knowing that you can do what you want to later.

Set Aside Some Dedicated Time

This pointer is commonly mentioned in Hobbyisms’ posts, but if you ever want to get around to your hobby… you must set some time aside! It doesn’t have to be much; even 30 focused minutes of enjoying or advancing with your hobby can incrementally get you somewhere with it. The way you set time aside can be spontaneous or time blocked (read this post to determine which approach is best for you). And depending on your hobby, you may even be able to do it during your relaxation time if it is possible to do it with background noise as opposed to sitting passively (i.e., knitting, crocheting, drawing, etc.). Allocate some un-encroached time toward your hobby and uphold your commitment to following through.

Cut Distractions When You Spot Them

This pointer is also often shared in other posts, but it is especially important when you have limited time. As mentioned above, 30-minute increments can certainly be enough to enjoy or advance with your hobby. If you are getting distracted during that period, however, or there are other time pockets that you could fill your hobby with instead… trim back on those as much as possible. Distractions are the most preventable time drain, and you will instantly have more time to redirect if you learn to manage them (for more insight on this, read this post).

Continue Finding Ways to Optimize

A final approach you can take to continue hobbying when time seems limited is ongoingly improving what and where you can. Questions to ask yourself include “What can I cut?” and “How can I more efficiently and effectively accomplish what I already have to do?” Invest some time now and then into optimizing how you go about your life load; it does make a difference. There are some obligations that will inherently take from your available time, but there are usually multiple ways to go about something that may result in time savings. If it takes time now but will save time later, it is worth pursuing.

Sustaining a Hobby with Limited Time

While there is certainly effort involved in working around time constraints, all the approaches mentioned here are feasible to start as soon as today. You will need to stick with these adjustments to continue getting around to your hobby with limited time. The most important aspect, though, is to keep the enjoyment you get from your hobby top of mind and use that to bring yourself back to it time and time again. As it is said: where there’s a will, there’s a way! Keep your will strong, and you will find the time.

Happy hobbying!