why are we productivity hacking our hobbies?
permission to stop saddling ourselves with guilt, stress, & worry over the very things that are supposed to give us a reprieve.
I love books. I have my entire life. Since I was able to walk, there hasn't been a time when I wasn't choosing to engage a book in my leisure time. As I got older, I would often be scolded for spending far too many hours sitting & reading & not nearly enough moving around.
I know I'm not alone in this. There are entire TikTok & YouTube channels devoted to reading, podcasts all about reading, & shows devoted to sharing stories. Libraries & book clubs are dotted throughout history going hundreds of years back. No matter how you personally choose to engage (or not) with books, our human lives are still very shaped by them.
Side note: Though I love books and believe reading is good, I do not believe that reading is a more superior or moral hobby than nay other. You either love to read, like to read sometimes, or don't read much at all. None of that is morally good or morally bad. It's completely neutral. I promise to like you no matter how you feel about books.
I recently shared that I finished two books in a single week. I shared this, not to brag, or even because I'm keeping count but because I thoroughly enjoyed each book and wanted to share them with others.
But as I wrote it I felt a pang. Because usually my book pace is about 2 books A MONTH & one is almost always certainly an audiobook. As I stated before, this is neither good nor bad. The amount of books I complete in a month have no bearing on who I am as a person. BUT book-tube & other online communities like it have made me feel as though reading 2 books a week “should” be my norm.
Am I even a reader if I don't set a goal of reading 8,000 books this year? Am I even a reader if I don't smash through previously set goal and finish the year with 10,000 books under my belt?
To most, the obvious answer is yes. But to the book communities online, I think I'd have a hard time getting an in.
No one I know of is actually expecting to get in 1,000 books in a year. But hundreds? 100 books a year is a common goal I see others posting all the time, along with their happy faces next to a giant pile of books on a thumbnail promoting the reading done by the creator that month.
And this isn't just limited to books.
I sew & I knit. The online communities there are eerily similar.
Piles & piles of yarn, fabric, & pattern accumulation. Finished objects pumped out weekly, yes objects, as in multiple, makes finished every week.
The ritualistic tallying up of “everything I made this year” followed by “I made 1,000 garments this year! Don't worry some were gifts…”
Maybe I sound a little jealous.
Maybe I am. I would love to both be faster at my work & have more time to devote to it without feeling as though I am sacrificing sanity or relationships. (I mean, when are these people sleeping or working or hanging out with their kid?)
But I also think all this “look at how much I can finish” content is ruining our hobbies.
Opinions are to belly buttons as facts are to…?
I would argue that all of this performative hobby-ing is really a form of hidden competition.
And that certainly comes with its benefits. How many times have you set a personal, mostly-for-fun goal for yourself only to find that you spent a few weeks, or days, or even simply hours on it before it was promptly pushed to the periphery of your life only to be seen in moments of sadness, guilt, & self flagellation? (There aren't enough fingers & toes on my body to give an accurate count.)
Adding a bit of competition to a new hobby or a hobby you're in a rut with is a fabulous way to increase motivation, finally finish a half finished project, & help you work harder - boosting your confidence in multiple areas of life.
All good things.
But (& I like these big, so pay attention), constantly turning something we are meant to enjoy as a leisure activity into a competition against strangers we don't even know on the internet who often do said hobby for a living, is giving the exact opposite affect.
Consuming hobby content while we are engaging in our hobby or in moments when we aren't able to engage but wish we could can lead to a lot of comparison. & once we fall into a comparison trap it's difficult to climb out.
I, for one, don't typically like my enjoyment with a side of jealousy, anxiety, pressure, or stress. & I'm betting you don't either.
So why then, are we feeding into a machine that promotes unhealthy competition in areas that are supposed to promote well-being?
Community without comparison
I'm not proposing we take challenge, competition, or achievement out of our hobbies. Those things are good & part of what make certain hobbies enjoyable - even when the competition is just against ourselves.
What I am proposing is that we stop wielding our hobbies as status symbols designed to make ourselves feel superior to those we claim to be in community with or those who reside outside our chosen communities.
I say we give permission to the creators & influencers of our hobby communities to not produce so much all the time, not give our media currency to content that promotes consumerism & speed over enjoyment (I'm looking at you “I read 5,000 books this year. Here's how you can too.”), & celebrate the high seasons AND the slow seasons that effect all aspects of our very human lives.
Let's stop saddling ourselves with guilt, stress, & worry over the very things that are supposed to give us a reprieve.
What are your favorite hobbies? Have you noticed any of them becoming overrun with productivity & achievement content?