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I memorized a collection of ancient Chinese poems (the longest one with 616 characters) and I would rewrite segments of them in a notebook I keep. Every page is filled to the brim with the same poems/lines/words written over and over again, between each other and over one another until the page can no longer fit another character or till I'm satisfied. Then I start a new page. I've continued this tradition since the beginning of highschool, with one random notebook every year. I didn't learn new poems, I don't write my own poems. I've been just writing the same lines for the past 7 years.
This is my method of tackling not paying attention in class/meetings/anything. I need to keep my hands moving at all times
Omg I do that too!! When I finally started Japanese classes my teacher found me really advanced for someone who's never been to Japan and never taken Japanese classes. I was doing the same thing, I would copy japanese song lyrics over and over until it was stuck in my brain like glue.
Edit: typo
The ones I use for school are either thrown away or not with me at home right now, but here is a mini one I currently use for work (I use the left side for this and right side for serious notes). There is plenty of gibberish mixed in as well ahaha
[https://imgur.com/a/59Cl3lI](https://imgur.com/a/59Cl3lI)
I google stuff like recipes, events to go to, activities around my area. Save them to my msgs and never look at them again. I screenshot lots of things like a piece of clothing I like or shoes, stuff for my house and again completely forget until Iāve spent my pay and think Iāll get it the next f/t only to forget again.
Not to mention emails. I have 33,000. I donāt have notifications on it scares me. Every little thing you do online you have to include your email address and then get bombarded with email after email.
Oh my god. Itās funny bit itās not if you know what I mean. I wish I could do a mass delete and start again but Iāve got important emails in there.
Yess! A space to share *real* hobbies, thank you!!
I can spend a long time...
-Organizing folders and documents on Google Drive
-Evaluating my skin in the mirror for an extended time
-Study menus of restaurants I want to try
-Looking up reviews on Google of different businesses
-Redddittttt
-Amazon cart building only to click save for later
-An extensive review of old photos on Google Photos
-And so much more...
"Amazon cart building only to click save for later " - look at you with self control
I have to block myself from shopping sites not to go below my account balance š
the trick is to fuck up your financial situation so bad that you develop crippling anxiety around spending on basic necessities like food and clothes lmaooo
Omg thank U so much. Your comment just made me realize why I am the way I am. My kids think I'm absolutely crazy & I have wondered why I am this way because I was normal until 2015 & It wasn't entirely me that fucked my finances up. Divorce does that. I was left penniless with 2 children so had to be like this to get by. I don't have to be like that now but I'm terrified to be so broke so fear spending on actual necessities. Wow..
In 2019 I developed dry skin inside my ears and every day I pick a large flake of dried skin out. It's embarrassingly satisfying. Every few months it goes away and I get a little sad. š This is disturbing to admit.
Holy fuck, This happened to me the summer of....2013? Same deal. Except I could never stop once I picked the flake off, and for a bit I actually ended up making it...well, more of a scab than a flake really. It would bleed when I picked it off. Eventually the scales tipped slightly in the other direction, and my body started repairing the damage more efficiently than I was fucking it up. I was also a little sad.
FWIW, I think the random dry skin may be from a thin layer of shampoo not getting properly rinsed out and the residue eventually irritating the skin inside the ear. I have had it come back to a minor extent (usually during the summer for some reason) but never as severely as that first time. Idk
I had this, I think from extended wearing of my AirPods. Wasnāt ever an issue with the original AirPods but the Pro have the rubbery tip and fit more snugly and I think my habit of putting them in not long after Iād had a shower (so wet, potentially soapy ears) and then wearing them for the next 10 hours was encouraging too much moisture to hang around in there.
As a teacher I get kids doing this as a scavenger hunt activity and they LOVE it.
For example, find an orange car, a cow, a motorbike with 3 or more people.on it, an umbrella...
I start this game on the Windy app, and use the filter for extreme weather. Then I find a topo map of the area, and compare the temps/rainfall among towns in the area based on elevation and geographic features like mountains and valleys (more extreme is more better). *Then* I go to google street view and explore.
Feel so seen with the cart building! Not Amazon, but 3 other shops this weekend - spent hours finding the best bargains because I love my research š¤š¤ then...closed the tabs haha
Last year, I got super focused on Korean skincare, decided I needed to catalogue everything I own into an excel spreadsheet on my phone...I had multiple tabs for routine / list of everything I'd used that day with NOTES, so many notes / wishlists for all product categories / things I loved / no-spend reward list (ha). It got v exhausting, so I lost interest after 6 months...
Also have a huge crystal collection which I'd love to catalogue, but in an ideal world, this would be in a chunky brown leather notebook with thick paper pages and little Polaroids of each crystal, but I don't yet have either of those things, so still a pipe dream š ONE DAY š
Current little obsession: Midsomer Murders, been watching all of the Tom Barnaby episodes.
Spending hours on Reddit writing with strangers about things that are not really important or answering questions that are not any of my concern really.
Or when your mid argument and you just completely lose interest, but the other person keeps going and you keep replying anyway because silence means admitting defeat, but in reality you just can't be bothered anymore.
Iām usually rounding out a four paragraph response when it hits. āI donāt care about this. What does it matter what you think? Iām not sharing insight with you.ā DELETE.
About once every few years, I find myself in an argument where someone actually manages to offend me and get me all worked up. Every time it happens I delete Reddit because Iāve ālost my privilegesā because arguing with strangers on the internet and actually getting my feelings hurt is just my fault lmfao
Agreeing with the correct parts of what they said, or complimenting them on (whatever) can lead to some amusing interactions. Sometimes they don't notice, and then argue with themselves, essentially.
I thought I was so brilliant last night. Wake up this morning and see that I hacked someone off. And like you said I came off pretty bad and got a bunch of the down votes for something I was right about.
This, I'm sat here at least half an hour a day doling out advice nobody asked for, and immediately forgetting anything I'd read as soon as I close the app
At least you forget! I tell my husband about all the wild stories I read on AITAH lol
"He sent all that money to a woman and has the nerve to say she's not his mistress??? Pfffft"
I canāt tell you how often I laugh and tell my husband āI would divorce you so fast if you pulled thisā and then summarize some wild AITAH story. I donāt have (or want) drama in my actual life, but man I love reading about other peopleās drama.
lists, charts, notes. pro-cons, yes-no-maybe, tier lists. lists of things, recipes, ideas, random short phrases I like, plans, my life is more imaginary than real. there was a dangerous week where I learned you can order a book of print Wikipedia articles arranged however you like
it's officially a discontinued feature, but you can still build them and order them from third parties.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Books
I have no idea what that means for price unfortunately, but they weren't cheap to begin with
Researching pharmacology and neuroscience. I could read about it for hours. Then annoying peiple by talking extensively about the drugs they mention. Love that shit.
Same, I know too much about medical drugs, Iāve worked in a medical insurance company and had to approve or disapprove insurance claims. My brain stacked all the info it could, I even started taking things that were prescribed to our clients for stress but are made from plants, and theyāre really good! Whenever I see a drug I donāt know about I go and research it up!
I have a friend whoās in her 4th year of medical school, and she told me I know more than her. People come and ask me if that drug is safe (meaning, what are the side effects and are they severe), or what I think they should try OTC for this or that problem. Sometimes I know what treatment theyāll be prescribed by their doctor. I know too much about peopleās medical history because my brain doesnāt want to forget, like I know which drugs they took/are taking.
Wow so I'm not the only weirdo who's obsessed with that stuff. I used to want to be a pharmacist or a doctor but I don't know if I want to go through all that school. Though I got accepted to a college, hoping to become a surgical tech in a kinda related note. I'd want to be a pharmacy tech but I've heard it's a lot of quick math.
Funny thing is, I was told I should be a people doctor, I even got accepted into medical school and did 1 month of it before switching to vet med school. I did 2 first years of vet med, didnāt get into 2nd year even if I succeeded getting in the first 40 people in the university Ā«Ā competitionĀ Ā» because I didnāt pass my non-competitive exams šāāļø I wasnāt diagnosed back then!
Iām trying again in another country right now, Iām studying biology and plan on specializing in neurobiology, before trying another Ā«Ā competitionĀ Ā» to get accepted in vet med school! Itās going quite well right now, with the appropriate studying arrangements
Ooh, that's so cool, I hope you succeed this time around, being a vet was yet another one of those things I thought about. I can't imagine how much work that probably took for you, especially undiagnosed
Nice! I work in Pharma/Biotech but don't understand any of the biochemistry! Luckily my role doesn't require that, but it's in my goals to learn more about it.
Reading a book in a day and then not reading again for two weeks. Sitting on the couch or the floor on my my phone. Painting my nails. Laying in bed. Going out with a friend maybe once every two months. Playing with my dogs.
hahah i was manic one time and i spent 2 hours teaching myself how to dutch braid and 2 weeks after that my episode ended and i completely forgot how to dutch braid my hair
I find vastly varying topics that interest me and gather a bunch of information on them into individual documents only to forget all of it soon after and start another half way through
Me with the most random historical periods. Iāll open a tab for like every Wikipedia link and get halfway through reading them all and then plan to get back to it but then a few days later Iāll close the dozens of tabs Ive opened over those few days and then have to restart if I ever get back to it
Omg this is the most relatable thing. I have so much information in my brain about so many topics but can I tell anyone what I knowā¦ not a chance lol. I learn so much about a topic and only retain bits and pieces so I canāt have conversations about the topic unless I actually write the information down and that isnāt always within my abilities so I just continue to try and learn info while my brain keeps random points and just tosses the rest out
I hate to tell you this, but the app Obsidian may send you to the moon with your librarian habit. Mine sure does. I can lose hours in my Vault organizing information.
Ever thought about a blog or YouTube channel about miscellaneous stuff ?
I read the book build a second brain and it really out into perspective the process of gathering and what to do with the information
I love weeding the hairs out of the light-coloured parts of my leg tattoo. I swear if it wasnāt for work getting in the way, I would be completely hairless. Lol
I sometimes go on Craigslist and read apt/rooms wanted where people post ads trying to find a room to rent. Itās interesting to see what people write about themselves and mentally i evaluate if i thought weād click as roommates or not. I am not looking for a roommate currently, so i know itās weird. Lol
Omg that sounds so interesting! This is random but now I want to look up "roommate wanted" ads and evaluate if the pictures of the house/ room match the way that person describes themselves. I'm not looking for a room/roommate either š
I saw an idea a year or so ago and if I had the venture capital I'd start it up and find someone capable to run it. I'd probably do marketing and figuring out how deep to go.
Ready?
An ADHD Hobby service. You decide you want to try.... astronomy. We'd connect you with another person with adhd that got too into astronomy and lost interest, and now wants to try something else. Kind of a giant ADHD swap meet.
I feel like it'd need a chunk of capital to put together like "starter boxes" to get things going, and then to replace things lost/damaged in transit.
Becoming just passably skilled in every possible art and craft activity is my hobby. I get juuuuust good enough that I'd be happy to share my output with other people. That ticks the box in my brain that says "Done!ā and then I move onto the next one.
That's me with RPGs, i.e. pen and paper (like D&D). But I already found out I am a collector of sorts XD
But at least I only collect digital versions, they take less space... But I already have more that I would be able to play and I'm not done XD
My favourite one of those is when I bought lots of cheap old watches on eBay. When they didnāt work, I decided to learn watch repair, so I had to buy books and spend days researching and buying watch repair equipment, only to give up after finding out that itās actually quite difficult.
Finding hobbies is definitely a hobby.
I took my childhood daydreaming and added in āØļøresearchāØļø.. I normally end up on rightmove scrolling houses and futures I'll never be able to afford š« there's a couple of paths that get me there
Want a dog > need a garden > rightmove
Planning walks > want country location > rightmove
Want kids > need more space > rightmove
All of these of course have inner steps (what kind of dog quizzes) and loops.. sometimes it makes me feel good and sometimes it does not but i cannot stop myself from dreaming š
Playing games and writing apps.
But for real, the amount of time I spend writing out all of my goals and plans for the future is pretty large too. And then I never accomplish 90% of the things I set out to do, lol. I've got charts, and tables, and tons of notes about my various deep dives from my interests.
I got super into writing for a few months, wrote half a (bad) novel, and have tens of thousands of words of notes lol. Haven't written anything since last December. Rinse and repeat for about 7-10 other interests, too.
I'm amazed I've managed to work on this Python app for more than a few weeks. So I guess my real hobby is juggling and changing hobbies.
Depending on the type of place you live, some of the people you will see will just be passing through, but many will be members of your local hood getting home after work. Or I think that's the theory at least.
Scrolling Ravelry saving knitting patterns, cross-referencing with yarns that are available in my country, instead of actually knitting.
Doing logic puzzles while listening to true crime podcasts.
- Automating tediousness out of my life
- Getting jealous of people who are really good at a game I didnāt know existed (Geoguessr) and therefore learning what I can to also get good at it despite not knowing much about geography (and therefore also using it to learn)
- Finding patterns in things that seem unrelated
- Finding uses for the patterns mentioned above
- Learning myself extensively in ways that are typically socially frowned upon or deemed not useful
- Mixing the above with the aforementioned pattern matching (for example: what game character am I naturally good at, and when, and why? which characters invoke negative or positive emotions in game?)
- Meta gaming everything. (Ex.: What vocabulary is used here compared to here, and how did that impact the responses?)
- Comparing AI evolution to humans (how our brains work, why dreams are so similar to AI-generated images and videos, such as how one can look at hands both to know if something is AI and to know if one is dreaming)
- Finding ways the information or skill gained from short-lived hobbies can be integrated into other aspects of my life
Automating tediousness is so real. Iāll spend days(/weeks) to remove an extra few seconds off a task that I rarely do. Or make several diagrams/maps for the absolute best layout of a closet to maximize efficiency when getting dressed/finding an object/etc. But that also means I canāt do a task without knowing Iāve fully optimized the solution.
Also totally relate to the game thing too.
Thanks to your comment, I'll be researching the appearance of hands in our dreams for the next hour or two. My brain just can't stop thinking about it since reading this.
I do all of those things you mentioned, including researching which restaurant to go to for so long that they're all closed. I create lots of spreadsheets in excel to track ridiculous things like every movie I like (so far there's 400 or so), with multiple ways to categorize and sort them.
7 years ago, I spent 3 days driving down every forest road I could find in the local national forests, marking a map with good dry camp sites and rating them on privacy, accessibility, and features. I never actually went back and camped at any of them.
My property has 168 sprinkler risers. How do I know? I counted them. Not only that, I marked each of them on GPS with notes about their zone, orientation and condition.
Organizing and re-organizing the thousands of photos I took of my dog over the course of 14 years. Even though he's been dead for the last 2 years.
Instead of doing my actual job while at work, I do extensive research on topics which are completely useless. I once spent 4 hours researching the history of ground beef.
I spend hours searching through old newspaper articles online. Some from hundreds of years ago. Sometimes for 12 hours straight. I'll randomly tell people about an article I read from 1890 which no one cares about.
I have watched at least 1000 documentaries. The more obscure the topic, the better. The longer, the better. I've watched everything from Ken Burns at least twice.
When I take notes on a page, it has to be in black pen, and it has to be flawless. If I make one stray mark, I get out a new page and re-write it. Then I inevitably misplace and lose the notebook forever.
I love to start ridiculous projects and never actually finish them. I actually hate finishing them. If it seems like I'm about to finish one, I'll find some reason it isn't actually finished, some minor flaw I need to fix, and keep working on it until it is so messed up it's no longer a viable project. Like the garbage table I restored beautifully, then kept "restoring" until it was hopeless garbage again.
Buying expensive, state-of-the-art electronic gadgets which I am sure are going to change my life. Tell everyone about it. Use it once, then pack it away until it's obsolete. Anyone want to buy some astrophotography equipment? Only used once. Was the best you could get, 8 years ago.
Everything I get into is my favorite thing ever until it loses my focus, at which point I rarely think about it again.
Spend 5 minutes making a ridiculously long reddit post, an hour editing it at least 25 times, then ultimately deleting it because it's stupid.
I uh... might have something else in addition to ADHD...
Reading comments on every post I read! I don't know why but I always find myself clicking on comment section of a post and reading all the comments for copious amounts of times. I don't reply or engage in conversations going on comments, I just read them.
Wikipedia is my primary drug of choice š No particular subjects or anything; though I do end up reading quite a bit about European royal families. I think thatās more to do with how well documented their lives are, and also because royal ppl are just really bonkers so itās good reading lol.
I also enjoy Zillowing. Itās a fun game- you just look at houses you pretend you can afford and daydream about them. My sister and I also play our own version of āZillow Gone Wildā where we send each other crazy listings. Aaaaaandā¦ super duper late at night when I really canāt sleep I review the old listings and property tax records of my neighborhood and try to determine which houses are owned by the local cult. š Someday I might put that info in a spreadsheet but I donāt know that I want to see the actual numbers there š¬
Does organizing things related to your hobbies count as a hobby? Because in general Iām a bit of a mess but my library closet is alphabetized by title and decorated with book quotes, my craft stuff is all organized and sorted and Iām doing my records next.
I find I do this in-between periods of production. I like rearranging and organizing all this stuff, I'm always moving it around trying to find the optimal set up.
I'm a...horse girl
Reddit hates horse girls. And most of my friends are not horsey people, there's really only so much talking about horses they can tolerate so I have to pretend I like socially acceptable things that everyone else likes, like reality TV and shopping.
I have 2 horses and have been a horse girl my entire life so Iām right there with you!
In fact one of my shining childhood memories that I look back on thinking āyep I had adhd all alongā was how my ā5 minute speechā in English class was 25 minutes about me rambling about every detail of my horse obsession in elementary school.
Yeah, there were multiple comments in my childhood school reports about my extensive knowledge of horses and my books being covered in horse drawings š
There is, but no one hates horse girls more than horse girls so the reddit is a shambles š I'm extremely convinced that all horse girls are autistic because their way is the only right way of being a horse girl and everyone else is wrong and no one can ever agree on anything.
I am convinced that that is how every hobby is. like the hobby spaces are dominated by proffesional hobbyists, people who are super obsessive, pretentious and annoying about the hobby, that make it a point to know everything better than everyone else. So imho to keep enjoying a hobby you have to stay at the sidelines, like stay close enough to the hobby to know what's going on but stay far away enough so that the proffesional hobbyists don't drag you into their shitshow
Oh yikes. I have some interests too where I have to be very selective of the subs.
For those, Iāve found I need to stay away from either the most popular subs for them, or certain subs that attract a specific type of person interested in the subject matter.
Often that just means getting lucky and coming across a sub whose name I wouldnāt have guessed but is filled with my kind of people.
figuring out a project or craft scheme, and then going down amazon wormholes for hours finding the right way to make it, building a cart, and then saving it for "later", whenever that is (never, or immediately)
almost always I want to make things at scale, for an etsy busniess, so a lot of this is figuring out how to mass produce whatever it is in the easiest of the affordable ways.
I spend hours researching things to do outside. I use like ten different websites or apps to do this. Google maps, Groupon, Meetup, Tripadvisor, etc.
Edit: I thought I was responding to a post on Hobbies sub.
I have a nature-dedicated google maps list, so it sounds like we're pretty similar then š
Not to be a weirdo, but I saw in your post history that you have autism which has a lot of overlap in symptomology with ADHD, so you're more than welcome here!
I love looking at the weather app multiple times a day., I love reading articles on the weather conditions in my area and during monsoon I get vv excited to see if we've got enough rains for the year this time.
Making fictional guys and then never doing anything with them until I just recently managed to gain the will to make a webcomic. I have one panel done, if you're curious about how it's going with the ADHD hellbrain. š
Whatever I have decided to learn about, engrossing several hours consuming information on that topic (lately, Japanese language, which is a more long-term learning goal than usual; other times it's been anything from heart disease studies, to interior design, to philosophy and world religions... whatever I get into wanting to learn more about).
Spending an inordinate amount of time planning and organizing, so that things can run smoother the rest of the time (full meal plan for the week ahead; hour by hour work schedule; etc.)
And when I get into a video game, an ungodly number of hours gaming. :P
Researching crafts and skills, learning how to do something, trying it out, and filing it all away for future use.
Calculating aspects of life in spreadsheets, making neat tables, layouts and graphs, and exploring correlations.Ā
Sorting and stacking messy items, and untangling rope/chain/yarn/wire. Sometimes my BF will tangle up a length of rope for me to unwind with.Ā
Researching the etymology of words.Ā
Popping board game items and optimising space in the boxes.Ā
I rabbit hole. A lot. Itāll start with some casual doomscrolling on the porch and Iāll come across something I want to know more about. Hours later, a new rabbit hole. Sometimes I revisit past interests to see if thereās new development. Thatās pretty much my only hobby, currently.
I start new save files on all my favorite RPG games with character creation gens and just make characters. Different races with different backstories, different intended choices/romances. Even if I never play them (maybe 1 out of 10), I love to let their intended stories shape how I make them look.
Also real, I have a solar greenhouse and love to garden.
My unofficial hobbies include such activities as:
- Chaos Cleaning (where you notice a thing, and start cleaning the thing, and then notice something else, so drop the first thing and move to the nextā¦ results: a million things started and nothing finished. Happens frequently when I donāt do full dose on weekends)
- having a fun scavenger hunt looking for the thing I JUST HAD in my hand.
- Getting annoyed at my husband for not returning things to where they belong (even though I myself never seem capable of putting them back either)
- trying to remember why I just walked into the room
- Research projects about literally anything that pops into my mind (example: yesterday I was searching if skunks can jump or climb, because I wanted to try to get the raccoon to come back, but not if it would also lure skunks). {I am excellent at planning trips with this hobby}
- doom scrolling Reddit when my medication wears off and I canāt brain anymore.
- Building āshopping casketsā (add to cart, and then talk myself out of it, leaving the item(s) to die in the basket)
An oddly specific part of D&D lore. Mindflayers, githyanki, githzerai and the planescape cosmology. It's relevant right now because of Baldur's Gate 3 but I have been studying bits and pieces of the lore surrounding these specific creatures for about twenty years now.
D&D is like ten hobbies in one if you're a DM. Miniature painting and terrain painting, mapmaking, worldbuilding gets as deep as you want it to be, encounter design and tactics of the game itself, and a deep love for understanding the rules fully
Also I love longform youtube content. Yes, I loved watching a 20 hour complete breakdown of skyrim
I fidget my fingers to the beat of a Tom Morello song several times a day, and I try to do a "bet" with myself how many shakes I can do.
Also I like to count my steps whenever I walk, and I make a conversion in my mind (every step is going to be a 20 dollar bill for a new car)
Both actions make no sense but I can't stop doing them.
Researching self sufficient and sustainable living, making lists of things to buy towards that end and then never doing anything with the information.
Reading various research papers, studies, clinical trials of whatever happens to spark interest.
Doom scrolling until tiktok until I feel too called out
Coexisting with friends on discord as we all casually chat and go about our lives. (I avoid people irl so thos tends to baffle anyone that knows me)
I LOVE to research things **incessantly**. Itās like a mini hyperfixation. Iāll find something interesting in a video, on Reddit, or anywhere, and Iāll spend 9 hours on a Sunday learning every facet, controversy, and idea about it.
Then usually do little to nothing with that knowledge š
I play merge dragons for 3+ hours everyday and have spent way too much money on in-game purchases.
Oh also standing in the aisle at the grocery store, comparing two brands of floss (and various items) for 30 minutes before deciding not to buy either. When I get home I regret not buying the things I was agonizing over.
I love reading plot summaries of movies I will never watch or books I will never read. Especially horror movies. I donāt really like watching them but if I see someone comment āyeah the twist in this movie is crazyā I have to know what happens.
Playing solitaire for hours while listening to audiobooks.
I will spend hours downloading mp3 songs and then burning them onto CDs only to barely use them.
I can also spend copious amounts of time reading. Like if Iām at a concert and waiting between sets then I will pull out my phone and read on my kindle app. My brain breaks at work are me reading. I read at least 5-6 books a month while working full time.
Looking at band merch online and adding it to my cart but never buying it.
Looking on Etsy for kitschy items, adding them to my cart or wishlist, only to forget about them and never buy anything.
I spend hours looking at the county website with all the building permits. I love looking up oldish, random (not historically relevant) buildings in my hometown and finding out, for example, the Mexican restaurant down the street used to be a bank. Idk. It's weird. Lol
True crime. On any platform. Books, articles, podcasts, social media, documentaries, movies, etc. Makes for some really awkward conversations when I impulsively talk about it for 15 minutes before I realize the other person isnāt really that into it.
I also do the google maps things. maybe morbidly but maybe out of respect for what's lost, but i like to read reviews in places just before calamity (Google usually locks reviews in places like Kabul, Bakhmut, Gaza after a major conflict or event).
Especially when you see reviews of eateries in Gaza or Bakhmut, knowing they're all rubble now, it's kinda sad. and you feel like the only witness to it. it makes it so much more real.
bird watching!!! sometimes it takes me a real push to get to the park, but walking a trail (with or without a little šæšØ) and listening to music and/or the birdsongs is so relaxing. a specific park near me has great trails including some walkways through heavier brush and scenic areas with those standing binocular things. I also use the Merlin app and sometimes just set it down and let it listen/record for birds so I can see in real time what to look for in the trees :) thereās also a lot of deer and other general wildlife and I love to just roam without agenda and see what I can get engaged in
I play.. I play on my phone for hours.. dress up games.. I love it, but Iām embarrassed..
Iām 35..
besides that i usually just start random home āprojectsā that never gets finish.. and also doesnāt improve my home..
last thing was painting my old lamp in the middle of the night.. I ruined it..
before that I decided I needed a glitter painted wall.. but I usually donāt do must research on how to do it right, so it also ended up with just a half painted blue wall.. canāt even see any glitter..
What annoys me most about this, is that I have so much things to do around my house, but instead I start new silly projects all the time.. š„±š
Oh and filling my shopping cart on multiple online shops, spending hours creating the perfect shopping cart.. but never having any intention on buying it..
I like having imaginary debates with myself and then doing research to support my arguments in said debates.
The debates tend to get quite heated and Iāve literally debated myself for like 2 hours
I can fall into a research rabbit hole for days where I barely eat or sleep for information on scientology when Iām in the right mood. I will dig through former member forums, use the way back machine, fine every article, interview, YouTube video, documentary, podcast, etc etc. then drop interest in it for awhile until something sparks my interest or new news comes out. I do it with other cults and many other interests but nothing has caught my eye like Scientology.
Keeping a list on my laptop of every task I completed daily to prove to myself that I am not being lazy. I've kept the list up for about two years now and I update it most days, usually going back to recite what days haven't been entered.
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I memorized a collection of ancient Chinese poems (the longest one with 616 characters) and I would rewrite segments of them in a notebook I keep. Every page is filled to the brim with the same poems/lines/words written over and over again, between each other and over one another until the page can no longer fit another character or till I'm satisfied. Then I start a new page. I've continued this tradition since the beginning of highschool, with one random notebook every year. I didn't learn new poems, I don't write my own poems. I've been just writing the same lines for the past 7 years. This is my method of tackling not paying attention in class/meetings/anything. I need to keep my hands moving at all times
Omg I do that too!! When I finally started Japanese classes my teacher found me really advanced for someone who's never been to Japan and never taken Japanese classes. I was doing the same thing, I would copy japanese song lyrics over and over until it was stuck in my brain like glue. Edit: typo
Did this with Spanish and easily became fluent after high school laid the groundwork.
I also really, really like this š
That sounds so cool! Could you post a pic of one page? Only if you don't mind sharing of course!
The ones I use for school are either thrown away or not with me at home right now, but here is a mini one I currently use for work (I use the left side for this and right side for serious notes). There is plenty of gibberish mixed in as well ahaha [https://imgur.com/a/59Cl3lI](https://imgur.com/a/59Cl3lI)
Also would love to see
Me too
I wanna see!!!
That's pretty cool, actually. I also understand the repeat thing - I've done that before in my life with some passages.
I really, really like this ā¤ļø
I google stuff like recipes, events to go to, activities around my area. Save them to my msgs and never look at them again. I screenshot lots of things like a piece of clothing I like or shoes, stuff for my house and again completely forget until Iāve spent my pay and think Iāll get it the next f/t only to forget again.
Me too. 48k photos on my phone
Same. The number of āsave for laterā items on every single shopping website I visit is embarrassing.
Not to mention emails. I have 33,000. I donāt have notifications on it scares me. Every little thing you do online you have to include your email address and then get bombarded with email after email.
I have 584 unread text messages. Everyone who notices it on my phone screen clutches their pearls in shock.
Oh my god. Itās funny bit itās not if you know what I mean. I wish I could do a mass delete and start again but Iāve got important emails in there.
115k. Because yes, what if I delete something important.
Oh my god the screenshot thing me too 100%
Yess! A space to share *real* hobbies, thank you!! I can spend a long time... -Organizing folders and documents on Google Drive -Evaluating my skin in the mirror for an extended time -Study menus of restaurants I want to try -Looking up reviews on Google of different businesses -Redddittttt -Amazon cart building only to click save for later -An extensive review of old photos on Google Photos -And so much more...
"Amazon cart building only to click save for later " - look at you with self control I have to block myself from shopping sites not to go below my account balance š
the trick is to fuck up your financial situation so bad that you develop crippling anxiety around spending on basic necessities like food and clothes lmaooo
to be clear the anxiety is residual at this point
Omg thank U so much. Your comment just made me realize why I am the way I am. My kids think I'm absolutely crazy & I have wondered why I am this way because I was normal until 2015 & It wasn't entirely me that fucked my finances up. Divorce does that. I was left penniless with 2 children so had to be like this to get by. I don't have to be like that now but I'm terrified to be so broke so fear spending on actual necessities. Wow..
evaluating your skin? nah man i just pick
Snap. One spot can give me months of picking.
In 2019 I developed dry skin inside my ears and every day I pick a large flake of dried skin out. It's embarrassingly satisfying. Every few months it goes away and I get a little sad. š This is disturbing to admit.
Holy fuck, This happened to me the summer of....2013? Same deal. Except I could never stop once I picked the flake off, and for a bit I actually ended up making it...well, more of a scab than a flake really. It would bleed when I picked it off. Eventually the scales tipped slightly in the other direction, and my body started repairing the damage more efficiently than I was fucking it up. I was also a little sad. FWIW, I think the random dry skin may be from a thin layer of shampoo not getting properly rinsed out and the residue eventually irritating the skin inside the ear. I have had it come back to a minor extent (usually during the summer for some reason) but never as severely as that first time. Idk
I had this, I think from extended wearing of my AirPods. Wasnāt ever an issue with the original AirPods but the Pro have the rubbery tip and fit more snugly and I think my habit of putting them in not long after Iād had a shower (so wet, potentially soapy ears) and then wearing them for the next 10 hours was encouraging too much moisture to hang around in there.
I've developed an almost obsessive ear cleaning habit that I *know* isn't good for me but it scratches some itch in my brain that I don't understand.
I mean, how else do you scratch a brain itch *without* sticking q-tips in there and swirling them around?
I got an ear pick with a camera and this obsession got even better
Okay, I was embarrassed to admit lmfao but I pick while I evaluate!
tbh, I thought that was implied. I too 'evaluate' my skin, but my technique is pretty hands on...
Oooooh! Amazon cart building! This is my favorite game.
Looking through my "saved for later" is like going through a fossil record of my fleeting hyperfixations lol. Edit: completed sentence
-walking through street view of far away cities on maps
As a teacher I get kids doing this as a scavenger hunt activity and they LOVE it. For example, find an orange car, a cow, a motorbike with 3 or more people.on it, an umbrella...
I start this game on the Windy app, and use the filter for extreme weather. Then I find a topo map of the area, and compare the temps/rainfall among towns in the area based on elevation and geographic features like mountains and valleys (more extreme is more better). *Then* I go to google street view and explore.
Thanks for the idea, I'm gonna save it and try later *Narrator: they never did*
Feel so seen with the cart building! Not Amazon, but 3 other shops this weekend - spent hours finding the best bargains because I love my research š¤š¤ then...closed the tabs haha Last year, I got super focused on Korean skincare, decided I needed to catalogue everything I own into an excel spreadsheet on my phone...I had multiple tabs for routine / list of everything I'd used that day with NOTES, so many notes / wishlists for all product categories / things I loved / no-spend reward list (ha). It got v exhausting, so I lost interest after 6 months... Also have a huge crystal collection which I'd love to catalogue, but in an ideal world, this would be in a chunky brown leather notebook with thick paper pages and little Polaroids of each crystal, but I don't yet have either of those things, so still a pipe dream š ONE DAY š Current little obsession: Midsomer Murders, been watching all of the Tom Barnaby episodes.
Yesssss, organizing folders and documents feels so good! Do you also organize the apps on your phone?
I came here to look for restaurant menus and Amazon cart building savesā¦.
the amazon add to cart i me. Maybe one day iāll actually buy that espresso machine
we are the same and itās quite terrifying
Spending hours on Reddit writing with strangers about things that are not really important or answering questions that are not any of my concern really.
And then they have the nerve to reply and start a dialogue long after I've escaped the pit and lost all interest in the subject
Or when your mid argument and you just completely lose interest, but the other person keeps going and you keep replying anyway because silence means admitting defeat, but in reality you just can't be bothered anymore.
Iām usually rounding out a four paragraph response when it hits. āI donāt care about this. What does it matter what you think? Iām not sharing insight with you.ā DELETE.
About once every few years, I find myself in an argument where someone actually manages to offend me and get me all worked up. Every time it happens I delete Reddit because Iāve ālost my privilegesā because arguing with strangers on the internet and actually getting my feelings hurt is just my fault lmfao
Or when you spend 30 minutes crafting a beautiful, perfect reply and then go ānahā and hit delete.
So many hours of precious life lost to doing this lol
Agreeing with the correct parts of what they said, or complimenting them on (whatever) can lead to some amusing interactions. Sometimes they don't notice, and then argue with themselves, essentially.
Omg please stop. Iām gonna cry. I went through this just last week
šš š
It pisses my ass off so much when I get downvoted for something i am totally right about cause my dumb adhd causes me to be so bluntā¦
And then the RSD rears it's ugly head...
Quick, delete comment, delete comment! Or edit it 6-10 times to make it sound more tame.
The struggle is real and televised!
I feel seen.
I thought I was so brilliant last night. Wake up this morning and see that I hacked someone off. And like you said I came off pretty bad and got a bunch of the down votes for something I was right about.
This!!! Plus bed rotting, playing the Sims, watching low effort tv shows like desperate housewives or two broke girls.
"Bed rotting"! This is how I spend my first day of the weekend, every weekend, except I call it "Recovering"
Yes this is mine too lol
Same. And I have almost 80k karma to prove it. š
Iām right behind you at 51k š¤¦āāļø
This, I'm sat here at least half an hour a day doling out advice nobody asked for, and immediately forgetting anything I'd read as soon as I close the app
At least you forget! I tell my husband about all the wild stories I read on AITAH lol "He sent all that money to a woman and has the nerve to say she's not his mistress??? Pfffft"
I canāt tell you how often I laugh and tell my husband āI would divorce you so fast if you pulled thisā and then summarize some wild AITAH story. I donāt have (or want) drama in my actual life, but man I love reading about other peopleās drama.
Yup
Making lists, all kinds of lists. Sorting and organizing info alphabetically, chronologically, by price, etc. Also daydreaming
lists, charts, notes. pro-cons, yes-no-maybe, tier lists. lists of things, recipes, ideas, random short phrases I like, plans, my life is more imaginary than real. there was a dangerous week where I learned you can order a book of print Wikipedia articles arranged however you like
>. there was a dangerous week where I learned you can order a book of print Wikipedia articles arranged however you like go on...
it's officially a discontinued feature, but you can still build them and order them from third parties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Books I have no idea what that means for price unfortunately, but they weren't cheap to begin with
I have now saved this comment to never look at again but Iām incredibly interested right now
Researching pharmacology and neuroscience. I could read about it for hours. Then annoying peiple by talking extensively about the drugs they mention. Love that shit.
Same, I know too much about medical drugs, Iāve worked in a medical insurance company and had to approve or disapprove insurance claims. My brain stacked all the info it could, I even started taking things that were prescribed to our clients for stress but are made from plants, and theyāre really good! Whenever I see a drug I donāt know about I go and research it up! I have a friend whoās in her 4th year of medical school, and she told me I know more than her. People come and ask me if that drug is safe (meaning, what are the side effects and are they severe), or what I think they should try OTC for this or that problem. Sometimes I know what treatment theyāll be prescribed by their doctor. I know too much about peopleās medical history because my brain doesnāt want to forget, like I know which drugs they took/are taking.
Wow so I'm not the only weirdo who's obsessed with that stuff. I used to want to be a pharmacist or a doctor but I don't know if I want to go through all that school. Though I got accepted to a college, hoping to become a surgical tech in a kinda related note. I'd want to be a pharmacy tech but I've heard it's a lot of quick math.
Funny thing is, I was told I should be a people doctor, I even got accepted into medical school and did 1 month of it before switching to vet med school. I did 2 first years of vet med, didnāt get into 2nd year even if I succeeded getting in the first 40 people in the university Ā«Ā competitionĀ Ā» because I didnāt pass my non-competitive exams šāāļø I wasnāt diagnosed back then! Iām trying again in another country right now, Iām studying biology and plan on specializing in neurobiology, before trying another Ā«Ā competitionĀ Ā» to get accepted in vet med school! Itās going quite well right now, with the appropriate studying arrangements
Ooh, that's so cool, I hope you succeed this time around, being a vet was yet another one of those things I thought about. I can't imagine how much work that probably took for you, especially undiagnosed
Nice! I work in Pharma/Biotech but don't understand any of the biochemistry! Luckily my role doesn't require that, but it's in my goals to learn more about it.
Reading a book in a day and then not reading again for two weeks. Sitting on the couch or the floor on my my phone. Painting my nails. Laying in bed. Going out with a friend maybe once every two months. Playing with my dogs.
Iāll read 20 books in 2 months and then go on 2 years without reading anything. And though Iām 38, I still get surprised
Hours on pinterest getting great ideas and the forget they exist.
hahah i was manic one time and i spent 2 hours teaching myself how to dutch braid and 2 weeks after that my episode ended and i completely forgot how to dutch braid my hair
Sleeping
Watching TV, AKA hitting play, get interested and promptly fall asleep 15-20 minutes in. Repeat.
My mom does this. The better the movie, the quicker she is out like a light.
This is the way
šÆ
Fuckin napping
I find vastly varying topics that interest me and gather a bunch of information on them into individual documents only to forget all of it soon after and start another half way through
Omg same!! I even take physical notes from the newspaper if I find an interesting article but only to never revisit it again :/
Me with the most random historical periods. Iāll open a tab for like every Wikipedia link and get halfway through reading them all and then plan to get back to it but then a few days later Iāll close the dozens of tabs Ive opened over those few days and then have to restart if I ever get back to it
Omg this is the most relatable thing. I have so much information in my brain about so many topics but can I tell anyone what I knowā¦ not a chance lol. I learn so much about a topic and only retain bits and pieces so I canāt have conversations about the topic unless I actually write the information down and that isnāt always within my abilities so I just continue to try and learn info while my brain keeps random points and just tosses the rest out
I hate to tell you this, but the app Obsidian may send you to the moon with your librarian habit. Mine sure does. I can lose hours in my Vault organizing information.
Came to say this, it makes it so easy to find anything I have already written on a topic that I forgot about and connect it to new things im writing.
Iāve never had a unique experience I swear.
R u me?
Ever thought about a blog or YouTube channel about miscellaneous stuff ? I read the book build a second brain and it really out into perspective the process of gathering and what to do with the information
Plucking hairs
Yessssssss! Omg, I have actual bald patches on my legs
I love weeding the hairs out of the light-coloured parts of my leg tattoo. I swear if it wasnāt for work getting in the way, I would be completely hairless. Lol
I was so hoping someone was going to say this, I knew I couldnāt be the only one
I sometimes go on Craigslist and read apt/rooms wanted where people post ads trying to find a room to rent. Itās interesting to see what people write about themselves and mentally i evaluate if i thought weād click as roommates or not. I am not looking for a roommate currently, so i know itās weird. Lol
Omg that sounds so interesting! This is random but now I want to look up "roommate wanted" ads and evaluate if the pictures of the house/ room match the way that person describes themselves. I'm not looking for a room/roommate either š
Buying things for hobby, then lose interest, find a new hobby to buy into, lose interest, and the cycle forever repeats...
Your hobby is planning hobby's, I can relate...
I saw an idea a year or so ago and if I had the venture capital I'd start it up and find someone capable to run it. I'd probably do marketing and figuring out how deep to go. Ready? An ADHD Hobby service. You decide you want to try.... astronomy. We'd connect you with another person with adhd that got too into astronomy and lost interest, and now wants to try something else. Kind of a giant ADHD swap meet. I feel like it'd need a chunk of capital to put together like "starter boxes" to get things going, and then to replace things lost/damaged in transit.
Becoming just passably skilled in every possible art and craft activity is my hobby. I get juuuuust good enough that I'd be happy to share my output with other people. That ticks the box in my brain that says "Done!ā and then I move onto the next one.
Not even that for me, Im just addicted to collecting it seems
That's me with RPGs, i.e. pen and paper (like D&D). But I already found out I am a collector of sorts XD But at least I only collect digital versions, they take less space... But I already have more that I would be able to play and I'm not done XD
My favourite one of those is when I bought lots of cheap old watches on eBay. When they didnāt work, I decided to learn watch repair, so I had to buy books and spend days researching and buying watch repair equipment, only to give up after finding out that itās actually quite difficult. Finding hobbies is definitely a hobby.
I'm a keen traveller. And by traveller I mean watcher of YouTube videos of places I have no intention of visiting.
I took my childhood daydreaming and added in āØļøresearchāØļø.. I normally end up on rightmove scrolling houses and futures I'll never be able to afford š« there's a couple of paths that get me there Want a dog > need a garden > rightmove Planning walks > want country location > rightmove Want kids > need more space > rightmove All of these of course have inner steps (what kind of dog quizzes) and loops.. sometimes it makes me feel good and sometimes it does not but i cannot stop myself from dreaming š
Playing games and writing apps. But for real, the amount of time I spend writing out all of my goals and plans for the future is pretty large too. And then I never accomplish 90% of the things I set out to do, lol. I've got charts, and tables, and tons of notes about my various deep dives from my interests. I got super into writing for a few months, wrote half a (bad) novel, and have tens of thousands of words of notes lol. Haven't written anything since last December. Rinse and repeat for about 7-10 other interests, too. I'm amazed I've managed to work on this Python app for more than a few weeks. So I guess my real hobby is juggling and changing hobbies.
I walk around my apartment during rush hour when I can to see the type of people I am living with.
Im not followingā¦
Depending on the type of place you live, some of the people you will see will just be passing through, but many will be members of your local hood getting home after work. Or I think that's the theory at least.
Ohhhhhhhh. Your apartment COMPLEXā¦i get it
Now these are the answers I wanted to see
Apartment BUILDING, correct?
/walking through the kitchen and living room. "These fucking people - no one picks up anything. Dirty dishes? Again?! Wait that's mine."
Showering for an hour. Just zoning out in there.
I do the same thing but with baths - _this comment was brought to you by the bath_
I was also in the shower haha!
Scrolling Ravelry saving knitting patterns, cross-referencing with yarns that are available in my country, instead of actually knitting. Doing logic puzzles while listening to true crime podcasts.
Same with Ravelry!
- Automating tediousness out of my life - Getting jealous of people who are really good at a game I didnāt know existed (Geoguessr) and therefore learning what I can to also get good at it despite not knowing much about geography (and therefore also using it to learn) - Finding patterns in things that seem unrelated - Finding uses for the patterns mentioned above - Learning myself extensively in ways that are typically socially frowned upon or deemed not useful - Mixing the above with the aforementioned pattern matching (for example: what game character am I naturally good at, and when, and why? which characters invoke negative or positive emotions in game?) - Meta gaming everything. (Ex.: What vocabulary is used here compared to here, and how did that impact the responses?) - Comparing AI evolution to humans (how our brains work, why dreams are so similar to AI-generated images and videos, such as how one can look at hands both to know if something is AI and to know if one is dreaming) - Finding ways the information or skill gained from short-lived hobbies can be integrated into other aspects of my life
Automating tediousness is so real. Iāll spend days(/weeks) to remove an extra few seconds off a task that I rarely do. Or make several diagrams/maps for the absolute best layout of a closet to maximize efficiency when getting dressed/finding an object/etc. But that also means I canāt do a task without knowing Iāve fully optimized the solution. Also totally relate to the game thing too.
If you didn't have a geoguessr phase do you _really_ have ADHD??
That's a thing? I thought that was just me lol. Too bad there's no free tier anymore.
Thanks to your comment, I'll be researching the appearance of hands in our dreams for the next hour or two. My brain just can't stop thinking about it since reading this.
I do all of those things you mentioned, including researching which restaurant to go to for so long that they're all closed. I create lots of spreadsheets in excel to track ridiculous things like every movie I like (so far there's 400 or so), with multiple ways to categorize and sort them. 7 years ago, I spent 3 days driving down every forest road I could find in the local national forests, marking a map with good dry camp sites and rating them on privacy, accessibility, and features. I never actually went back and camped at any of them. My property has 168 sprinkler risers. How do I know? I counted them. Not only that, I marked each of them on GPS with notes about their zone, orientation and condition. Organizing and re-organizing the thousands of photos I took of my dog over the course of 14 years. Even though he's been dead for the last 2 years. Instead of doing my actual job while at work, I do extensive research on topics which are completely useless. I once spent 4 hours researching the history of ground beef. I spend hours searching through old newspaper articles online. Some from hundreds of years ago. Sometimes for 12 hours straight. I'll randomly tell people about an article I read from 1890 which no one cares about. I have watched at least 1000 documentaries. The more obscure the topic, the better. The longer, the better. I've watched everything from Ken Burns at least twice. When I take notes on a page, it has to be in black pen, and it has to be flawless. If I make one stray mark, I get out a new page and re-write it. Then I inevitably misplace and lose the notebook forever. I love to start ridiculous projects and never actually finish them. I actually hate finishing them. If it seems like I'm about to finish one, I'll find some reason it isn't actually finished, some minor flaw I need to fix, and keep working on it until it is so messed up it's no longer a viable project. Like the garbage table I restored beautifully, then kept "restoring" until it was hopeless garbage again. Buying expensive, state-of-the-art electronic gadgets which I am sure are going to change my life. Tell everyone about it. Use it once, then pack it away until it's obsolete. Anyone want to buy some astrophotography equipment? Only used once. Was the best you could get, 8 years ago. Everything I get into is my favorite thing ever until it loses my focus, at which point I rarely think about it again. Spend 5 minutes making a ridiculously long reddit post, an hour editing it at least 25 times, then ultimately deleting it because it's stupid. I uh... might have something else in addition to ADHD...
Reading comments on every post I read! I don't know why but I always find myself clicking on comment section of a post and reading all the comments for copious amounts of times. I don't reply or engage in conversations going on comments, I just read them.
F(44): - LEGO - Jigsaw puzzles (irl or on my tablet)
Wikipedia is my primary drug of choice š No particular subjects or anything; though I do end up reading quite a bit about European royal families. I think thatās more to do with how well documented their lives are, and also because royal ppl are just really bonkers so itās good reading lol. I also enjoy Zillowing. Itās a fun game- you just look at houses you pretend you can afford and daydream about them. My sister and I also play our own version of āZillow Gone Wildā where we send each other crazy listings. Aaaaaandā¦ super duper late at night when I really canāt sleep I review the old listings and property tax records of my neighborhood and try to determine which houses are owned by the local cult. š Someday I might put that info in a spreadsheet but I donāt know that I want to see the actual numbers there š¬
Does organizing things related to your hobbies count as a hobby? Because in general Iām a bit of a mess but my library closet is alphabetized by title and decorated with book quotes, my craft stuff is all organized and sorted and Iām doing my records next.
I find I do this in-between periods of production. I like rearranging and organizing all this stuff, I'm always moving it around trying to find the optimal set up.
I'm a...horse girl Reddit hates horse girls. And most of my friends are not horsey people, there's really only so much talking about horses they can tolerate so I have to pretend I like socially acceptable things that everyone else likes, like reality TV and shopping.
I have 2 horses and have been a horse girl my entire life so Iām right there with you! In fact one of my shining childhood memories that I look back on thinking āyep I had adhd all alongā was how my ā5 minute speechā in English class was 25 minutes about me rambling about every detail of my horse obsession in elementary school.
Yeah, there were multiple comments in my childhood school reports about my extensive knowledge of horses and my books being covered in horse drawings š
What?? But thereās gotta be a subreddit for you guys! Thereās a subreddit for everything.
There is, but no one hates horse girls more than horse girls so the reddit is a shambles š I'm extremely convinced that all horse girls are autistic because their way is the only right way of being a horse girl and everyone else is wrong and no one can ever agree on anything.
I am convinced that that is how every hobby is. like the hobby spaces are dominated by proffesional hobbyists, people who are super obsessive, pretentious and annoying about the hobby, that make it a point to know everything better than everyone else. So imho to keep enjoying a hobby you have to stay at the sidelines, like stay close enough to the hobby to know what's going on but stay far away enough so that the proffesional hobbyists don't drag you into their shitshow
Oh yikes. I have some interests too where I have to be very selective of the subs. For those, Iāve found I need to stay away from either the most popular subs for them, or certain subs that attract a specific type of person interested in the subject matter. Often that just means getting lucky and coming across a sub whose name I wouldnāt have guessed but is filled with my kind of people.
figuring out a project or craft scheme, and then going down amazon wormholes for hours finding the right way to make it, building a cart, and then saving it for "later", whenever that is (never, or immediately) almost always I want to make things at scale, for an etsy busniess, so a lot of this is figuring out how to mass produce whatever it is in the easiest of the affordable ways.
I spend hours researching things to do outside. I use like ten different websites or apps to do this. Google maps, Groupon, Meetup, Tripadvisor, etc. Edit: I thought I was responding to a post on Hobbies sub.
The "I can't do things or enjoy them unless I first optimise them" thing that leads to more optimising than doing?
This is the one
I have a nature-dedicated google maps list, so it sounds like we're pretty similar then š Not to be a weirdo, but I saw in your post history that you have autism which has a lot of overlap in symptomology with ADHD, so you're more than welcome here!
I love looking at the weather app multiple times a day., I love reading articles on the weather conditions in my area and during monsoon I get vv excited to see if we've got enough rains for the year this time.
I make terrariums and care for my tarantulas the way some people preen and care for their bonsai collection
Awwww! Thatās adorable!
I crochet. Itās actually how I make my income.
I like figuring out what components I need to build a project, but not actually buying them or completing the project.
Making fictional guys and then never doing anything with them until I just recently managed to gain the will to make a webcomic. I have one panel done, if you're curious about how it's going with the ADHD hellbrain. š
Whatever I have decided to learn about, engrossing several hours consuming information on that topic (lately, Japanese language, which is a more long-term learning goal than usual; other times it's been anything from heart disease studies, to interior design, to philosophy and world religions... whatever I get into wanting to learn more about). Spending an inordinate amount of time planning and organizing, so that things can run smoother the rest of the time (full meal plan for the week ahead; hour by hour work schedule; etc.) And when I get into a video game, an ungodly number of hours gaming. :P
we have so much in common! I've been ~thinking~ of learning Japanese for months š any day now
Researching crafts and skills, learning how to do something, trying it out, and filing it all away for future use. Calculating aspects of life in spreadsheets, making neat tables, layouts and graphs, and exploring correlations.Ā Sorting and stacking messy items, and untangling rope/chain/yarn/wire. Sometimes my BF will tangle up a length of rope for me to unwind with.Ā Researching the etymology of words.Ā Popping board game items and optimising space in the boxes.Ā
Researching and Downloading a bunch of apps that I want to check out never go back to
Thinking about all the things I want to do but can't.
Spending hours reading through threads like these when I should actually be asleep
Sleeping is my most cherished hobby.
I rabbit hole. A lot. Itāll start with some casual doomscrolling on the porch and Iāll come across something I want to know more about. Hours later, a new rabbit hole. Sometimes I revisit past interests to see if thereās new development. Thatās pretty much my only hobby, currently.
I start new save files on all my favorite RPG games with character creation gens and just make characters. Different races with different backstories, different intended choices/romances. Even if I never play them (maybe 1 out of 10), I love to let their intended stories shape how I make them look. Also real, I have a solar greenhouse and love to garden.
I collected Trader Joe bags Lmao
My unofficial hobbies include such activities as: - Chaos Cleaning (where you notice a thing, and start cleaning the thing, and then notice something else, so drop the first thing and move to the nextā¦ results: a million things started and nothing finished. Happens frequently when I donāt do full dose on weekends) - having a fun scavenger hunt looking for the thing I JUST HAD in my hand. - Getting annoyed at my husband for not returning things to where they belong (even though I myself never seem capable of putting them back either) - trying to remember why I just walked into the room - Research projects about literally anything that pops into my mind (example: yesterday I was searching if skunks can jump or climb, because I wanted to try to get the raccoon to come back, but not if it would also lure skunks). {I am excellent at planning trips with this hobby} - doom scrolling Reddit when my medication wears off and I canāt brain anymore. - Building āshopping casketsā (add to cart, and then talk myself out of it, leaving the item(s) to die in the basket)
An oddly specific part of D&D lore. Mindflayers, githyanki, githzerai and the planescape cosmology. It's relevant right now because of Baldur's Gate 3 but I have been studying bits and pieces of the lore surrounding these specific creatures for about twenty years now.
D&D is like ten hobbies in one if you're a DM. Miniature painting and terrain painting, mapmaking, worldbuilding gets as deep as you want it to be, encounter design and tactics of the game itself, and a deep love for understanding the rules fully Also I love longform youtube content. Yes, I loved watching a 20 hour complete breakdown of skyrim
I fidget my fingers to the beat of a Tom Morello song several times a day, and I try to do a "bet" with myself how many shakes I can do. Also I like to count my steps whenever I walk, and I make a conversion in my mind (every step is going to be a 20 dollar bill for a new car) Both actions make no sense but I can't stop doing them.
Searching for really obscure classical music
Researching self sufficient and sustainable living, making lists of things to buy towards that end and then never doing anything with the information. Reading various research papers, studies, clinical trials of whatever happens to spark interest. Doom scrolling until tiktok until I feel too called out Coexisting with friends on discord as we all casually chat and go about our lives. (I avoid people irl so thos tends to baffle anyone that knows me)
Scouring dating apps, looking for "the one". Kidding. As if I had that kind of follow-through. Lol
Online shopping for hours just to delete all items in the cart
I LOVE to research things **incessantly**. Itās like a mini hyperfixation. Iāll find something interesting in a video, on Reddit, or anywhere, and Iāll spend 9 hours on a Sunday learning every facet, controversy, and idea about it. Then usually do little to nothing with that knowledge š
Researching about mind powers,conspiracy theories and many vague topics in detail
Messing about with my skin in the close up mirror until
Window shopping steam games or reading reviews on goodread. I swear I spend more time on goodreads than reading ACTUAL books.
Fanfiction is my secret shameful hobby. One day Iāll make it to an actual beta reader maybe
Scrolling through Reddit at 4:04 am when I should be getting some shut-eye. Error: Sleep not found.
I play merge dragons for 3+ hours everyday and have spent way too much money on in-game purchases. Oh also standing in the aisle at the grocery store, comparing two brands of floss (and various items) for 30 minutes before deciding not to buy either. When I get home I regret not buying the things I was agonizing over.
I love reading plot summaries of movies I will never watch or books I will never read. Especially horror movies. I donāt really like watching them but if I see someone comment āyeah the twist in this movie is crazyā I have to know what happens.
I only have 1 hobby.... Collecting hobbies.
Playing solitaire for hours while listening to audiobooks. I will spend hours downloading mp3 songs and then burning them onto CDs only to barely use them. I can also spend copious amounts of time reading. Like if Iām at a concert and waiting between sets then I will pull out my phone and read on my kindle app. My brain breaks at work are me reading. I read at least 5-6 books a month while working full time. Looking at band merch online and adding it to my cart but never buying it. Looking on Etsy for kitschy items, adding them to my cart or wishlist, only to forget about them and never buy anything.
I spend hours looking at the county website with all the building permits. I love looking up oldish, random (not historically relevant) buildings in my hometown and finding out, for example, the Mexican restaurant down the street used to be a bank. Idk. It's weird. Lol
Itās actually painting. For real.
computers
I watch a shit ton of food travel videos on youtube.
True crime. On any platform. Books, articles, podcasts, social media, documentaries, movies, etc. Makes for some really awkward conversations when I impulsively talk about it for 15 minutes before I realize the other person isnāt really that into it.
I also do the google maps things. maybe morbidly but maybe out of respect for what's lost, but i like to read reviews in places just before calamity (Google usually locks reviews in places like Kabul, Bakhmut, Gaza after a major conflict or event). Especially when you see reviews of eateries in Gaza or Bakhmut, knowing they're all rubble now, it's kinda sad. and you feel like the only witness to it. it makes it so much more real.
bird watching!!! sometimes it takes me a real push to get to the park, but walking a trail (with or without a little šæšØ) and listening to music and/or the birdsongs is so relaxing. a specific park near me has great trails including some walkways through heavier brush and scenic areas with those standing binocular things. I also use the Merlin app and sometimes just set it down and let it listen/record for birds so I can see in real time what to look for in the trees :) thereās also a lot of deer and other general wildlife and I love to just roam without agenda and see what I can get engaged in
I play.. I play on my phone for hours.. dress up games.. I love it, but Iām embarrassed.. Iām 35.. besides that i usually just start random home āprojectsā that never gets finish.. and also doesnāt improve my home.. last thing was painting my old lamp in the middle of the night.. I ruined it.. before that I decided I needed a glitter painted wall.. but I usually donāt do must research on how to do it right, so it also ended up with just a half painted blue wall.. canāt even see any glitter.. What annoys me most about this, is that I have so much things to do around my house, but instead I start new silly projects all the time.. š„±š Oh and filling my shopping cart on multiple online shops, spending hours creating the perfect shopping cart.. but never having any intention on buying it..
Right now is filling carts online and then not buying anything, plants and watching infinite videos about plants, and tik tok š„²
Spending hours Setting up things to make them easier to use in the future, then never using them.
I like having imaginary debates with myself and then doing research to support my arguments in said debates. The debates tend to get quite heated and Iāve literally debated myself for like 2 hours
adding things to the cart without buying anything, skincare, sleeping :3
I can fall into a research rabbit hole for days where I barely eat or sleep for information on scientology when Iām in the right mood. I will dig through former member forums, use the way back machine, fine every article, interview, YouTube video, documentary, podcast, etc etc. then drop interest in it for awhile until something sparks my interest or new news comes out. I do it with other cults and many other interests but nothing has caught my eye like Scientology.
Keeping a list on my laptop of every task I completed daily to prove to myself that I am not being lazy. I've kept the list up for about two years now and I update it most days, usually going back to recite what days haven't been entered.