geekhack
geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: jaffers on Sun, 29 May 2016, 08:07:52
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I have encountered the dilemma in which I do not know what to do with my spare time to make it feel productive. Video games
and masturbation do not cut it anymore.
The idea is to find activities that make your weekend/free time feel like you have accomplished something, and didn't just burn it all.
I have found that things like photography and keyboard building definitely make me feel like I am doing **** with my life and not just staring at my textbooks wanting to hang myself. Although there is a point where you take photos of stuff that it becomes ridiculous and I can only build so many keyboards until either the solder runs out or my wallet.
I've also taken on other projects such as case modding, which is a good one, because there are many smaller projects within that. i.e. sleeving cables, modding the case itself, running tubing etc...
But that's where I have hit a plateau. I don't know what to do next except surf the net and be a loser.
I'd love to hear what some interesting people do on the weekend and how they burn their time productively
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Xercise + watch Sci-fi Tv-show = Tp4 Perfect Weekend (http://emoticoner.com/files/emoticons/onion-head/admire-onion-head-emoticon.gif?1292862486)
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Go exercise, youŽll improve lots in the first few months and then ItŽll be more challenging. Also take courses at khan academy is quite fun, codecademy is also good but you maybe know coding.
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What I know is I need management. Otherwise it's going to always be tomorrow and tomorrow (until there's no tomorrow). First I need something closer to normal business and non-business hours, which is extremely difficult for a freelancer, even when most clients are from one's own time zone. This will be doable only to a limited extent. Next, I need better management to make sure work is done before Sundays and important holidays and there's no need to work on such a day, ever.
As far as specific activities go plans include walking and gym. The walking is to stretch out legs, get some fresh air, and get some basic minimum of fat burning and muscle use in case nothing better works out. The gym is for a number of reasons, including the fact that my asthmatic lungs and a backbone with 5 different diseases on it just simply don't allow any real nitty gritty fighting, especially protracted wrestling or getting thrown on things, so I need some quick Physical Dispute Resolution potential. This and deterrence. I'm already 6'5'' tall, so with some muscles on deterrence should be okay. On the other hand, people can simply get more aggressive when they see someone as big as this, and the way things are now I probably wouldn't stand much chance against a seasoned six-foot rogue who doesn't slave away in an office chair 16/6. Either way, I need more muscle. And less belly.
Plus, I need time for higher-quality reading than online news and articles about stuff. This means some magazines about history, psychology and law, perhaps some econ/biz.
And actually more gaming, rather than less. Facebook is the enemy, not gaming.
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I ride my bike since nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike (that's a John F. Kennedy's quote).
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Wrote lots, insulted many, thought better of it. Existential depression is a ***** and exercise did nothing for me (3x 1hour flat out a week for over two years in addition to daily walking - long enough it should have) so I'll just wish you good luck!
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Yardwork.
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The first thing to do might be to think a little on your relationship with gaming and what it means to you. Jane McGonigal's Reality is Broken is a very good read, and it's nearly more like an applied cognitive behavioral therapy book because you start to look deeply at what feedback loops are positive in games and which ones are you participating in, but not really enjoying. The book has made my time gaming more fun, and it always feels good to be able to articulate why I love playing games.
But it's good to have other hobbies too! I ran into a bit of the same issue in undergraduate school. My degree program was music, and my social time having fun playing in different bands many nights a week was suddenly many hours of lonely practice and a whole lot of work. Stuff I've gotten into:
-cycling (competitive, also hard work, can get expensive)
-cooking (only if there are others to share it with, can get expensive)
-climbing (need a partner, definitely will get expensive)
-diy audio (limited time, like keyboards only so many projects possible, outrageously expensive)
-photography (gets to be hard work when printing works, unbelievably expensive)
Maybe that actually wasn't helpful... Hrm.
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I've always found doing something with my hands to be very rewarding. Whether that means building a keyboard, or doing woodworking, or just doing cable management, it's nice to have something to look at when you're done and know that it's only the way it is because you made it that way.
It sounds like you also like working on little projects like that, so I'd suggest trying to find a woodworking or metalworking class that's not too far away from you.
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Working on my car I find helps me. It's the only thing I really do anymore other than buying **** and playing video games.
Although now I have a house I should really do things in the house too. I need to paint one room and I should really do it but Fallout 4 keeps sucking me back in...