Hobby ideas with no attention span...

[Mooocows]

Hello all,

I've decided I need a new hobby...I do nothing other than work, do housework, eat and sit scrolling on my phone.

Trouble is I seem to have developed an incredibly short attention span and struggling to find motivation to try anything new.

I used to love horse riding and reading. My horse died recently and I now can't stand anything to do with horses (a grief thing I'm assuming) and haven't been able to finish a book in years.

I'm not good at art, I'm not creative, I hate the gym and running.

Any ideas for things I can do to feel a bit more fulfilled? Struggling :(

litter picking? I know it sounds odd, but it doesn't require a huge attention span, it gets you out of the house and meeting new people and and the end of the session you can see how much rubbish you've collected and what you've achieved?

Walking with headphones in and music on? Just 20 mins a day is a good start.

Any charities you would consider volunteering for? I have cooked in a soup kitchen been committee secretary for a food project and done a little fundraising for women’s aid. I have transcribed documents from olde english in to modern english for an archival project, I arrange flowers for my local church.

My SIL worked as a volunteer at a dog rescue project and one of my friends is involved with an immigration charity. She is giving specialist advice and writing grant applications. I met her through the food project, we managed to get grants together and I managed to get money out of local businesses so we had a common interest.

Are you hoping to improve your attention span? Listening to podcasts etc is a good way of doing this. I only realised how poor mine had become when I was listening to something that required my full attention and had to keep rewinding.

Learning to play a musical instrument is fantastic for focus and doing Pilates or yoga with someone good teaching is excellent as well. You can go a full session without being able to think about anything except the breathing and movement.

I rate audible because it requires you to just listen and not focus on anything other than the story

Baking with ready to bake kits?

Researching your family tree? You can do lots of that on your phone and stay logged in so whenever you want to spend 5 minutes on it you can.

Not a hobby but you may be able to increase your attention span with meditation. The calm app has a free introduction to meditation course.

Yes, you are grieving for your horse. It would be hard initially but if you are near a horse sanctuary, or another animal rescue, I think that volunteering would benefit you as much as the animals would benefit from your experience.

Unless you are into something, you will struggle to concentrate (I speak as someone who has adhd ). So it needs to be something that grabs you, something that you can lose yourself in.

Walking, with audible books.

Cycling, ditto.

Jigsaws. V good for improving attentions span and I find them a bit like meditation.

I'd second family history, it's very addictive, you can also sign into ancestry website via a lot of libraries to access their paid for information.

Audio books and podcasts are also a love of mine.

Join a choir? Singing is fab for your mental health.
Gardening
Dance class

I like the sound of the volunteering/litter picking. You could try gardening. Are you greiving your horse? A little memorial garden/pot might be therapeutic?

Have a look at zooniverse lots of online volunteering projects such as wildlife recording, war diary transcription etc