People have been sharing the obscure hobbies they’d recommend to others – 17 offbeat pastimes to improve your life

Hobbies are the perfect way to unwind from the stresses of day-to-day life. But which ones should you embark on instead of doomscrolling for hours?

Reddit user Londonvibe39 wanted to find out, but they wanted to avoid all of the obvious suggestions. Luckily the good people of r/AskReddit came to their rescue by answering their question:

‘What is an obscure hobby you have that you would recommend others try?’

Find your next hyperfixation with these top answers…

1.

‘Using iNaturalist to catalog the local flora/fauna.’
-rasquatche

2.

‘Flying giant kites. I lost 30 lbs over the course of a year doing this on windy days. I bought an 8 ft octopus on a whim from Amazon and the moment I flew it I was hooked. Now I’ve got a 20 ft dragon, a 10 foot gecko, an 18 ft squid that lights up and about 15 other various kites. If you want to meet people then fly a huge kite. Nothing stops people in their tracks like seeing a 32 ft alien flying over a park.’
-aGentleSociopath

3.

‘Tabletop wargaming. If you can afford it, it’s got a bit of everything, and the model building and painting process gives you quite a bit of satisfaction as you see your skill progress.

‘Then you get to see your enemies driven before you and hear the lamentation of the nerds when you roflstomp them in competitive play.’
-CheshirePhoenix

4.

‘Maybe I’m thinking obsolete, but snail mail. Writing to a new friend, your current friends, just spending some time offline and being creative, intentional, and not too quick!’
-Leekoba

5.

‘Hand making greeting cards.

‘I mail out ~1,000 worldwide each year.

‘They bring smiles to people’s faces. Random acts of cards subreddit if you ever want happy mail.’
-Tinawebmom

6.

‘I disassemble tech that dies on me. It’s not working anyways, so I can’t break it. Worst case is I get a sense for how a product is built, best case is finding a way to fix it.

‘My husband takes that up a notch and imports f.e. broken GBAs from Japan and frankensteins them into working ones, sometimes modding them with new Screens etc.

‘It’s a great way to pick up some handy skills, let’s you work with your hands and requires you to troubleshoot. Plus you see the quality and repairability of different brands, that’s always good to know.’
-OwlsDontCareForYou

7.

‘visible mending. it turns repairing a worn shirt into a tiny design project, and the result usually has more character than it did when it was new.’
-Level-Historian6435

8.

‘Bookbinding, but the cheap version. You can sew a decent notebook with waxed thread, a needle, and printer paper folded into signatures. Total cost was like 12 bucks and now i give people ugly little handmade journals for their birthdays whether they want one or not.’
-oc31777

9.

‘Building Gundam model kits.

‘Great mindfulness exercise, plus you get a cool robot figure at the end.’
-Hurricanewriter