I like to putter. Find little projects to do like organizing the junk drawer, rearrange the furniture, reorganize the pantry or kitchen. Little stuff like that.
Cooking. Plan a meal and take a day to make it. Like last night I took a chicken out of the freezer. In the morning I cooked the stuffing and choppped the veggies. In the afternoon I stuffed it. Then I put it in the oven a couple hours later and I’m about to eat it soon
I would saying trying new recipes to cook or bake. Everyone always appreciated something new and tasty to eat. Sitting and listening to music exclusively and actively hearing it rather than is being a source of background noise.
Generally I try to have a creative, hands-on project on the go. Lately that's been rebuilding a guitar, but it could be designing something on the computer.
Otherwise; playing guitar, gardening, practice putting (disc golf). So I guess hobbies.
Yeah I like making costumes. It’s creative, hands-on, it gets me away from a screen (3D modeling aside), and it still intersects with my nerdy interests like video games or sci-fi and fantasy worlds.
And as a bonus, I get to wear it to nerdy costume parties when it’s done!
Good suggestions here. If nothing seems to interest you, you might be experiencing anhedonia, inability to experience pleasure. Often goes with depression.
Read. I honestly don't think life would be as enjoyable if books didn't exist. And thanks to libraries, you can read them for free.
Unlike movies/TV/games, they're entirely portable without loss of quality, so you can take a book with you on a walk, to the pub, to the coffee shop etc.
Write code, web series (such as Critical Role. Technically doesn't qualify as tv/movies, right?), 3d print stuff, design models (mostly utilitarian stuff) to 3d print, vidja games, Dungeons and Dragons (remotely), cook, meditate (but not as much as I should), Lemmy, Hacker News.
I like to make things more efficient by crafting stuff. So I had to organize all my tools and fasteners that I just keep in one super cluttered cabinet and every time I want to do a project I have to search for a couple minutes for anything I'm looking for.
So I cut up an old pair of jeans and learned how to make drawstring pouches and just made half a dozen pouches to organize every thing. More organized and now I can make useful pouches whenever I want.
I just look for stuff like that to do when I can't find media that holds my interest.
Sewing, learning to draw, knitting, reading, macrame, playing with my dog, video games, pottery. Maybe go to thrift shops and look for hidden gems that you can fix up?
Knitting is very time consuming if you're terrible at it like me :D
I've also got a workshop so building random things is probably my favorite - coming up with the idea is the hard part.
I also have a reloading setup in my shop so I can load my own ammunition. There are so many variables, loads, powders, etc that it can keep me busy for weeks... Especially once you catch the subsonic bug.
Two hobbies I don’t see combined very often, for no real reason. Curious which you picked up first, always interesting to see how people got to enjoying two disparate things.
I'm guessing the knitting and reloading being the odd ones?
Reloading first. I built a .300 Blackout back when ammo was rare and expensive so I started loading my own (via 5.56 brass conversion) in order to afford to feed it.
Knitting was maybe two years later. The spouse and friends signed up for a knitting class but only told me later. At that point the class was full so I said "fine I'll learn it myself" and here we are. I recently 3d printed a circular knitting machine in an attempt to speed up sock making... still working out the kinks but I have high hopes.
Crafting. I'm making RPG terrain out of discarded cardboard, plastic, hot glue and acrylic paint. Haven't cut myself yet. I'm mildly proud of that, given how clumsy I am.
I cook. I never thought I'd take up cooking as a hobby: it was always kind of a chore. but since i bought a house that has a full kitchen (as opposed to the 8sqft of counter space in my 500 sqft apartment), and i started drinking soylent, i find that when i have TIME to cook its a lot of fun and then i get to feed my wife and friends n stuff so that's pretty cool.
and it's pretty cheap as hobbies go if you go for that full scratch cooking because you are basically always just buying ingredients like flour and eggs and heavy whipping cream and then like one or two items for the specific dish (i do a lot of baking), then relying an the arsenal you've built up over time.
I love stories, journaling RPGs and solo RPGs make writing stories fun and easy.
Itch.io has a ton of them for super cheap. Thousand year old vampire, one of the most popular journaling RPGs, has plenty of free community copies to grab.
DIY, outdoors plant identification, "dumpster diving" for useful old stuff e.g. scavenge parts for DIY, boardgames, making up new recipes, fail, improve them.
Audiobooks. The lady and I hang around listening to audiobooks. Secondary entertainment includes mobile videogames, etc. It works, so long as neither of us starts reading something else and misses a chapter, but then we just have to back up a little.
Work on my forever computer project (lots of reading & research). Podcasts, keeping up with YTube channels, audiobooks. Mourn all the things I don't find time for because of -all the damned media!-
Does everyone really need hand-holding to find their own interests? I'm not going to like the same things that you like.
It's up to you to figure out what you like. There are an infinite number of things to do and combinations of interests.
I guess I have one piece of advice. Stop endlessly scrolling social media. It's ok for brief interludes like browsing on the toilet or waiting in line for something.. but it's empty. Works on similar mechanisms as slot machines.