Do you have a hobby? Something you do in your free time that is fun, interesting and even challenging?

A hobby can enrich our lives, improve our confidence and self-esteem, expand our knowledge, reduce boredom, provide stress relief, strengthen our patience levels and help us connect with others.

The list of hobbies is endless.

There’s running, hiking, making music, singing in a choir, reading, dancing, cooking, baking, knitting, sewing, painting, drawing, crafting, fishing, bird watching, gardening*, collecting (stamps, coins, records, comic books and so on) and a lot more.

If you’re looking for a new hobby, take a look at this extensive list of 99 Hobbies You Might Consider Picking Up.

So do you have a hobby or are you thinking of starting something new?

PS Gardening is seen as a hobby in Britain—unlike in Germany where we talk about “Gartenarbeit”!

Of course you know what coffee is.

It’s the tropical shrub which yields coffee seeds, and it’s the hot drink made from the roasted and ground seeds (the coffee beans).

But did you know it can also be “the person upon whom one coughs”?

Well, that was one of the winning submissions to The Washington Post’s annual contest.

You can see the winning submissions here.

Did you know that it’s actually possible for you to say “I don’t know enough about this to have an opinion”.

Richard Feynman

I like the idea of adopting a “Sorry, I don’t know” attitude. Rather than pretending I know it all.

We can’t know everything, can we?

But we can know where to access the information! 😉

I wonder if we have anything in common?

I love:

• cycling on my ebike. 
• Nordic Walking. (I try to go out every day.)
• getting together with my large family.
• drawing, and printing without a printing press.
• eating very dark chocolate. The darker, the better.
• reading interior design and garden design magazines.
• using all my kitchen gadgets. (My blender is my favourite!)
• working on my Apple devices.
• interacting with others on social media.

Of course, there’s a lot more I could add.

But it’s a start.

What about you? What do you love doing?

Do we have anything in common?

Here are 100 tools that can help us lead an easy life.

Well, that’s what Do Lectures promise us.

I’ve just discovered a timer app for my Mac, iPhone and iPad—and oTranscribe that promises to take the pain out of transcribing recorded interviews.

Have you found any tools that can make your life a little bit easier?

The Pomodoro technique is my favourite strategy to stay focussed. 

But I must confess that I have to remind myself from time to time to go back to using it! 😔

Nobody’s perfect. Right?

So how does it work?

1. Decide on a task.
2. Set the timer to 25 minutes.
3. Work until the timer rings.
4. Take a 5-minute break.
5. Repeat steps 1—4 four times.
6. Take a longer break.

A simple yet effective strategy, don’t you think?

Have you ever used this technique yourself?

Or can you recommend a different one?