Hobby- Maxxing? Grandma Hobbies? Life Beyond Scrolling

Why learning skills and making things with our hands still matters.

I love watching the analog movement gain momentum. I love that we’re grabbing our analog bags and remembering there is more to do with a free afternoon than spending it scrolling. The fact that game nights are becoming popular again and we’re returning to puzzles, books, sewing, clubs and crafts—activities that engage our hands and our imagination— this gives me hope for humanity!

Now, of course, the internet has given our growing interest in these creative, analog hobbies a set of new names:

Hobby-maxxing.

Nonna-maxxing.

Grandma hobbies.

What is Hobby-Maxxing And Why Is It Good For Us?

As eye-roll-inducing as these names are, they’re describing something real that is at the heart of the Analog Life Project: We want to replace some of our passive content consumption with real world activities.

Why? Because spending time doing tangible things that are grounded in the physical world feels good! It steadies us, calms our nervous system. It helps us regain focus. And often involves real interaction with real humans in the real world.

Hobby-Maxxing As Confidence Builder

So over the last six months of my Analog Life Project experiment, I’ve been “hobby-maxxing” without even knowing I’m “hobby-maxxing!” I’ve started learning new things again. (Right now I’m learning how to juggle, play chess, grow dahlias, and make killer homemade ice cream.)

Every time I learn a new skill, I feel a little more capable. And when I think about that feeling of capability, I think about my parents, grandparents, older relatives, and family friends. They weren’t “hobbyists.” They just knew how to do stuff.

Back in the day, people accumulated skills over a lifetime, passed from generation to generation: Your grandma knew how to sew. Somebody in the neighborhood knew how to repair bikes. You learned to make a cake by standing beside someone older than you in the kitchen. Maybe you joined an after-school knitting club took shop class in high school. You always knew someone who could teach you how to change a tire.

They knew how to grow food, mend clothes, bake bread, repair things, entertain themselves, and help their neighbors. And that competence was just part of being an adult.

I might have puffed up a bit after completing my very first sewing project: PJ pants for my daughter

So I think we are reaching for something more than just a new hobby, we’re reaching for a feeling, an experience.

Because there is a wonderful satisfaction that comes from learning a skill! Making something with your hands or becoming good at something over time feels pretty awesome.

Especially in a world where so much of our lives happens on a screen, watching other people do things. There is something really rewarding about ending the day with a loaf of bread or a finished 1000 piece puzzle, or a tomato plant that exists because of your own effort. I DID THAT.

Bert might have puffed up a bit after making me this awesome arbor, having never built anything like this before

Turning Toward Each Other Again

This feeling of satisfaction also comes from doing things with other people. And as a self-described hermit, I have to remind myself of this all the time! So, it’s heartening to see renewed interest in what sociologists call “third places” - places that aren’t home and aren’t work, but offer another shared focus for gathering. Places like book clubs, craft nights, repair cafés, community gardens, knitting circles, walking groups, and board game nights are all growing in popularity again.

Hobby-Maxxing As A Vision For The World We Want To Live In

Does knowing how to do things feel almost countercultural now? Is building a set of analog skills and interests an act of resistance?

Leave it to me and I’ll find a way to interpret everything as an act of rebellion! :)

But everything right now feels like a declaration of the world I want to live in. And I have to say, for me, it’s not as simple as pining for a return to the past. “Grandma Hobbies” may have a certain resonance with the past in ways that were simply more “normal” back then, but they also have a newness to offer us today, especially in contrast to the pitfalls of a steady diet of passive digital entertainment. While there are some parts of life in the pre-digital age that I truly miss, I am all about embracing life in the present, just as it is.

So no matter what name we give our quest for analog living, hobbies can help us stay engaged with our selves and with each other. They can give us a sense of uniqueness, pride, and connection.

And after all that, still all I know is that when the world feels precarious, I feel like an empowered human when I choose to use my brain and hands.

My Bucket List of Hobbies

Reading & Literary

• Start a book club?

• Silent reading meet-up

• Poetry night

• Library events

• “Bring your own book” meetup

Crafts

• Host a craft night?

• Watercolor club

• Scrapbooking meet up

• Junk journaling meet up

Repair & Self-Sufficiency

• Repair café (people bring broken items and volunteers help fix them)

• Community tool library

• Skill-sharing night

Gardening & Food

• Visit the local community garden

• Library seed swap

• Canning club

• Pot Luck

• Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) volunteer days

• Neighborhood garden tours

• Cooking club, supper club, or recipe swap

Games

• Board game night

• Dungeons & Dragons night!!

• Puzzle exchange

• Lego enthusiast group

Outdoor & Nature

• Birdwatching group

• Hiking group

• Foraging class

• Nature journaling meet up

Let’s Talk About It!

So the above list is just me brainstorming some hobby groups or clubs I might be into. What would be on your list?

What do you think of these new-fangled terms “hobby maxxing”, “nonna maxxing”?

Are you looking to expand your skill or knowledge base?

One of my favorite grandma hobbies is gardening! We have a lot of seasonal printable freebies on our website including my very favorite garden planner & journal.

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This Post Is Part of The Analog Life Project

The Analog Life Project is a personal experiment to explore ways to live more analog in a digital world. I occasionally offer free printable content and love to talk about your ideas and experiences as we explore this together.

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