When life gets busy, hobbies are often the first thing to disappear. Work runs late, family needs multiply, and chores crowd every blank space on the calendar. Before long, the guitar gathers dust, the half-finished puzzle returns to its box, and the knitting needles slip to the bottom of a basket.

It’s easy to treat hobbies as optional things to pick up again once life calms down. But life rarely slows on its own. And when hobbies fade away, our days can start to feel like nothing more than an endless to-do list. Efficient, maybe. But drained of joy.

Here’s the truth: if you live with executive functioning challenges, hobbies are not luxuries. They’re one of the most supportive tools you can use to strengthen your brain, regulate your energy, and make life feel more balanced. A hobby is not just something “extra” you do when you have time, it’s a way of practicing important executive functioning skills in a setting that feels playful instead of pressured.

When you make time to knit, garden, sketch, or tinker with a recipe, you’re doing more than filling spare minutes. You’re creating a practice ground where your brain can rehearse initiation, planning, organization, and follow-through. You’re regulating your nervous system. You’re experiencing mindfulness in an effortless way. And perhaps most importantly, you’re reminding yourself that you are more than your productivity.

Most people don’t drop hobbies because they stop enjoying them. They drop them because other parts of life feel louder, heavier, or more urgent. This is especially true when executive functioning skills are stretched thin.

There’s a common myth that hobbies are for children, retirees, or people with “extra time.” Adults, the story goes, should be focused on work, family, and responsibility. But for adults, especially those with executive functioning challenges, hobbies may be even more essential.

Hobbies provide:

• Resilience. They buffer against stress and give your nervous system ways to reset.
• Balance. They show children (and other adults around you) that fun matters as much as work.
• Identity. They remind you that you are more than the roles you carry: parent, partner, employee.
• Freedom. They offer pockets of life where there’s no deadline, no pressure, just practice and play.

In a culture that prizes productivity, hobbies are radical acts of balance. They remind you that your life is not just about output.

At the start of one year, I created something simple but powerful: a “Hobby Menu.” It was just a short list of things I could turn to whenever I felt myself slipping into mindless scrolling.

And it worked. Instead of losing hours to my phone, I sketched, read, and worked on small craft projects. I felt calmer, less scattered, and more centered.

But then summer arrived, and my rhythm shifted. The menu quietly fell by the wayside. At first, I felt guilty. But then I realized something important: hobbies, like life, ebb and flow. They’re seasonal. They can shift with your energy, your schedule, and even the weather.

As the cooler months arrive, I’m planning to bring the menu back. That’s mental flexibility in action, adjusting, restarting, and treating hobbies as tools for well-being rather than rigid commitments.

Mindfulness can feel elusive if you picture it as sitting silently with your thoughts. For many people, especially busy adults, hobbies are a more natural doorway.

When your hands are kneading dough, knitting, or sketching, your brain has permission to pause. The constant stream of tasks quiets, and you slip into a flow state. Without trying, you’re practicing sustained attention, one of the core executive functioning skills.

This kind of mindfulness isn’t about emptying your mind. It’s about giving your brain a place to rest. That pause carries forward into the rest of your day as calm, clarity, and steadiness.

We often think of fun as optional, but it’s restorative like sleep, movement, or nutrition. Without it, burnout creeps in.

Fun is not a distraction from responsibilities. It’s what allows you to carry them more easily. Think of hobbies as plugging your brain into a charger. Even ten minutes can refill your reserves. Over time, that recharge makes it easier to manage stress, regulate your emotions, and follow through on tasks that otherwise feel impossible.

If you’ve been living without fun, it may be why everything feels heavier than it should.

You don’t need to overhaul your schedule to keep hobbies alive. The key is weaving them into the flow of daily life.

Try keeping a small project by your bed to wind down at night. Carry a sketchbook or crossword puzzle for waiting rooms. Leave a puzzle out and add a piece whenever you walk by. Keep a guitar near your desk and play for the length of one song between tasks.

These strategies matter because they reduce friction. They make it easier to start, easier to follow through, and easier to remember what brings you joy.

One of the most liberating things you can do is let your hobbies shift with the seasons of life.

If hobbies have slipped away, here’s your reminder: you don’t need to earn them. You don’t need to justify your joy.

Hobbies aren’t distractions from “real life.” They are part of what makes life real, sustainable, and meaningful. They give you restoration, help your brain rehearse executive functioning, and remind you of who you are beyond your responsibilities.

Fun isn’t frivolous. Fun is fuel. And hobbies are how you plug in.

Maintaining hobbies may be one of the most overlooked ways to support mental health and executive functioning. They don’t need to be big, perfect, or consistent. They just need to exist woven into the fabric of your daily life, ready to restore you when everything else feels overwhelming.

So the next time you wonder if you should pick up your knitting, doodle in a notebook, or plant a few seeds, remember: it matters. Every small step of play is practice for executive functioning. Every spark of joy is restoration for your brain.

Your worth has never been measured only by what you produce. It is reflected in the moments of joy, creativity, and play that remind you this life belongs to you.