Hobbies Away from the Screen

[image error] So, a lot of a writers life involves a computer screen. At least it does for me. There's the social media management, your Facebook fan page, Twitter, Pinterest. There's the online research, Google and Wikipedia. This is all not to mention the actual writing part, which basically everyone does on a computer these days. (Maybe I'll get a typewriter just for fun spontaneous use?)

I think I might be on the overdoing it end of the spectrum, I admit it. And by "might be" I mean definitely need to save my eyes and back and health. So then comes the deciding what to do to take you away from the screen. Don't get me wrong, there are tons of awesome fun exciting things out there, but if you're as single-track minded and obsessed as I am it sort of becomes a challenge to find things to do away from a screen that still make you feel like I'm moving towards my writing goals. But I've come up with some things that might help. At least I think they'd help me.

1. A gym pass. I actually do pretty good, generally, at getting to the gym when I have a gym pass. For some reason it feels more productive then just "going for a run," perhaps because its a specific location made for that purpose. Also there is television.

2. A dog. Solves EVERYTHING.

3. A Guitar. I so wanna get a guitar and spend some away-from-screen time writing tunes. Not original, I know, and I'm a total noob, but you gotta start somewhere, right?

Those are my three personal solutions. There are some other really good ones, like starting a garden or doing something artsy. One of my roommates was an art major, and I was always jealous that she had that to work on when she wasn't writing/at the computer. So for those with any visual-art skills, that could be awesome too. There are so many beautiful and amazing outdoor things, like biking and hiking and rock climbing and all that, and if I was an outdoorsy person then that might work. But I'm no more outdoorsy than I am artsy, and I'm trying to go with what works here. So if those things work, more power to ya, and I'm jealous.

How about you? What worthwhile things do you do away from the computer screen? That not only take you away from the computer screen, but fulfill you personally and creatively as well?

Sarah Allen