A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

things to do

Using creative outlets to get through life’s tough times

The guest post I ran on the blog this weekend got me thinking about boredom and hobbies.

See, I’ve had to do a lot of things to avoid boredom the past few years. Battling unemployment with part-time jobs, odd jobs and a massive job search can really mess with your mind. Anyone who has been in this situation can probably understand where I’m coming from.

Checking out community days/fairs/festivals is a good and inexpensive way to get out and avoid being bored overworked.

The funny part is, some of the things on that list I had never considered and I wish I had — such as reading free chapters for Kindle books. Talk about a way to see if there’s something you truly want to read.

But it also got me thinking about the human mind when it comes to boredom.

See, a lot of my time the past few years has been spent on the computer. It’s the bad part about being on a job hunt. Resumes. Cover letters. Search. Tweak resume. Write another cover. Search for another job. Repeat.

Over and over. And over. And over.

I’m sure you get it.

But doing that for many hours a day gets pretty boring. And it’s not that you don’t want to push forward, it’s that you can’t. Words start mashing together. You worry you’re writing to one person and putting a total different name in the spot. I can’t even say how many times I’ve woke up in the middle of the night worried I addressed a cover wrong. I’d quickly grab my phone and access Dropbox to see if I did it right. Thankfully, I’ve only had an error once — and I wonder if it hurt me.

Alas, I won’t dwell on that one. That was my stupid mistake and it involved a name that could be male or female. Yeah, I’m sure you know what happened there. I did e-mail the person soon after, apologizing. I even conceded in the letter that I probably ruined my chance for the job, accepted it and moved on. I haven’t made that mistake again.

But that boredom.

I call it computer eye. By that I mean I stare at a screen, trying to write a cover or tweak a resume and nothing works. Nothing at all. It’s not necessarily boredom, rather a block. So I’ve needed to do things to keep my mind focused.

My out has usually been some sort of a creative outlet.

From writing on the blog, to photos (many of which I still need to process), to just getting outside has been key for me. Utilizing creativity allows a mind to wander, to think, to focus. I usually can go back to cover letters and such within the next day and be good to go.

One thing that has been key is finding affordable or free things to keep busy. That’s something that isn’t underrated. And while blogging has been amazingly therapeutic — especially with creating many friends in this outstanding community — it doesn’t get you away from the computer.

Get out and find a place to hike or explore.

Geocaching (outside the GPS unit I bought several years ago) is a free hobby, for the most part. Hiking is free. Going out and snapping photos is free, again outside of the equipment I already owned. Playing board games with friends is free. Disc golf is free, as long as you have one disc and can get to courses. Letterboxing is free. Many parks are free. Heck, I visited a zoo in South New Jersey not too long ago that was by donation, so it could be done very inexpensively.

In the warmer months, many communities have festivals or fairs and a lot of them are free. You just have to look around and visit other communities. It’s well worth it.

It really makes you think outside the box.

Sure, there are online things one can do, but there are so many other things. Do some community service, or find a way to help people. I try and do work with Find-A-Grave as much as I can, which allows me to help people from all over by getting photos of long-lost relatives headstones. Maybe they are researching a family tree and those stones can often be very important.

That guest post also got me wondering — what do you all do to escape boredom or to clear your head when you really need it? Share in the comments below as it might help others looking for free/inexpensive ways to spend some time away from the computer.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Day Zero Project update

The Day Zero Project has been interesting for me so far.

As I near the halfway point of the project, I’m 29 percent complete with my 101 goals. Though I’m starting to realize that some of the items I put on this list possibly might not happen.

It’s not for a lack of hoping and trying. It’s for a lack of funds and/or the reality of the item getting done.

As I stated when I first started this project, I don’t intend on showing the list until the end. At that point, I will show all the items I’ve finished (which you can see now via the link at the top of the page) and those, if any, that I didn’t finish.

With that in mind, I might tweak a couple of my goals. Not so much to make it easier, but to make it more plausible of finishing. What I tweak might actually make things harder because I’ll have less time to complete the goal. But, it will be something that is realistic in getting done.

I’m going to stare at my list over the next few days and see what I can come up with to tweak things a bit and I’ll see what I think. If the full list didn’t get done, I wouldn’t consider this project a failure. When I set out on this quest, my personal thoughts were to reach the 75 percent plateau. If I got there, to me it would be a victory because I would have finished many goals.

Of course the final goal is to complete it, but we’ll see how that goes.

Several of the remaining goals are blogging goals. I haven’t started them yet, but plan to soon as each of them require multiple posts (much like the 50 questions that Free Your Mind goal), so I’ll need to start working on those soon. Some of them will be fun to dive into as well. I didn’t want to start them so early as I wanted to be able to get things rolling with them.

Some of the items are photography based and I have been slowly working on them. At some point, I’ll blog about several of these items, complete with images and such.

Then there’s the ones I have completed. Some of these items have somewhat continued as well, which is even better.

Take for example, my No. 11 — No fast food for a month. I did this task last February (2010) and was successful. But the best part? Since completing that on Feb. 28, 2010, I have been good to pretty much continue that. Since that date, I’d be shocked if I have eaten fast food 10 times. I’d be willing to bet it’s lower. I don’t visit these places too often anymore as I know what it can do to you.

Still, I enjoy an occasional taco at Taco Bell. When I do visit one of these joints, I usually try and stay as healthy as possible — chicken or a salad or something along those lines. And I’ve only had one Shamrock Shake so far this year!

One item I had on the list was to finish my 365 Project. The thing was, I only had October, November and December to go. I had put it on there because I was dragging at the time. So it was some push to finish. But, I still feel it was kind of cheesy to a point. As long as all goes well this year and I finish the 366, I’ll feel like I really accomplished that goal.

Some have been silly and very simple (writing my name in the sand), and some have been a little more tedious (comment on 50 random blogs). But overall, it’s been a good thing so far and I hope it continues.

I truly think once I settle in somewhere with a new job, I’ll really dive into this project more because there will be some new and exciting things to explore.

I still have more than 500 days to complete this challenge and expect I’ll make a good push to do so. Hopefully, I’ll get there and know I finished the entire list!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!