You Suggest A Hobby - I’ll Try It! (New Series!!)

Hobbies are important. They inject joy into our day, offer a much needed break from daily routines and stressors and can encourage creativity and self-expression. And they're especially important for people with ADHD. Hello, Brains! They give us dopamine, help with emotion regulation, build skills and self-confidence, and even make it easier to make friends. They remind us that we're more than what we do for a living. Which is why I've decided... I need a hobby. *Jessica needs a hobby*

Don't get me wrong. Like most people with ADHD, I've tried a lot of hobbies. I've impulsively jumped into them, forgotten about them, lost them, or lost interest in them. I've tried a lot of different hobbies. Some I loved the idea of more than the actual doing. Some I thought were a great fit for me, but my schedule disagreed. Some turned out to be a lot more complicated or frustrating than I expected. some I couldn't afford to keep doing, and some were fun once... and then just became another thing to feel guilty about not doing. And some I got so excited about I got all the supplies only to never do it again. So this time I'm going to be a bit more scientific. Sort of. Every episode, I'll try two hobbies that YOU suggested. Then I'll put them head to head single-elimination tournament style. Only one hobby moves on to the next round. To help me decide, I'll rate each hobby on five criteria: Brain Joy Factor Barrier to Entry Wallet Ouch Time Commitment and More Factor. Did I either want to keep doing it, or how much am I looking forward to doing it again? Basically, if I was a toddler, would I be going "more, more? " So let's pick some hobbies!

Remember when I asked you guys what kind of hobbies you like? Well, my team went and wrote a bunch down, threw it in this bowl, which is not a full bowl, by the way. We're going to definitely need some more suggestions. And now I'm going to draw a couple of hobbies to try today. Magic: the Gathering. My fiance is going to be so happy about this. Thank you to whoever recommended this. You just made my partner very happy. He has wanted me to play Magic: The Gathering for the past year, and I'm like, I don't have time for that. I have a baby. And he said, disagree. I have never played Magic: The Gathering, so I don't know how this is going to go. But I am sure that he has the supplies that I need, and I am positive that he will teach me. Birdwatching. What do you have to do to go birdwatching? I don't, I don't know anybody who's into birdwatching. Okay. Kai, what do you do if you want to go birdwatching? Have you ever been birdwatching? [Kai] I've got a pair of binoculars if you want to borrow them. I'll borrow some binoculars. Am I going to need, like, a book? What do I even look for? [Kai] Birds. Okay, no. I mean--okay. That's fair. That was a silly question. I'm going to. I'm gonna look this up. Hang on. There's got to be more to it than just looking at birds through binoculars. So you just, like, look at birds. Through binoculars.

Whoa. Nope. That's really intense. Can you turn it down? I don't know if I've ever used binoculars. Okay. How do these work? I feel like I should have picked up a book. So is it like, left zooming out and right zooming in? [Producer] It's not a zoom--it's focusing. Okay. I don't know if I can do this because I have really long eyelashes and it's bothering me. I don't know if I'm doing this right. But, yeah, let me try the nicer ones. Oh. How to bird watch. If it seems like more people have been birdwatchers lately, even Reese Witherspoon has taken it up. The advent of birding specific platforms like eBird, which collects sightings, sound recordings, photos and video from hundreds of thousands of bird watchers around the world, also offers citizen scientists the chance to contribute to and interact with the global birding community at large. Okay, so how do I do it? Download apps. Okay. Start identifying species by photo or bird call via free apps like Merlin Bird ID and the Audubon Bird Guide. I hear birds, but I don't see birds. Oo a log. I feel like this is more leaf watching than bird watching. I hear a lot of birds. I just don't see any. I do like that it got me outside. By the time you find it, it leaves? Oh, cool. Now I understand the point of binoculars. That's really cool. Aw, man. So you just have to be looking at things really far away. I just realized I don't know anything about birds. Except cockatiels. And ducks. Because we raised those. Oh, okay. So they're not supposed to be, like, in my eyes. like I just realized where on my nose binoculars are supposed to sit for them to work effectively. So it's actually okay that I have long eyelashes. I heard it. Where is it? That was like a really loud bird. I want to try the app. Oh, cool. Spotted Towhee. Look on the ground, and liste-- Oh. On the. No, that is not on the ground. I'm trying to see--oh. Dangit. Did it look like this was the bird? This is my bird. Oh, I have to sign in. You know what, I'll come back and create an account later if I decide I'm doing bird watching again. I found a bird! I found this one. This is definitely a bird. Does this count? It hasn't made any noise. I'm pretty sure it's a duck. Does this only do it by sou--oh, no. By photo. It does do it by photo. Take a photo. It is not a sandhill crane. Okay, I think I need to get closer. It's a duck. It's just a duck. It helps if I follow the instructions. It says zoom until your bird fills the box. Is it a mallard? So, Mallard, a breeding male has the green... female. Yep. They're female. Female mallards. Could be an immature male. I don't know, we kind of see it-- Have to see if it has purple feathers. They have like, little purple wings. Female. Yeah. I think it's a female. That's cool. I think I saw a seagull. Okay, so I'm torn because I feel like this is something I could do with my kid But also, I'm going to end up looking through the binoculars and she's going to run away and I'm not going to notice. Snack break. Chomps is one of my go to snacks when I am on the go, which I definitely am as I'm out and about doing hobbies. This is amazing. If you guys haven't tried Chomps yet, I highly recommend the variety pack. Lots of different flavors. That Chomps has. Jalepeno beef stick. Taco seasoned beef stick. Salt and pepper venison. Have not tried that one yet. Sea salt beef stick. And my favorite, the original beef stick. Or actually, no, this was my favorite. And then I tried the smoky, barbecue seasoned beef stick. I think this is currently my favorite. Anyway. Variety packs. Great. You can try them. Chomps is a great snack. a shelf stable snack. You can take it with you anywhere you're going. It's super quick and easy to eat anywhere you are, ten grams of protein and it's high quality protein. Grass fed grass finished, and zero sugar. So it's a snack that I feel good about eating. giving my daughter, so good. I'm like, surprised every time. Does trying new beef sticks count as a hobby? If you want to try Chomps, you can go to Chomps. com/adhd15 and type my code in ADHD15 and get 15% off plus free shipping. Happy snacking! Oh you can bring these with me. My partner likes Chomps too.

What do I need to know before I play? So it's a card game. Yes. I see that. It's the original, collectors, collectible card game. And the premise is that we are dueling wizards You should have told me that. I would have maybe been interested in this sooner. All I see is you methodically counting your cards, sorting, collecting cards, and sorting cards Which is an aspect of this as an Autistic person Okay, sure, I find soothing. Okay. So the actual playing experience is that we are dueling wizards. And the cards in our library Okay. are what we cast to fight the other wizard. I like being a wizard. I know you do. Okay. Which is why I suggested this. Well you should have said that. Oh my God. And these things are like baseball card packs. You don't know what you're going to get out of them. Okay, so this is an expensive hobby. Not necessarily. You are going to be able to create a starter deck out of two of these packs. Pick two packs at random. Okay. Open them and combine them. And that's a 40 card deck for you to play. And these were $7 apiece. Okay. Let's do this! Okay, okay. Oh, it's a blue deck. Is that good? There's five different colors. Blue decks tend to be the ones focused on counterspells and enchantments, controlling... This is for ease of shuffling? Or this is so I don't ruin the cards. No, no, it's. Well, both, actually. It also, it makes them easier to slide on the mats, which are also there to protect them. Okay. This is also really just, from a sensory perspective-- Oh my god. You're going to lose your cards. This is so fun! Ironically, you probably got like a $50 card in there and you don't care. I'm enjoying this. Alright. Inventive. Oh. White. So protection. Oh, that's very much me. Generous pup. All right, well, that one wins. You better hope I don't fall in love with birdwatching. Am I worried that a hobby that involves quiet, waiting, patience, and, often, going out of your way to do quiet, patient waiting Yes, but it's also outside. And something that I can do with our daughter. So... Our daughter, who is in the middle of toddler version 2. 0, who is not quiet and is not waiting and who shrieks like a pterodactyl Alright, what do I need to know to get started? The name of the card is here. Okay. The card type is in the middle right below the art And then this is the text box that tells you things. So in this case I'm sorry, the text box has a picture in it? Yes. In this case because it's a basic land. It tells you the type of mana it produces. So we shuffle our cards. So you can play one land per turn. Do I have to put it in a specific place? Oh, no no I'm hungry. Does this game include snacks? Sometimes, and that's another reason we put sleeves on the cards. Draw? COMBAT! Steadfast sentry. So that's going to tap all of my things. Correct. So you tap. No no no no. Hold on. Now this because this is one power, one toughness with a plus one plus one. Hold on, hold on. Plus one counter. That makes it two power, two toughness. So 3, 4, 5 You just did five damage. Oh! I am so winning! "Get up slug-a-beds, we've got company and they're not dressed for a party. " Back to most gallant knights wear my sigil. And for that I am humbled. Oh yeah. When Patron of Valiant enters put a plus one counter on each creature you control with it. So I think that's just this one. Yeah. So you now have another plus one counter on that Mm hmm, and it now gains double strike until-- Well, potentially. Yeah. and I'm not going to do any damage to you. But then we can eat lunch sooner. I'm gonna attack and do six damage. So I'm oh I. think I'm good at this. I'm going to attack you with these two. Cool. And this one's dead. I still have all of my points. Yeah, and I'm not going to do any damage to you. Until end of turn target creature becomes a blue serpent with base power and toughness Five of five. Are you kidding me? So I'm going to block the five five. Okay. Four get through. I win! You win. Okay, cool. You didn't just win. You stomped me. Good game. It was confidence boosting. Were you taking it easy on me? No. Okay. Absolutely not.

Okay. That was a lot of fun. I hope you guys like this series, because I want to do this again. I didn't expect to, like, bird watching, if I'm honest, like, I didn't, I'm like, maybe when I'm retired, right? Like that's a later hobby maybe, but right now it just didn't seem like the right fit for me or my life. I didn't think that I would have the patience for it. enjoy it as much as I did. I was pretty sure that Magic: the Gathering would be my obvious choice. My fiancee is really into the game. I have a built in person to play it with, and, I'm a nerd. I got excited about Magic. being a wizard, and it's super customizable. Yeah, I don't know, it's not as easy a choice anymore. Before I go and buy a pair of binoculars and all of the Magic cards, let's get a bit more scientific. Brain Joy Factor. How engaging or mentally satisfying was this hobby? For birdwatching? I, I don't know if it's the most fun I've ever had, but it was really mentally satisfying. It was challenging, which made it more stimulating than I expected, because I found it actually kind of hard to find the birds through the binoculars. I don't know how much of that was this is my first time and how much of it is just there is an aspect of challenge to it. Being able to identify like, is this your bird? That was pretty mentally satisfying. Especially when I got it right. So, yeah, I'm going to call it a solid three out of five. Three, three and a half. Three. I'd say three. For Magic: the Gathering I give it four Brain Joys. It was really fun watching my partner be so happy that we finally got to try this together. It was a really fun game There were a couple of times where I think my working memory challenges got in the way, and it was a little bit frustrating. So that probably cost it a point If I'm honest. But it was pretty good. I see why people get really into this. Barrier to entry. How much planning, gear, or setup did it take just to start? for Magic: The Gathering, I didn't have to do a lot, but that was just because my partner did all of it for me. It did look like it was a fair amount of setup. We did have to open the packs and choose our decks, but that was all pretty fun. It was. It felt like it was kind of part of the experience. So, I'm going to call that one a two. For birdwatching, I would say a one I could have literally gone outside and just looked for birds. It was a little extra, I guess, to ask my producer to borrow his binoculars, but he offered, I think the hardest part was like figuring out how to use the binoculars, which I feel like on some level, maybe I should have just known how to do by now. So that's like very little barrier to entry. Kind of makes me want to rethink the Magic. Maybe a three for Magic 2 or 3, what do you guys think? Two? Three? Kai? Two. Two and a half. Is two and a half okay? Like, can I say two and a half? I'm going to go with two and a half. I can't decide. It's my show. I make the rules, right? No--two. I'm thinking about hobbies in general. It was a two. In terms of hobbies, it's a two. Wallet Ouch. Is this free or almost free, or am I going to need to start a go fund me? Birdwatching was totally free. Asterisk. Yes, I borrowed a pair of binoculars. Thank you, Kai. But Kai pointed out to me that a surprising amount of people have binoculars laying around and probably aren't using them right now. So, borrowing binoculars is, something you can do for free if you know anybody with binoculars, which apparently most of us do. If I wanted to buy those binoculars, they were $200 binoculars, and, I probably would want to if I kept doing it. I probably would want to, but that's why this is helpful. It's slowing me down, because otherwise I would have already ordered some. They would have been at my house tomorrow. So. Yeah. What was I doing? For Magic: the Gathering. what we did were, um, We each did two packs of cards, and he said there were seven bucks each. So, it's not free. It's. But it's not that it's not expensive. I'm going to call it a two. Time commitment. Could I do this while waiting for my bagel to toast? Or do I need to reschedule my life around it? Birdwatching? A one. Easily a one. This is -- no time. Like, open your window. You can go bird watching. Depending on where you live. Magic: the Gathering... There. Yeah. This is a bit more of a time commitment. It was maybe 20 minutes to get through a game, but there's also the arriving, the socializing, the setting up, the, the. Do you want to play another game? I was definitely feeling by the second game, like, okay, there are other things that I need to be doing and I could be doing so. I'm going to say two because you could just play a 20 minute game. You don't have to play multiple games. and "More" Factor. If I were a toddler, would I be saying "more" or "all done? " with Magic: the Gathering? I actually know for sure. More factor. I would want to do it again with my partner. However, when we got through the first game, he offered to play again and I was already kind of feeling that, like, my brain wants to bail. Like, I kind of want to be done. So that's a two. And birdwatching, surprisingly, a four. I was so sure I was going to be bored while birdwatching. And I did not want to leave. go home. My foot was hurting, and I still wanted to keep walking. I wanted to keep doing it. And I think part of it was because I was starting to get the hang of it. I learned how to use the binoculars. I was starting to be able to find the birds. There's a little bit of a gamification to the app of like, is this your bird? And I'm like, yes, it's my bird. Wait, is it my bird? There were a lot of things that were really rewarding about it. And motivating to encourage me to continue, which I did not expect at all. But yeah, that was a four. Okay, So, bonus awards. The bonus award for birdwatching is "surprisingly social. " I totally thought that was going to be a very solitary activity. It was just gonna be me and the birds. A lot of people walked up to me and started pointing at the birds and asking what bird I saw and showing me what birds they saw. It was a surprisingly easy way to make friends. If I had wanted to make friends. Yeah. Surprisingly social. Magic: the Gathering Most imaginative. The artwork was beautiful, the story was cool. It got me in my imagination. I kind of felt like a kid again. Like I was playing Make-Believe. It was really fun. Okay, so finally now that we've gotten a bit more scientific, and I'll explain it for this episode and I might not ever explain this again. People decide things in one of two ways. There are the people who listen to their hearts and just go with their gut, go with their instinct. And then there are the people who, who do the spreadsheet thing and gather all the data and make decisions based on the data. The best advice I have ever gotten, and I think it was off a Quora post, was that this one person's wife does all of the spreadsheet things and then throws it away and then makes a decision based on her gut. So that's what we're going to do. Let's go make a decision based on my very informed gut.

All right. Moment of truth. Which one is maybe my hobby? And which one am I going to say no to? At least for now. I'm starting to regret my choices. this series. I don't want to have to decide. Bird watching, Magic: the Gathering. This is hard. Is this what it's like to be on a dating show? And have to decide? What if you like both of them, what are you supposed to do then? I wanna go on another date. Bird watching. Yep. Bird watching is going to make it to the next round and might be my hobby. Magic. You are not my hobby. Please pack your bags and leave the studio. Which hobby would you choose? What hobby should I try next? Suggest them in the comments below. I'll be looking for them. Also, let me know what you think about this new series. Would you want to see another one? Please say yes. But only if you would actually watch it. Also, does anyone have any tips on bird watching?

Thank you to our Brain Advocates and all our Patreon Brains for supporting the work that we do and allowing us to do fun new content like this. Because while it's great to be more productive when you have ADHD, it's important to be able to enjoy yourself too. So I hope that this inspires you and like subscribe. Click all the things and we will see you next video. Bye, Brains!