What do you do to unwind?

I play beat saber.
watch TV
draw
play video games
crochet
build robots
organize
compose music on the piano

Whatever I can focus on, it helps me release the day

You build robots?! That’s fucking sick! What have you built and how did you get into that hobby!
- If you don't mind a long-ish story:
  
  I have always wanted to get into it. My dad was an RF engineer, but he never would teach me anything.
  
  I moved to Seattle in 2010 (I was about 25yo) and I learned about maker spaces.
  
  Well a guy at that maker space didn't mind showing me the basics. So he taught me briefly how solder works and then asked what I wanted to make. I said, "I want things to light up"
  
  So he gave me a breadboard, LEDs, resistors, wire and a battery and said, "Figure it out". Pretty quick I got them lit up. So I went back to him and said, "I want them to change brightness when its dark or light out."
  
  So he gave me a photo resistor (when there is no light it slows/stops the current of electricity), and he said, "Figure it out". So I learned how to use the photo resistor to make the lights brighter when the ambient light was brighter. Then I told him, "I want them to light up when it's dark out, not light".
  
  So he gave me a transistor and said, "Figure it out". This took me 3 months, all alone, to read the schematic of that transistor. But EVENTUALLY I got it working.
  
  Since then I have learned to create my own PCB's, programmed line followers and have built robots that move around and do image recognition!
  
  I haven't done much as of late but I want to get back to that! (I have moved a lot in my life so the second to last move I did, I had to donate ALL my robotics so I am starting from scratch)
  
  I would look up maker spaces in your area. You can use them to do more than just robotics. The one I went to also had engravers, 3D printers, and knitting machines (or crochet? can't remember)
Heyo, don’t skip on crocheting. I got into it for a bit and really enjoyed it. Only got distracted by other hobbies.
- I went through a whole stint of crocheting dolls for friends for xmas. I needed a break! I think when it cools down I'll get back into it!

It used to be catch up on Reddit. Now it’s catch up on Lemmy

Run.

It absolutley sucks at the time and can be a bit demoralising depending on your climate, but it's nice to catch up on some podcasts or albums when it's just you vs the stopwatch and nobody else.

It feels great when you're done too - even if you've got a list of things to do as long as your arm, it feels good that you've ticked something off and it's done you some good too.

Without getting too gatekeeper-y either, I don't mean run in it's purest sense - I mean getting out there putting one foot in front of the other with the heart rate up - jogging, sprinting, whatever. I'm a 10min/mile goon - I ain't setting the world on fire with that pace but it makes me feel like I've put a shift in after six and a quarter miles.

Dude I like running too but I can’t for the life of me run on a treadmill or circular track or anything repetitive like that. It has to be some kind of trail. But the summers here suuuuuuuuuuucccckkkkkk it’s so fucking hot I can’t imagine running at all!
- go early or late in the day when its not hot

I usually go for a walk, helps me clear my mind

This! Walks are the best, especially in a forest.
I can walk for hours listening to audiobooks on Libby

I have a lot of personal projects, some big, some little. Some focus around my daily job and the things I find interesting but are too farfetched or risky in an R&D sense to actually focus on. Others are more personal or related to my hobbies.

For example, I have a water level sensor in my RV that's broken, mostly because of bad design. As a personal project I'm designing a drop-in replacement that's (hopefully) more reliable.

Other times I make contributions to open source projects that I use and like, for example to fix bugs or add features that I want.

These are mostly evening activities though, during the day it's mostly hobbies, like diving, hiking, motorcycling and such. You can never have too many hobbies :)

And sometimes I don't have the energy for any of it and just sit and read Lemmy or watch a movie with my fiancé, all mood dependent.

You can never have too many hobbies :)

My wallet disagrees sometimes :P
- O have one hobby: boardagmes and my wallet laughed at them.

Smoke a bowl, catch up on notifications I missed at work, play some Diablo, and listen to podcasts

seconded

smoke, eat, panic when I get an after-hours work message, play some dota with buddies and then log off and go to bed.
- Damn that anxiety of the after hours work messages when I’m stoned and can’t figure out how to reply!

Video games and hiking!

Drink whiskey and check out lemmy.

I bury my face in my large friendly dog and cuddle him. It's amazing how relaxing that is. And he likes it too.

Drum

I like to explore hobbies, and I'll have phases where I'm really into something. That helps me unwind. I've done pottery, soapmaking, knitting, etc. Working with my hands really lets me blow off steam.

I too like to get my feet wet with different hobbies and bounce around between some ‘test’ hobbies to see if they’ll keep my interest for long.
- A big part of the fun is trying something new. Sometimes the hobby sticks and sometimes it doesn't. But exploring is always great. What kind of hobbies have you tried out?

My house is a fixer-upper, so usually house projects. Yard work, hanging shakes, painting. It's nice to do something physical where I can see a benefit at the end of it, when I spend my day sitting at a desk inside. It's also nice when the neighbors compliment our progress!

I feel like a loser compared to some of these other commenters lol. I sometimes like to play retro games on my handheld emulator. Those usually get boring pretty fast. I like to watch YouTube videos about really old computers & try to figure out how they work. Like vacuum tubes and stuff - really simple computers. I also watch videos on repairing old electronics and computers too. But I can’t really justify any investment into that hobby so I just live vicariously through the videos. That’s about it.

And any chance I get I like to disconnect from society completely and go backpacking in the woods either by myself or with a couple really close friends! But that could never happen often enough.

Those don't sound like things a loser would do.

Smoke weed and think

Lots of things! I like to go for a bike ride, read, and work in my garden. I'm also learning to play the guitar (shoutout to Justin Guitar!). And weirdly, I find house cleaning really relaxing - I just throw on some classic rock or maybe a podcast and get into a cleaning groove!

How’s learning the guitar? I’ve been wanting to pick it up, but feel intimidated.
- It's a lot to keep track of at first, and it will make your fingers hurt. The learning curve to get to playing basic songs isn't too bad, but if you want to get good you need to put in a ton of time which is a lot easier to do if you enjoy it. If it feels like a slog, it'll be hard to make progress, but if you love it and find it relaxing/enjoyable then it can be incredibly rewarding. I'd definitely recommend getting a cheap guitar to dink around on before you pony up a bunch of money for anything fancy. Also get that cheap guitar set up properly at a shop, it makes a huge difference.
- It's really fun! I get feeling intimidated but you don't have to feel that way. You can do it! The site I linked has super detailed lessons with an organized course structure and really well laid out practice guides, and it's free at the beginner levels. There's a good balance between learning concepts and techniques, and then applying them to playing songs. You start learning songs right away which is nice. The dude Justin who runs it is a seriously gifted teacher and his approach makes it really manageable. (Plus, if you're a lady, he's easy on the eyes which is nice!) 10/10 I highly recommend trying it!

Hammock, hike, cycle, take pictures, play video games, watch stuff, read, write, etc.

Read this stuff.

I either browse Lemmy or chat with chatbots.. i should really pick up a hobby. Then again i do some art from time to time, but I associate that with work lol

My job is in photography but it’s also one of my hobbies & sometimes it does make me feel like I’m at work too.
- Yeah.. I do illustration and now I'm focused on programming chatbots. My artistic expression lies in mixed media, though.

That's my secret, I never do 😭

When I actually get a chance to unwind, I usually just end up watching something on Netflix or taking a nap. Having two kids under six has really crushed my hobby time.

If I miraculously have more than an hour to myself, I like to work on my truck, reload ammunition, occasionally go shooting (at this point I enjoy the relaxing mindless reloading more than actually shooting), play PC games, go backpacking and camping, bake bread, and read.

reading, walking, & biking

Long beach walks+dog.

Usually plan a game which isn't multiplayer or competitive in nature. Especially one where you can basically do everything almost automatically because you know the routine. For me currently it's Elite Dangerous.

In no order and some more often than others

Hiking, video game, kayaking, beginner electronics and programming, gardening, woodworking, reading, 3d printing, photoshop, random art, cooking/eating ... and probably more

I fly paramotors. Imagine a fan you strap on your back, a paraglider that goes overhead, and you run run run until you're airborne! Never fails to put a smile on my face when times are tough. And maintaining the engine and planning that next flight keeps me occupied when the weather doesn't cooperate.