Hobbies outside of work Forum

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Hobbies outside of work

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Dec 09, 2018 3:49 am

I’m a 3rd year lit associate in a major market big law firm. It’s not a sweatshop by any means, but still very busy. I’ve grown accustomed to the ebb and flow of work, being tired all the time, and doing little outside of work. That said, I don’t want to focus only on work and zoning out watching tv forever. What do you guys do for fun outside of work that meshes with your schedules? Finding a class or something seems infeasible with ever changing deadlines. And how do you manage to do stuff outside of working hours when you’re wrecked from a long day?

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Re: Hobbies outside of work

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Dec 09, 2018 11:08 am

I think you ask a good and important question here. I was in this position earlier. It’s helpful, in biglaw, to have something to work for other than survival. For many people, it’s their spouses and kids. Those are motivators to get work done, get out of the office, and frankly, start to push back a little on time demands and structure working time in a less inconvenient way. I don’t really think which the hobbies you have really matter—it’s just to have them. Obviously it’s better if it’s something that has flexible timing, like collecting something, exercise, reading, movies, whatever. Random Netflix shows will likely never be the same motivator.

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Re: Hobbies outside of work

Post by objctnyrhnr » Sun Dec 09, 2018 2:23 pm

Depending on your climate, I’d say skiing or surfing. I’m in biglaw and I’m telling you that just being in the open air and in a place where you can’t look at your phone by necessity for hours on end is great for the purpose you describe. Excercise too of course.

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Elston Gunn

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Re: Hobbies outside of work

Post by Elston Gunn » Sun Dec 09, 2018 2:34 pm

I stopped using social media completely, and I use the time I used to spend on that (particularly on my commute, but also before bed etc) to read novels. Has made a big positive difference.

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Raiden

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Re: Hobbies outside of work

Post by Raiden » Sun Dec 09, 2018 3:08 pm

I’ve picked up a boxing class, which has been awesome. Still haven’t gotten into sparring yet, not sure how partners would think of me walking around with a black eye. But it is nice to have physical goals outside of work. It’s a really technical sport once you learn how to throw a punch combination with slips and weaves while shifting your weight for power and maintaining balance. This makes it easier to not think about work while boxing. Having your brain turn off re: work is nice.

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crownjd

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Re: Hobbies outside of work

Post by crownjd » Sun Dec 09, 2018 4:30 pm

I have a couple friends in BigLaw and they've both turned to exercise. One does CrossFit (yikes!) and the other is a runner. It's a healthy way to get out the aggression and stress of the day and clear your mind.

Bubbles1012

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Re: Hobbies outside of work

Post by Bubbles1012 » Sun Dec 09, 2018 8:12 pm

Only a first year, but I’ve been making it a point to exercise 3-4 times a week since I’ve started (more if my schedule permits) with one of those times almost always being a dance class (I do a combination of Orange Theory/spin/barre/CrossFit for the other workouts). Taking a classs forces you to put your phone away for 45 minutes-1 hr, and I’ve made a few non-law/non-law school friends at the various studios.

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nealric

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Re: Hobbies outside of work

Post by nealric » Mon Dec 10, 2018 12:53 pm

I've always been a man of many hobbies, though Biglaw of course requires some compromise. While in Biglaw, my hobbies consisted of:

Running (ran my first Marathon as a 2nd year)
Cycling- Heading up 9W is a great way to escape the city for a few hours if you are in NYC
Rock Climbing- indoors and in central park
Weight Lifting - got into it after I started experiencing knee pain from too much running
Skiing- more of a vacation hobby

It's true that these were all exercise related, but there's a method to that madness. You spend all of your time working sedentary, so when I was outside of work, I really wanted to move and fight the pot belly I saw growing on many of my fellow associates. Obviously, hours are limited, but a quick run or gym session is only a 45 minute commitment, which was doable in non-crunch times. I almost never had time for TV or movies in biglaw.

Now, that I'm in-house and no longer in NYC I've added car restoration and auto racing to the above. But having a kid is almost as bad of a time suck as biglaw, so I never have as much time as I would like to for hobbies :)

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