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The article argues that hobbies have become too focused on productivity and career development, turning leisure activities into more work. It notes that while hobbies can make people more productive at work, their true value lies beyond this relationship with work. Hobbies are important for reminding people that work is not everything and for improving psychological and physical well-being. The article encourages viewing work as a means to support leisure time rather than seeing hobbies only as a way to lower stress in order to work more.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
27 views3 pages

Eng102 02

The article argues that hobbies have become too focused on productivity and career development, turning leisure activities into more work. It notes that while hobbies can make people more productive at work, their true value lies beyond this relationship with work. Hobbies are important for reminding people that work is not everything and for improving psychological and physical well-being. The article encourages viewing work as a means to support leisure time rather than seeing hobbies only as a way to lower stress in order to work more.

Uploaded by

chogibugi15
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS IN THE ANSWER BOOKLET

Read the text below and answer the questions that follow:

The Case for Having a Hobby


Jaya Saxena
The New York Times
May 10, 2018
URL:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/smarter-living/the-case-for-hobbies-ideas.html

Last spring, I forgot the word for ’hobby’. I was on a hike with friends, and I was explaining
how much happier my spouse had become recently after starting a band with some friends.
For many of us, expectations of an “always-on” working life have made hobbies a thing of
the past, relegated to mere memories of what we used to do in our free time. Worse still,
many hobbies have morphed into the dreaded side hustle or as paths to career development,
turning the things we ostensibly do for fun into more work.

But it is time to divest hobbies from productivity. Their value lies in more than their
relationship to work. Yes, studies have shown that having a hobby can make you more
productive at work, but hobbies can also remind you that work isn’t everything. “Isn’t it
telling that you forgot?” said Brigid Schulte, author of “Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play
When No One Has the Time,” when I told her I had blanked on the word. “That’s so
indicative of where we are in our culture right now, that you can actually forget what it is to
have something you like to do that’s not: (a) tied to work and (b) productive,” Ms. Schulte
said.

While researching her book, Ms. Schulte realized how many “lifehacks” make hobbies out to
be keys to productivity rather than activities just meant to be enjoyed, and she saw that it was
difficult for people to get out of that way of thinking.

The irony of all this is that hobbies do make you more productive, in a way. A 2009 study
showed that more time spent on leisure activities was correlated with lower blood pressure,
lower levels of depression and stress, and overall better psychological and physical
functioning. Hobbies can also jump-start your creativity, or allow your mind to wander and
look at problems from a new angle. Still, framing hobbies this way compounds the original
problem: We’ve professionalized and productized our respites from the working world.
“For me, I like to think of leisure in its purest sense — that is, it is time away from work, not
facilitating it,” said Thomas Fletcher, chairman of Leisure Studies Association and a senior
lecturer at Leeds Beckett University in Britain. “In thinking about the relationship between
work and leisure, I would argue that rather than thinking about how leisure can promote
greater productivity at work, a more important consideration is about how work inhibits our
leisure time,” Mr. Fletcher said. By viewing work as something we do to support our leisure
time, rather than our hobbies as something to lower our stress so we can get back to work, we
can actually start enjoying our lives.

“There is this achievement-oriented culture,” said Ms. Schulte, that teaches us that our only
purpose is to produce. Why pick up the guitar if you’re not going to become the best at it?
Why make something if you can’t sell it? Better spend your time doing something
that actually has value. “You get busy and you feel like you don’t deserve it and you need to
earn it,” she said.

“Is a hobby actually leisure if we are making money from it?” Mr. Fletcher asked. “At what
point does payment turn that hobby into a job?” “All in all,” he said, “leisure time spent
doing what we want to do is aspirational and when it does come about, it is a guilty
pleasure.”

So what would it take for us to drop the guilt and take up a project purely for fun? According
to Ms. Schulte, most people don’t realize the value of their leisure time until they force
themselves to take it, and then they can’t get enough of it.

“You have to begin experiencing this kind of time, and once you see what it does for you and
how valuable it is, you’re going to want more of it,” she said. “And you will actually make
the decision to create space for it.”

Like any habit, taking leisure time or picking up a new hobby has to be actively cultivated.
And, yes, they can lower your stress and clear your mind. But the most meaningful benefit?
You can finally “sink into the wonderful experience of being alive,” Ms. Schulte said.(Edited)

1. In paragraph 6, what did Mr. Fletcher mean when he said: “leisure time spent doing
what we want to do is aspirational and when it does come about, it is a guilty
pleasure”? Explain your answer by using evidence from the text and your own
knowledge. (5 marks)

2. How do you think we make our breaks “professionalized and productized”? Explain
your opinion with relevant reasons and examples. (5 marks)

3. Paraphrase the FOLLOWING LINES with appropriate in-text citation and


reference: (8 + 1 + 1 = 10 marks)
The Case for Having a Hobby
Jaya Saxena
The New York Times
May 10, 2018
URL:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/smarter-living/the-case-for-hobbies-ideas.html

But it is time to divest hobbies from productivity. Their value lies in more than their
relationship to work. Yes, studies have shown that having a hobby can make you more
productive at work, but hobbies can also remind you that work isn’t everything. “Isn’t it
telling that you forgot?” said Brigid Schulte, author of “Overwhelmed: Work, Love and
Play When No One Has the Time,” when I told her I had blanked on the word. “That’s so
indicative of where we are in our culture right now, that you can actually forget what it is
to have something you like to do that’s not: (a) tied to work and (b) productive,” Ms.
Schulte said.

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