28 Side Quests Worth Taking
Nobody tells you to go on a side quest. That's the whole point.
A side quest has no deliverable. No ROI. No deadline and nobody to answer to. It's a thing you do because something in you said that looks interesting and you listened.
As I wrote previously, side quests are where a lot of great things happen. The new skill that became a hobby. The walk that became a ritual. The conversation that shifted something. None of it was planned.
These 28 are low cost, low stakes, and deliberately varied.
Pick one. Give it a go this week.
Learn something
- Master a card trick properly
- Learn 10 words in a language you'd never normally study
- Watch a documentary on a subject you know absolutely nothing about
- Spend an hour on a Wikipedia rabbit hole with no destination in mind (use this site to find something new)
Make something
- Bake a loaf of bread from scratch
- Write a short story in one sitting
- Build something from wood with only hand tools
- Draw a portrait of someone you love, badly on purpose
Explore your environment
- Walk every street in your neighbourhood you've never been down
- Find the oldest building within 5km of your home
- Visit a local museum you've been meaning to go to for years
- Stop somewhere you've always driven past but never actually visited
Connect with people
- Call someone you haven't spoken to in over a year
- Go to a club or group meeting for something you know nothing about
- Introduce yourself properly to a neighbour you've never really spoken to
Challenge yourself quietly
- Do a full day with no phone after 9am
- Wake up an hour earlier for a week and see what you do with the time
- Eat only home-cooked food for two weeks
- Walk somewhere instead of getting in a car or bus
Notice things differently
- Sit in a public space for 30 minutes and just watch people
- Go somewhere familiar and try to spot five things you've never noticed before
- Listen to an album from start to finish with no distractions
Start something tiny
- Keep a one-sentence diary for 30 days
- Start a collection of literally anything (here's mine)
- Plant something and keep it alive for six months
One for luck
- Write a letter to your past self and post it to your own address
- Learn the name of one tree, one bird, and one wildflower near where you live
- Stay up late enough to see a sunrise, outside, with no phone
None of these will transform your life.
However, if you're like me, you'll sometimes get the sense that your days have got a bit too predictable. Same loops, same apps, same stimulation.
Side quests are small ways to break that pattern. Pick one. See what happens.
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