What are the best "set it and forget it" hobbies?

Rock tumbling! Takes four weeks for the whole process but you change the grit and rinse the stones once a week. Every Thursday I get a little dopamine boost from checking my rocks, then I just turn the tumbler back on and forget about it until next Thursday.

Growing young bonsais

Home weather station.

All of them (I have adhd)

Melt and pour soap making. Melt it, mix in colour and scent, and then hours later you demould something smooth and perfectly shaped!

This works with chocolate too. A bonus is that you can eat this one (although some people have gone eat my chocolate scented soap).

Growing Jerusalem artichokes in a raised bed.

EDIT

They are a form of sunflower but they grow tubers underground that are edible. Like potatoes, they can be used almost identical to potatoes but they are diabetic friendly.

And they grow 5-12 feet tall so they are great to make a privacy fence with.

Planting tulips. I planted bulbs in Oct., forgot them and today April 1, I went outside and the things are blooming.

Bone cleaning, lol. I'm a biologist and find cool skulls sometimes in the field. I bring them home, leave them in a container I have outside (with a grate on top to keep the critters out but let the bugs in). Check in a couple weeks and BOOM, nice cleaned bones!

What about a terrarium? Those seem pretty neat.

It's plants and flowers for me. Struggled with that at first because I'm a guy, let my ego get in front of me. The whole guys aren't like supposed to like flowers thing I guess. Glad I let that go because I fucking love my garden, love all of the beautiful flowers and going on neighborhood garden tours. Haven't been passionate about something in a while and feel like I found some peace working in the dirt.

You plant them and do some minor tending, then they just grow into something cool.

I think 3-D printing would be a good one. You start a print and the older machines take 12-18 hours to finish

I got a hydroponic closet, passive fun. Once a day I check the ph to make sure plants are happy maybe add some water and watch it grow.

Growing crystals

Mycology! Growing mushrooms is prep, wait a few weeks, prep, harvest. It's a great side hobby, and you can grow those fancy expensive mushrooms that you can never justify paying for at the store.

Investing.

Growing mangoes. Grafting mango trees. I have 40+ varieties. But I also turned it into a business and ship the fruit in the summer.

Sea monkeys

Cross stitch. I pick it up when in the mood and put it away when the mood passes or life gets in the way.

Adult coloring books Crochet

Growing little potatoes in a raised bed. Plant a few old ones with eyes from your leftover little redskins. Water once in a while, then be surprised by your treasures as you dig them up in the late fall.

Keeping isopods as pets! Most species are easy to care for, and they are fun to watch.

Lock picking. It’s Avery demisable skill set so if you don’t pick for a week your lock collection is bound to have a challenge in there you did not expect. Over coming one those locks is awesome. I will occasionally buy a new tool or steel to make tools. If it comes from china a month later that always is a surprise and pulls me back into the hobby.

Get a kayak. Exploring the bodies of water around you from a different perspective than you usually do, then just roll with that vibe and get some thinking done. That's my guilty pleasure. Kayaks are cheap on marketplace.

Jigsaw puzzles!

Bush hookin' A method of passive fishing. Great fun.

Growing mushrooms.

DIY Terrariums

If you want a very short term set and forget hobby you can soak beans to make your own sprouts! Lots of different varieties to choose from that require different lengths of time you can play with, and then you can throw them in a salad and enjoy what you’ve made!

Like the fermenting—making sourdough bread, especially if you make your starter from scratch. It does require a frequent daily check in at the beginning, but you can also refrigerate the starter until you need it. Then it’s learning the timing of the proofing then baking.

Sauerkraut......cabbage, salt and caraway seeds. I love hearing it "bloop, bloop, bloop" in the fermenting jar every few seconds. Plus, it freezes beautifully. We do it once a year during cabbage season.

Smoking meat......we'll set up our smoker during the day. Then, about 11p we'll place some pork butter on the smoker and let it cook all night and we'll into the next day....ready by supper. I love having BBQ in the freezer.

I love fragrances. Wearing and testing out new perfumes is fun and interesting, and not very intensive. The scents usually change over time, so spray in the morning, smell it, and then keep smelling it at random points throughout the day whenever it crosses your mind (or your nose) to see how it evolves!

You sound like such a cool person with cool hobbies!

Crocheting -- I've been working on the same crochet project for months. I work on it whenever I'm bored an don't have anything else to do. I can make a nice afghan pretty quickly, if I'm making one as a gift. Otherwise, it's just pleasant busy work.

Besides my favorite - houseplant propagation - any type of fermentation, kombucha brewing, making liqueurs or flavored vodkas with fruit.

I would say planting mushrooms. Getting a log then putting the mushroom plugs in.

Terrarium gardening.

Letter in a bottle and over the ocean pen pals.

3D-printing!!

(by set it and forget it, I mean you run a print and it fails so you just give up on the hobby)

I swap postcards with people all over the world. I love it because I get such awesome cards and learn a bit about some other people’s lives. Plus, it is so nice to get a surprise in my mailbox instead of bills or junk mail.

Tree growing.

On what charge?! Propogating bulbs? Proppgating a succulent Chinese bulb?!

Shrooms

Baking! Painting, and of course the usual cricut crafting!

Erosion. I keep a large rock outside my house. I don't check it every day, but when I do, it's always a little smaller. Eventually I'll have to replace it.

Scattering zinnia seeds!

Maybe growing shrooms. r/unclebens

Tie dye. Once dyed, you can let the item sit for 24-48 hours before rinsing it out and seeing the results.

Planting bulbs and starting gardens. I just planted daffodils and irises. It’s always a lot of work in the beginning but it will bring me years of enjoyment. I love daffodils because they pretty much take care of themselves during the rainy spring

I love making wine at home. The initial investment is a few hundred dollars for the equipment and your first batch of concentrated grape juice. You basically rehydrate the juice, add some yeast, and let it sit for a month. Then syphon or funnel it into a second container and let it sit for another month or so. Not every batch was terrific, but most batches I made were at least as good as your basic grocery store wine. And I calculated you're paying about $2 or so per bottle. I make around 30 bottles each batch and always have plenty.

Glass fusing. Stack up some glass. Put in a kiln (you can get small home ones) and out come pretty glass things

I have always kind of wanted an ant farm. But I'm scared of knocking it over, and insects are not pets. But some people do it.

Check local laws first but you can distill essential oils (or whiskey if your state allows distilling for personal use without a license). Be careful as some states don’t allow a still even just as decoration. Do your homework first. I AM NOT ADVOCATING ANYONE BREAK LOCAL LAWS.

Making beer (get a real bucket setup and not a Mr. Beer kit). Hobby grows with you as you progress like starting with an extract kit (add can A and boil 10 minutes, add can B boil 20 minutes add hops, etc), to all grain brewing, giving more control and experimenting (kinda a making soup from scratch vs pancakes in a box comparison if that makes sense.)

Gardening..... almost set it and forget

Opae Ula Shrimp. Basically never have to feed them if they have algae growing in the container and will last 20 years +

Growing mushrooms. A decent amount of work twice. Then it’s just sitting and waiting.

Life. Most people do it as a matter of consequence. 🤷‍♂️

Sewing. Nothing about it expires. I can work on it for as long as I want, drop it at a moments notice, and leave it for as long as needed.

Rock polishing

Cosplaying

Planting trees.

Flower pressing and a wildlife camera come to mind.

Trail cameras. I set them in the state forests up high and out of reach/sight. I'll go back a month or four later and change out the batteries and SIMM cards. Photos of deer, turkey, coyotes, fishers, etc. make my day. It does not cost too much to get into.

Rock tumbling.

You can collect rocks here and there as you are out and about. Then, when you have enough rocks, you load up the tumbler and let it do its thing for a week or so per grit stag. In the end, you have pretty shiny rocks.

I love making stuff with Resin either the normal kind or UV. I can decide how big or small I want to make something. As a teacher I love making fun earrings.

Rock hounding/ tumbling.

Start plants from seed. Seriously. The plants do all the work! Yes, there's a bit of a learning curve, but it's mostly checking on them, watering them from time to time.

Smoking meats with a pellet smoker.

A very well setup fish (or better, shrimp) tank. We have several fish tanks, all with live plants. The ones with shrimp are basically no maintenance once everything is well-established

Rock tumbling

Not so much a "set it and forget it" hobby, but more an occasional hobby of mine is thrifting. My husband and I like to go to thrifting about once every month or two. Sometimes we find treasures, sometimes we find nothing.

Making fancy flavour booze

The hobbies I want to get into are bow-hunting (tracking), fishing, basking in nature.

These are really good ones! How would I make Korean Cheong, please?

Gardening

Crock potting?

Mine would be: - making sure my plants are watered each week or so and seeing them grow new limbs and even flowers - pickling/preserving celery and lemons - create art and put it up for sale on redbubble. i don’t get sales (i make like $5 a year, if even, lmao) often but when a sticker gets sold, i get so happy that i made $0.25 on it. i don’t feel pressured to market myself or constantly create art - it’s just if someone likes whatever i rarely put up enough to buy it, i get super happy.

I bought a mushroom growing kit for $30. Took about two weeks before they sprouted and quickly after that were big enough to grill up. You spray them once a day (or in my case, once every couple days). There are even some that are automatic so little work involved.

Making mead. You do have to put in some time initially…but once it is done, let it age. As it is aging make another batch…and start drinking the first batch

Rinse…and repeat

Sea monkeys.

Fungus

Has anyone mentioned vermiculture? After they’re properly set up, you can check on them daily or leave them alone for weeks/months without worry. They can take care of your kitchen waste and leave you with an AMAZING compost. Raising worms is so satisfying.

Keeping fish and live plants in an aquarium

slit a few vanilla beans and drop em in a bottle of vodka or bourbon and a year later you'll have vanilla extract! the time will pass anyway. sourdough is another good one

Rock tumbling

Mushroom growing. First, I put jars of oats in my cabinet and patiently wait for the mycelium to grow across the oats. Then, I set up my tub and wait until the little dudes pop up. One day, there is nothing growing. The next day, the tub is full of mushrooms. It's really cool.

Brewing as you mentioned is a great mostly passive hobby that makes you very popular if you get good at finishing.

One I started was a food forest in my backyard. Focusing on fruit trees and bushes that grow well in my area and don't require much fussing over in the cold or heat of summer. I set up a drip irrigation system on a timer and just glance most days to make sure all is well and they just do their thing. Takes a few years to start bearing fruit. But before long you end up with baskets of peaches and blackberries to eat, and make wine with. Lol

Crypto mining

Pickling