Why personal projects matter
3 June 2025
Lately, I’ve noticed more and more encouragement around self-care, gentle prompts to slow down and step back from the constant motion of daily life. It’s good advice. Many people need to hear that it’s okay to stop, to be still. But for some of us, self-care doesn’t always come through stillness. Sometimes, it’s found in activity and getting absorbed in something for no other reason than it speaks to us.
That’s why a piece I came across about “grandma hobbies” got me thinking. It celebrated the quiet joy of baking, knitting, gardening, restoring old tools, pastimes that don’t chase productivity, but still offer something meaningful. These aren’t flashy or urgent, but they make us feel better and give shape to our time. They help us feel more like ourselves and perhaps connected to ourselves.
Often, we call these things hobbies. But the term “personal projects” might be more fitting and more expansive. Psychologist Brian Little has written and spoken at length about how personal projects are at the core of our well-being. In Me, Myself, and Us, he explains that these projects (anything we intentionally engage in that carries personal meaning) are deeply tied to how we flourish. They don’t have to be large or impressive. They might be as modest as building a shed, learning to grow herbs, or writing short stories in the evening. The power lies not in the scale, but in the significance they hold for us.
Little puts it this way: “Human flourishing is enhanced when individuals are engaged in the pursuit of personal projects.” That idea shifts the conversation around self-care. It’s not always about stepping away, but sometimes about moving toward something.
There’s no one kind of personal project. Some take the form of traditional hobbies, others might blur into learning, fixing, designing, creating. They can be quiet, unseen things. Or they can be shared in community. What they have in common is that they come from within. They aren’t assignments or ‘should dos’. They’re chosen.
Pursuing a personal project means giving time and space to something that reflects who you are, or who you’re becoming. It might be slow, uneven, and private. which doesn’t lessen its value, on the contrary, that’s where its worth lies. These projects help us stay connected to our own intentions, especially in a world that so often pulls us away from them.
If you’ve felt drawn to something that keeps nudging your attention it might be time to let it take shape. You don’t need to turn your project into something impressive. It doesn’t have to lead anywhere. What matters is that it holds your attention and feels worth doing. The value is in meaning, not productivity.
So start where you are. Let it be rough around the edges and give it time, that’s how it becomes something that matters to you.
And if you’d like to explore this topic more:
Little, B. R. (2014). Me, myself, and us: The science of personality and the art of well-being. PublicAffairs.
Little, B. R., Salmela-Aro, K., & Phillips, S. D. (Eds.). (2017). Personal project pursuit: Goals, action, and human flourishing (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315089928
Little, B. R. (2016). Who are you, really? The surprising puzzle of personality (TED Books). Simon & Schuster.