Which activities make you lose track of time?

Certain video games can absorb me. Most recently, it’s the empire-building game Stellaris that’s sucked me in, though numerous games have done this to me in the past. Football management sims, various Legend of Zelda titles, the Super Mario series, they’ve all ensnared me, most thoroughly, at one time or another. A good game, one with enticing gameplay, can easily leave me losing complete track of time. Games like Stellaris, Civilisation, and UFO: Enemy Unknown are the sort of strategic, tactical games that hook me into the ‘one more round’ mentality. They have this in common with football management games.

The Zelda and Mario games are less ‘one more go’, and more ‘what’s around the corner?’ The likes of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom proved especially adept at exciting my exploration mode. Digging around Hyrule, and poking around the caverns, mountains, castles and forests, is a timeless activity.

I can also lose myself to a good book. If it really captures my attention, I can read a book I enjoy for hours on end. On the flipside of that, when I am in the zone to write, I can lose myself to that process too. There is something about diving deep into creative work that engulfs me, and leads me to forget the passage of time, at least for a while.