In life, one of the things that propels a person to move forward is a big goal they want to achieve for themselves. Perhaps this goal is a dream born from an important childhood memory or one that they accidentally stumbled upon in their adolescence. It could even be something they merely overheard on a random day, which piqued their interest. Regardless of origin, the idea of achieving this big goal usually takes up a lot of space in one’s mind.
If you start pursuing this dream with the best of your abilities, chances are you end up channeling your inner girl boss and map out the best course of action to help make it come true. Even society supports this with idea of productivity, where you diligently set up smaller goals every day to serve as stepping stones or master all sorts of skills to help in this endeavor, all with the underlying thought that EVERYTHING you do should be in support of that dream.
If you waste your time doing nothing, then you’re being unproductive and that’s bad because you’ll never achieve your dreams that way. So, you push on, despite the fact that it’s probably your 8th cup of coffee for the night and you desperately want to sleep, but you can’t because you need to do this or else you’ll fail, right?
While this continuous pursuit of productivity plays a big part in fulfilling a goal, it also opens the doors to something that completely prevents that accomplishment—burnout.
We, humans, are far different from well-oiled machines that are only built to do one thing for the rest of their lives. We tend to crave a dynamic way of life that doesn’t revolve around one singular thing all the time. We also get tired. Really tired. But when you push yourself to your own limits, without a care for your welfare, it’s only a matter of time until your mind and body gives up on you.
But in the state of the world today, it is far too easy to fall into your usual routines that, despite being fueled by the pursuit of your goals, end up filling your days with deafening monotony. Before you realize it, your days have become clusters of predictability and stress. Your concept of time is reduced to constantly waiting for a break, and you end up feeling as if the clock is ticking both slowly and far too quickly all at once.
Think about it. When was the last time you took a little detour from that consistent daily schedule of yours? When did you ever do anything that didn’t necessarily help with the work deadlines, but also didn’t make you feel like you wasted your time?
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not bad to have a routine and graciously follow it every day. However, it pays to stray from the path every once in a while. The expression “stop and smell the roses” exists because there is beauty in taking the time to enjoy the little things in life, and one way to do that involves this thing called a “side quest.”
For many people well-versed in the language of gaming, especially in adventure and role-playing genres, side quests are defined as optional tasks or missions that don’t necessarily have anything to do with the progression of a game’s main objectives. It simply stands as a welcomed addition to the game that can help you appreciate its world and everything within it more.
In our case, side quests are activities that push you to try something out of the ordinary. It is a disruption from your current routines that rewires your brain and allows you to bring back a sense of whimsy that might’ve disappeared in your life. People might confuse it for a hobby, but an article by The Good Trade explains that hobbies are things people do regularly, on the other hand, side quests invite people to get up and do something new or novel.
While they don’t necessarily contribute to achieving that big goal you might have, side quests offer a different kind of benefit. An article by Forbes found that the accomplishment of a personally meaningful side quest can replenish one’s productivity. This is because side quests allow people to reset their focus, reduce stress, and feel more human. It shifts your perspective to see that there’s more to life than just accomplishing a goal and that to live means taking the time to pause and find new experiences, too.
If you’re looking to get into a side quest of your own, here are some ideas you can try out for yourself:
- Learning a new sport you just heard about from a friend
- Taking an improv class
- Joining a volunteer group
- Trying a recipe for something you’ve never made before
- Going for a hike
- Trying out fishing
- Going to an art market
- Watching a theatrical play
- Writing a poem
- Learning a new dance
Honestly, there’s a plethora of side quests you can try out. But the key thing is that it has to be different from something you already do on a daily basis. After all, the beauty of side quests lies not in its impressiveness or even on how productive it would be, but in how it can help your brain take a breather from the rigidity of the routines you consistently subject yourself to.
So think about it and ask yourself: what kind of side quest can I try to go for today?
Sources:
- What Are “Side Quests” And How Can We Use Them for Self-Care? – https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/what-are-side-quests/
- ‘Sidequests’ At Work Are Driving Employee Productivity And Retention (Forbes) https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2025/10/22/sidequests-at-work-are-driving-employee-productivity-and-retention/
- How 60 Minutes of Side Quests Supercharge Your Productivity – https://appetals.com/blog/how-60-minutes-of-side-quests-supercharge-your-productivity/#:~:text=When%20you%27re%20deep%20in,participants%20reported%20significantly%20better%20memory.
Bio:
Ever since she was nine, Abigail Adriatico has always known she’d be a writer. Decades later, her love for the craft has led to a degree in Communication from the University of Santo Tomas, and hundreds of written pieces kept in old notebooks, literary folios, news publications, and even geeky websites you’ve probably never heard of. With a bulky bag filled with sentimental trinkets and a mind buzzing with a plethora of random ideas, you’ll most likely find her in the corner of the room, writing her heart out on her notes app or on the first piece of paper she can grab—unless she finds you first. Then you’ll probably figure out why some people call her “a bee.”
