With more and more of us working large amounts of overtime and committing to longer commutes, the amount of time we spend doing the things we enjoy is growing smaller and smaller.

In fact, recent research has shown that a third of us spend less than 42 minutes a day doing something we enjoy, which amounts to just 3% of our daily 24 hours.

Of course, our leisure time is especially important because it allows us to unwind and relax from the potential stresses of the workplace. But a new study has proven that the stress-reducing nature of our hobbies isn’t the only benefit we can expect from doing the activities we enjoy.

The research, published in the Journal of Vocational Behaviour, has shown that spending more time on a hobby can boost the confidence we have in our ability to perform our jobs well – as long as the hobby is sufficiently different from our actual jobs.

Spending more time on your hobbies could actually boost your confidence at work, according to a new study