PV productions/ShutterstockIn online “prepper” communities – where people discuss ways to prepare for potential emergencies and disruptions – members often jokingly refer to their “zombie apocalypse” skills. These are the capabilities they would bring to catastrophic or post-apocalyptic worlds, where the demands of today’s job market suddenly matter less. Participants ask questions and exchange tips, debate ethical scenarios, and support those increasingly anxious about shortages, instability or the prospect of civil unrest.These “apocalypse skill” musings can work to reinforce ideas that the superior value of physical strength and traditionally masculine skills will be restored by a catastrophe. But these discussions can also have the opposite effect. They can recast domestic and caring labour – the provision of food, water, comfort and support – and the work of maintenance and repair, from underpaid, low-status activities to essential skills for survival.Hobbies can bring joy, wellbeing and focus to our busy lives, but so many of us don’t have one. If you’re ready to replace scrolling with stitching, or hustle with horticulture, The Hobby Starter Kit (a new series from Quarter Life) will help you get going.The typical image of a prepper puts too much emphasis on their stuff – stockpiles of food and water at home or equipment packed in emergency grab-bags – and too little on the importance preppers place on learning survival skills.A stockpile of food simply buys you time, while a bag of survival equipment is only useful if you know what to do with it. As one prepper adage puts it: “the more you know, the less you carry.”Practical, hands-on skills related to securing basic everyday needs are revalued for post-apocalyptic living. If familiar systems fail, it is the gardener, mechanic, home carer or nurse, not the investment banker, who become the highly sought-after member of any survival unit or “MAG” (mutual assistance group). This is one part of the appeal of being a prepper – reimagining your value in contexts other than the present.But you don’t have to become a fully fledged prepper to take inspiration from the idea of learning practical skills. It’s an opportunity to take up a hobby that brings the satisfaction of making something yourself, getting closer to nature, or finding ways to respond to the pressures of work or eco-anxiety.Apocalypse-proof hobbiesSo what new skill could you develop in time for this hypothetical zombie apocalypse? There is a burgeoning bushcraft and survival scene in the UK, with many providers offering one-day training courses as a taster. These tend to cover fire-starting, water purification, green woodworking and shelter-building. This could come in handy on your next camping trip, let alone during a “grid-down” scenario. Foraging can be a way to feel connected with nature. Zoran Zeremski/Shutterstock Foraging for wild food and medicinal plants is also highly valued, reflected in growing public interest in the UK. The foragers I spoke to in my ongoing research point to the meaning they find in reconnecting with natural, cyclical rhythms, despite climate-related disruption to seasonal patterns. Again, there is no shortage of courses and books to consult to begin learning how to forage safely. An important message, however, is to not rely on AI photo identification: that way you avoid poisoning your friends, as well as future-proofing your skills if the mobile network does go down.Food growing, cooking and preservation skills don’t require an allotment or an expensive electric dehydrator. Instead, join a community garden or grow what you can in whatever small spaces are available. You can learn traditional methods of food preservation, and collect and reuse glass jars and bottles. Then there is the much caricatured hobby of spoon-carving. Remember: this is not about the need for endless coffee spoons come the apocalypse, but about developing safe and competent knife skills for wider camp craft, such as making feathersticks for fire-lighting, or whittling a replacement tent peg. Overlapping benefitsThe advantage of all these hobbies is the multiple benefits they offer in different contexts. If the apocalypse never comes, well, you’ve still got home-grown tomatoes, homemade kimchi or a carved wooden spoon to show off to your friends. Growing and preserving food are useful skills whether the apocalypse comes or not. Mike_shots/Shutterstock Hobbies that get you outside and immersed in nature, in the flow of a practical activity and connected to a community can also be a valuable way of confronting the eco-anxiety many of us experience in the face of climate breakdown. Rather than succumbing to paralysing anxiety or self-protective denial, these environmental practices can foster a form of practical hope grounded in the simple value of doing something. This dual benefit perspective is also an environmental argument. Many of these survival skills build preparedness not by stockpiling tins, but through enjoyable activities that create sociable communities, connect us to nature and develop more sustainable ways of living. Approaching a new hobby as your “zombie apocalypse skill” is a playful way of recognising the multiple benefits of practical skills and how they might come into play in different contexts. At points in our lives when we can feel reduced to the lines on our CV, particularly in a challenging job market, this may be something to learn from preppers. Imagining a future in which the way we are valued is transformed provides an opening to thinking about alternatives to the present, albeit from the enthusiastic embrace of worst case scenarios. But then, if you’re ready for the zombie apocalypse, you’re ready for anything – wooden spoon and wild garlic pesto in hand.Kezia Barker receives funding from the Wellcome Trust and Leverhulme.