Well, must admit, when it’s snowing a bear,we all try to get the jump on it. Middle of the night is a great time to meet neighbors. And it is beautiful.
I live in the desert, so if by raking/shoveling/mowing you mean winterizing the swamp cooler, then all of the above. 
We rarely rake–H has a mower that chews up the leaves nicely. In our climate, we have nothing to shovel. H does the mowing and refuses to hire anyone, so I’m guessing he likes it OK.
I like raking. It’s just that there’s SO MUCH of it if you need to do it.
Right now I have no grass and no snow and I can’t rake (because of no grass) so I leaf blow and sweep. Since my trees are broad-leaf evergreens they never lose all their leaves so it’s not too bad. Still, magnolia trees seem to be constantly shedding something from April - now. The worst is getting beaned by one of those seed pod/pine cone things!
After touring many condo and townhome developments, we decided that we are not yet ready for a condo! Mr. needs his yardworking activities, so I guess he likes to deal with the leaves. Or to play with his Li ion battery Greenworks leaf blower! 
Must say I am surprised to see the word “favorite” used with raking, mowing or shoveling. Add me to the “none” list!
Whatever you’re favorite with, I’m good with that. Just, please don’t use a leafblower–they are instruments of the devil
Myself, I would choose raking. Cuz it’s too hot for mowing in the summer, and too cold/heavy for shoveling in the wintr. Fall is the perfect time for outside work.
None of the above thank you very much. That’s what sons and husbands are for. Or, to be less sexist, others are for.!
Yes, for some reason, I think of my ex every time I rake, mow, or shovel!
None- we live in the high desert with xeroscape. No grass, no deciduous trees, and very little snow. I did shovel when D’s were home. But now that I am retired and not off to work in the morning, and they are gone, I will not shovel- what little snow there is melts by noon. I do like walking the dog.
“I enjoy being outside the most while raking but the activity itself seems never-ending: every day for at least a month.”
You need to wait until the majority of the leaves fall off the trees and then do it. One risk is it snows before all the leaves fall off.
Other options besides raking include blowing and mowing it all up if you have a mulching attachment on your lawnmower.
The city picks up leaves three or four times in October. I live on a court and have a small front yard and correspondingly limited space for the leaf pile. Right now, in the five days since the last pickup, I’m pushing the limits of usable space. Fortunately, the weather has mostly been great this fall.
I rather like mowing. We have a rider and I use the time to get a quick look at all my plantings as I swing by. We don’t rake much even with many trees. I just run the mower over the leaves and then let them decompose. @lookingforward - I agree with you- shoveling snow in the night has a magical feel to it.
I like snow shoveling best. That’s because we don’t have many heavy snowfalls per season here. Once you shovel it, you’re done for a while.
Leaves just keep falling and falling. And during lawn-mowing season, it’s hard to time the mowing and edging just right to keep the yard looking neat.
Raking. Or blowing the leaves with raking as needed. It’s very satisfying to me for some reason
I borrowed my neighbor’s leafblower last year, and have to say… I LOVED it once I got the hang of it. I haven’t enjoyed raking and bagging in recent years.
But when I was a kid, we had a huge treed yard and this big rolling metal mesh-sided leaf burner that we moved around the yard and burned the leaves in. My parents paid us an hourly rate (but quite a small amount) to rake. Such a big yard that I often put in 30-40 hours raking in a typical fall as a teenager. I loved burning them – putting sticks in to turn the leaves so they would all burn, poking at them to make them flare up. dumping more in when it burned down. I often raked around dusk. It was a solitary and peaceful activity.
Not everyone can afford to NOT have to do these tasks. Just sayin.
First my answer. Prefer mowing because I can listen to music while I do it, I get satisfaction from the way it looks afterwards and it’s good exercise - ours takes about an hour to do. Raking is ok though hard on the hands and we have a very large yard so I prefer the leaf blower. We actuLly often use the mower with the bag to catch the leaves and then put them at the curb ground up - less blowing around that way. Shoveling definitely my least favorite - we have so much to do and we are picky about having it all clean. A long deck to shovel to get out to lori garage,-a driveway out to the road plus a circular drive and we love on a corner double lot so lots of sidewalk space.
I’ll be honest and say a big pet peeve of mine is when women say they don’t do it because that’s that the boys are for . I’m one of the only women in the neighborhood that I see out doing it - I jave never understood the gender roles that way.
“Just, please don’t use a leafblower–they are instruments of the devil.”
Why?? Our GreenWorks blower does the job almost silently and so quickly. Plus, we get 80% of out electricity from renewable sources, so there is that “green” element, too. Compare that silence with the scratchy, high pitched sound a leaf rake makes when scraped on the pavement…
The older I get, the more I outsource outside tasks. The oak trees in front of my house leave a mess on my driveway and sidewalk, which have to be swept away and then cleaned.
I like to buy and plant, but dislike weeding.