Pop! Hacks!
Tips and tricks for how to love music, movies and book without feeling overwhelmed by them.
1. Know your method and stick to it. I write best listening to music with an object near my left hand (a pen, a notebook, coffee cup). I never read, listen to or watch two examples of the same artist's work in a row. I don't know why and it doesn't matter. I found out it these methods work to keep me creating and appreciating culture at a steady clip. So I don't ask questions.
Finding your best methods takes time, effort, experimenting and learning from those experiments. But once you've zeroed in on a way, that's your way. Don't torture yourself over "why."
2. Catalog only if easy and useful. I use Goodreads to keep track of my books, Discogs for my vinyl records. Both have kept me from buying something twice and remembering work by artists I admire but haven't checked out yet. Both are dead easy and quick to learn to use.
I don't catalog my DVDs because they fail these two rules: I can't find a need to catalog DVDs nor an easy program to do it.
Cataloging is not its own reward. Don't make busy work for yourself. Do it if its adds something to your experience with the thing you are cataloguing.
3. Sit in the back row. Lately when going to the movies, I've been sitting in the back row: low traffic, same visibility (I feel no need for the screen to fill my entire field of view as though its an oncoming train), easy to go to the bathroom and leave quickly at film's end. Try it.
4. The 4 issue rule. If you have more than 4 issues piled up of a magazine, get rid of it. You won't miss them and having them around is torment you bring upon yourself. And why do that?
Pop! Hacks! are a feature of my newsletter The Smoke Signal, which comes out twice a month. Subscribe if ya like.