Pop! Hacks! Saving Playlists and Reading More
Tips and tricks for how to love music, movies and book without feeling overwhelmed by them.
1. Download and save playlists. Those of us who used the now-departed RDIO music service were relieved that RDIO gave members their playlists in a little downloadable bundle before they turned off the lights. Not everyone is so nice. Pays to take 30 seconds and export a favorite playlist from iTunes (say a playlist given to you by friend or lover) then upload the file it creates to Google Drive or Dropbox.
2. Log movies you watch. I have a terrible time remembering movies I saw no matter how much I loved them. So I've taken to scrawling a few lines down about the movie I just saw on Letterbxd just so it's recorded somewhere and I can cycle back when someone asks "What's the best documentary you saw this year?" and the first words that come to mind are "Breakfast Burrito."
Not an endorsement for Letterbxd as I haven't explored any of its competitors. A notebook and pencil work just as well.
3. On that, unless you are a serial watcher of movies, once you've watched something on Netflix, Amazon, Itunes etc. delete it. Unless you are going to rewatch it, it's just taking up space. "I paid for it" isn't a good reason to keep it around. It's paying for the privilege of acting like a hoarder.
4. If one of your 2016 resolutions is to "read more", give yourself time to read 10 pages nightly before turning on the TV. Unless you are reading Proust, 10 pages goes by super fast and if you've chosen a good book, you'll probably want more that 10 pages before turning on the TV.
Pop! Hacks! are a feature of my newsletter The Smoke Signal, which comes out twice a month. Subscribe if ya like.