Caught Not Caught Up

There is some great television on these days. Mindless trash may be more numerous and more popular, but for the more discriminating viewer, there is more than enough programming of a very high quality. In fact, there really is too much. Only someone who can dedicate hours a day can watch it all. A lot of people do watch tv for hours a day, but they watch the trash. I watch the good stuff, and while I ordinarily have plenty of time for it, I recently was uncharacteristically busy.

As a consequence, I have fallen woefully behind. The recent holiday weekend gave me time to catch up on just one show. I might have watched a little of everything, but I felt there would be a great psychological boost from knocking one show off the agenda. That show, of course, has now aired a new episode, again putting me a bit behind on it. At least I'm not four episodes back on it anymore. That was embarrassing.

Compounding the difficulties of being behind on the shows I've been invested in already, I have become aware of some other great shows that I am now also behind on by virtue of having watched them at all. I ought to not have opened up Pandora's box, but I was too curious for my own good, and now I have those shows to contend with as well. What can I do? I am inquisitive by nature, as is anyone who is worth anything.

I've just got to make a plan. Catching up in a mad fit and falling behind is no kind of sustainable cycle. I know that very well from meeting my self-imposed deadlines for this very blog. A slow, steady drip of progress is the very best thing. It's not just the amount of progress but the rate of it that really makes for productivity. If I watch an episode or two of something every day, then every day's progress becomes easier.

The same is true of inactivity. Every day one goes without working towards something renders it harder to do it the day after. I must make a routine. Routine makes habit, habit makes momentum, and momentum achieves goals. My goal is to catch up on those shows and be able to talk about them with my friends. It's not my only goal in life and I am not prioritizing it, but it is something that I want to do and that I like to do. I think I can manage it.