So here's the thing: I'm subscribed to enough channels that I want to watch 3-5 hours' worth of new videos every day. Which wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the backlog I have of months' worth of videos I want to watch from people I want to watch. But oh well, I can deal with that. Slow and steady, right? Well, there's also Netflix stuff. I have a list of 150+ shows I want to fully watch. Most of them are not on Netflix, but I still call it "Netflix stuff" because it's easier to understand. Prioritize, I know, some are more relevant than others, and as long as I keep up with new episodes it's all good, right? And over time I can also eventually watch the 20 or so movies I so want to watch, right? But maybe every so often I'm browsing Tumblr and see a post about a book I suddenly want to read. Whether it's Discworld, ASoIaF, or some other series, I really want to read all those books. But oh well, can't do everything, right? .....oh wait, my friend is making huge progress in some Wii U game! I should catch up myself so I know what they're talking about! What? There's a new PC game everyone is playing? Oh, wait, a new update for a different game came out. Better check it out. Hey, still I haven't finished that one 3DS game, what gives? I should do that one of these days... Wait, I don't really have time to do that, so what do I- Oh look! One of these 20 webcomics that I'm following updated! (...See my problem here?) I think there's literally no solution other than sucking it up and clearing out as much stuff as I can while caring as little as possible about the rest. You guys happen to have any magical recipes for making the day longer? EDIT: I completely forgot about podcasts!
I don't have magical recipes, per se, but make sure that you don't stress too much about doing things and in what order to do them. The moment you start thinking you've got a responsibility to play this game or read this book and you're addressing it like a chore is the moment that you shouldn't. All of these activities are meant for relaxation, not stress.
I mean sure, that'd certainly be a solution to the stress, but then how would I keep up with everything? (I originally meant that as a kind of joke, but the more I think about it the more genuine the question becomes)
I think learning to let go is a pretty valuable skill. Over the years the amount of time I have for my hobbies has very much decreased while the amount of hobbies I have/series I watch/books I want to read/music I want to listen to has only increased. These days I watch the series I want to watch the most the first. The other ones will eventually get watched, or I will decide I wasn't that interested in watching it anyway. It has taken me years and years and years to come to this conclusion though. It's a very hard to learn skill. I think the best thing you can do is focus on the things that seem the most interesting, first.
Yeah, I guess that's pretty much what I'm trying to do, but the amount of stuff that makes the cut is really big. It's gonna take some time to decrease that. And having people I follow talk about them (*stares at one specific person in particular*) makes it just that much harder.
I do edge around this problem by just wiki binging on some of the material instead of consuming it myself. I'm still not caught up with everything I want to catch up with, and probably will never be, but I do a lot of reading about video games, TV, comics, and some movies online, and it's a huge time saver and scratches the but-i-need-to-know itch.
Some variation of the "box it for a week" method might be useful, here. When trying to get rid of physical things cluttering up your home, common advice is to put it in a box for a week or longer. When enough time has passed, make a list of the things in the box from memory and get rid of anything that wasn't memorable enough to make it onto the list. Maybe try to make a list of all the things you want to get through in your various queues from memory, and whatever you didn't remember gets removed from your queues/watch lists/whatever. Put it on another list to look at when you've managed to catch up if you want to, but treat it all as low-priority, ignore-until-you-actually-have-time fare.
Blacklisting or unfollowing really helps me with that. You could even blacklist their URL for a bit if you don't want to unfollow but you're really tired of/stressed out by hearing about that one thing they talk about all the time.
But the thing is, listening to them talk about it doesn't stress me out or tire me at all! It just makes me excited to go and watch/read/play that thing, and I like to know what new stuff there is to see. It's the "I'm not able to do everything" bit that stresses me out.
