Blogocentric Formulations

Changes for 2021

So I've decided to try something a little different this year...

I'm normally a voracious consumer of information and entertainment. I have a lifelong love of learning, a natural affinity for processing input, and have never had any trouble finding ways to occupy my time. Case in point, over the past five years:

Books read: 540
Scripts read: 160
Comics read: 244
Podcast episodes listened to: 6,621
Movies watched: 500+
TV series watched: 100+

And that's not even counting all the newspaper stories, magazine articles, social media conversations, etc. But I'm realizing that all of this has come at a cost. Over that same period of time:

Books written: 0
Scripts written: 0

I've written a fair amount of short stories and poetry, blog posts and essays, and other creative writing in that time... but overall, I've been prioritizing the consumption of media over the creation of it, and I've been depriving myself of "free time" to think, plan, and realize my own projects.

This year, I'm intentionally reading less. I unsubscribed from a bunch of podcasts so my weeks aren't full of dozens of listening hours. I'm going to be more purposeful about the movies and television I watch, as well as the time I spend online. I want to create the space to spend more time thinking and (hopefully) writing.

This isn't some grand proclamation where I'm going to suddenly leave social media altogether or anything like that. I guess, more accurately, it's an effort to rebalance my time and energies.

I'm hoping for some real change in 2021, and I realize that's not going to happen if I don't do things differently. And I guess I'm just posting it here to hold myself accountable.

Anyone else trying to make any big changes this year?