New Year’s Goal: Keeping Track of My Reading and Viewing Lists

Something I noticed a lot of my friends doing online at the end of the year was reporting back on what they read over the course of that year–What their top books were, or in the case of my more movie-centric friends, what their top films were. That’s something that I haven’t noticed before (was I just snoozing through it? Maybe I’ve gotten different friends? Maybe Facebook was hiding it from me so that I wouldn’t feel bad?), but I love the idea, and so I want to do the same thing this year.

What’s my plan?

I’m going to keep a Google Spreadsheet listing every movie, book, and TV episode I watch. I’m also going to include the date and a rating (0-10) for each one. That way, I can look back at a particular month and see what I liked the most, or check for a year. More data means more ways to have fun with the information when the fun-having time starts.

Why am I going to do this?

Well, besides the obvious answer (“Because I want to.”), and the almost as obvious answer (“Because I think it will be interesting.”), there’s the dark, real answer: “Because I don’t think I’m reading enough.”

I know from experience with myself that when I start tracking things, I start doing them better. More effectively. I thrive on keeping track of numbers and statistics. That says something about me, I suppose, but I’m old enough now to be at peace with that. If I know some ways of motivating myself to do more, why wouldn’t I take them?

Tracking the number of books I read each month will help me to read more of the things. Tracking the number of television shows and movies? That’s more just curiosity, there. If anything, it might inspire me to watch less theses days. Who knows?

Either which way, it seems like a fun experiment, so I’m going to give it a shot. I don’t anticipate sharing many of the details on the blog, other than the typical reviews I post now and then. I suppose I might consider adding a little blurb at the end of each post with the current tallies, but that sounds too much like work.

So probably not.

In any case, that’s my thing I’m doing differently this year. (Really stretching myself, I know.) What are you planning on giving a spin this time around the sun?