A tour of my YouTube subscriptions

A few weeks ago I was talking to some friends about how much time we all spend watching YouTube. “I’d hate to know how much time I waste on it,” I said. “I bet it’s awful.” Then someone told me that you can actually check this in the app. I immediately declared that I was never, ever going to check because sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Today, I gave in and looked. On average, I spend more than an hour a day watching YouTube. This was kind of sobering. An hour is a good chunk of my time, especially my leisure time. It’s more than I spend doing any other hobbies, like cooking, reading, playing games, watching films, or exercising.

So, what exactly am I watching?

Keeping a journal

There are some things I always carry with me – keys, wallet, phone, and a bright yellow A5 notebook.

I like to think of the notebook as an analog download of my brain. I follow the bullet journal system, which means it’s a combination of a journal, a planner, a collection of lists, and basically anything else I feel like writing down.

I highly recommend keeping a journal. Writing down your thoughts can be a good way to work through problems and relieve stress. Plus, years later you can look back at it and laugh at what an embarrassing idiot you were. It’s a gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

My favourite Crazy Ex-Girlfriend songs

After four seasons, the last ever episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend dropped on UK Netflix this weekend. The show had its flaws, but it meant a lot to me in various ways, and I’m going to miss it. I loved its characters and admired its focus on mental health. But my favourite part has always been the music.

I have always been a sucker for comedy songs. When I was a kid, I constantly listened to to Weird Al and Dr Demento (with apologies to my parents). As a student, I re-watched favourite episodes of The Mighty Boosh and Flight of the Conchords until I knew all the lyrics. I also grew up with a love for old musicals. So when I found out that the show I’d been ignoring on Netflix for years was actually a multi-season comedy musical, I was instantly sold.

I briefly considered ranking every song in the show, but that number turns out to be somewhere between 140 and 173 depending on how you count it. That is a lot of songs, and I’m not sure I have the fortitude to come up with a definitive ranking.

So instead, here are my top 25. The ones that get stuck in my head, or are the most fun to sing in the shower. Or just produce the most feels. Sometimes all three.

Spoilers ahead!

Giving up on a book

I did something unusual last month: I gave up on reading a book. Two books, actually.

This is pretty rare for me. I will ditch a TV series without a second thought, and regularly lose interest in video games before playing them to the end. Films are a different story, but they’re also so short that I can tolerate a bad one in its entirety. But when it comes to books, I will generally grind through to completion, no matter how long it takes.

My latest book abandonments happened back-to-back. First I dumped Shardik after only a few chapters. Then I made it halfway through Brighton Rock and decided not to stick around for the second half. The books sat together at the top of my charity shop pile, a reminder of my shame. I began to wonder if there was something wrong with my attention span.

But the next time I picked up a book, I tore through it in 24 hours. I still felt bad about abandoning its predecessors, but I realised this felt like a much better use of my time than slogging through something I wasn’t actually enjoying.

I decided I should give up on more books. Why I don’t do this more often?