An oft-heard comment in modern times is “I don’t have time for that”. And certainly, people are working longer hours than before.

…but only to an extent. I’m sure if you go back before the 50s you’d find that actually, people spent more hours each week at the factory or office than they do now. Of course, I’m excluding the United States in this. You guys really need to get a grip on your labour laws.

But when people say “I don’t have time for that”, what they usually mean is “I don’t want to spend time doing that”. And I’m just as guilty as everybody else in using that excuse. It’s my go-to response. However, if I were to stop and think about it, I’d find that I actually have double-digit hours of free time each week. And what did I do with them? The terrifying answer is usually “Not much, really.”. I listened to music I already knew. I watched films I’d already seen. I read books I’d already read.

No, this isn’t going to turn into one of those lifestyle pieces about “being more productive with your time”. The people who write them often have people who co-ordinate their lives for them. As Richard E.Grant said in Spiceworld “You don’t have lives. You have a schedule.”. And why do people follow these stories even if they never heed any of the “advice” contained within? Because people like somebody who knows what they’re doing.

Most of us don’t. So we gravitate towards people who look like they’ve got everything figured out. Even if they haven’t. They only have to put on the pretense of organisation. Perhaps that’s one of the reason some people like Trump. He looks like a guy who’s got things under control. Of course most rational people can see within about five seconds that he hasn’t. That it’s all bluster and front. But it doesn’t matter. You only have to maintain the facade for a short while.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the British host for “The Apprentice” was Alan Sugar. Also a failed businessman who hasn’t had a good idea for decades. Last I heard he was trying to sell a system for petrol station forecourts that scanned people using the pumps, estimated their age and gender and then displayed targeted video advertising. Yeah, thanks. Can’t wait for that one. I do see that we got video screens on the pumps in the meantime advertising pointless crap that even the shopping channel turned down. Keep an eye out for cameras in the near future.

Anyway, I’m getting off topic. I do suffer from a bad case of FOMO, but not so much in relation to events and occasions. It’s more to do with the fact that in the modern streaming age we suddenly have access to decades and decades of radio, TV shows, movies, albums and books which we otherwise might not have ever encountered. And we’re expected to at least be aware of them if not intimately familiar with the stories and characters. And new media is churned out at a rate far faster than anybody could possibly hope to keep up with. Have I seen “Westworld”? Mate, I haven’t even seen “The Sopranos” yet. Every day I get a slew of notifications informing me “New episodes of the shows you follow are now available”. Every day I’ll listen to two or three, but I’m not sure I’m digesting them faster than they come in.

I give myself too much to do. That’s perhaps my problem. I’m working through the “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die” book, even though I still have dozens of movies on DVD and Blu-Ray that I’ve bought but never got around to watching. And there’s new movies coming out all the time. At some point I want to watch all of classic Doctor Who from the beginning as I’ve only seen around 25% of the serials..out-of-order and I’m sure there’s a lot of references and throwaway lines to earlier events that I’m missing. We still haven’t finished Bojack Horseman even though we’re half way through Season 3 and we started a year and a half ago. I haven’t even started listening to this year’s BBC Proms [as of October 10th], having only finished Glastonbury a few weeks ago. At least there’s no Glasto next year so there’s a chance to catch up.

I have a weakness for audio dramas too. Not audio-books. Original dramas with sound effects and acting. That will probably be covered in a different post at some point as I think radio is still a very underrated medium. Those I try and listen to when I’m working…I actually bought an earpiece so I can listen to them when I have customers around. Unfortunately I’ve discovered Radio 4 Extra which specialises in releasing shows from the vast BBC Radio archive… and 3-4 hours of new (to me) shows appear in my feed every single day. Even if I only listen to half of them I still struggle to keep up.

There simply isn’t time for everything. In fact, I’m trying to multitask right now. I’m writing this whilst listening to orchestral albums for a post I will make at some point in the near future. Multitasking seems to be the key, but there are only so many things you can do simultaneously. I got through the “1001 Albums” book quite quickly because it’s possible to listen to music whilst doing other things….it’s not possible to do that with the films simply because they’re a visual medium. And if they’re subtitled then you can’t look away for fear of missing some crucial plot-point.

At some point I’m going to have to accept the fact that I can’t possibly watch and listen to absolutely everything.

….but what if the thing I drop turns out to be something really good?