In accordance with my self-imposed More Documenting credo, I have been filling three little notebooks with The Things That I Do. The red notebook is for books (because one list isn’t enough), the pink notebook is for meals (because I am in a perpetual state of Meal Planning Angst, unable to remember a single dish that I am capable of cooking).

But the blue notebook is filling up the fastest. The blue notebook is for TV shows, movies, and podcasts. And it’s telling a pretty ridiculous tale.

In the past two weeks, I have ingested:

• 9 episodes of Breaking Bad
• 7 episodes of Arrested Development
• 5 random episodes of other TV shows
• 3 feature films
• 3 Netflix documentaries
• 3-5 podcasts A DAY

In fourteen days. FOURTEEN DAYS!

Don’t worry, I have tidy excuses for all of it. And I am a consummate multi-tasker – the only inputs that are single-tasked are movies and Breaking Bad, the rest are coupled with more productive work. But FOURTEEN DAYS?!? Really??

I think that I started this little blue notebook not only because I wanted to keep track of my listenings and watchings, but also so I can earn some kind of metaphorical gold star for all the media I ingest. Credit for being culturally informed. But instead, I am feeling a little sheepish, like perhaps I am not able to sit in a quiet room, or worse, my brain is being filled up faster than I can process.

So I will limit my aural intake, because I am a person who likes limits. I will make up an arbitrary rule to help me achieve this because I am a person who responds strongly to arbitrary rules.

From here on out, podcasts are for Outside of the House and audiobooks are for Inside of the House. And the walking in between is for thinking.

Not for stewing, not for planning, not for obsessing, not for worrying. Just thinking, while I walk, stopping only to contemplate a nice view.