Confession. I really enjoy watching TV shows and movies. It is something that I find myself reaching for when I want to be entertained, engaged, or inspired. It’s something that my wife and I do together with some shows and then separately as well (we have different tastes with regards to some genres). One of our favorite things to do as a couple is sit down and watch an episode or movie after the kids go to bed.

Side note - Do you want to upgrade your watching experience at home? Go to Amazon and grab a popcorn popper for your microwave. You can buy popcorn kernels for super cheap and make incredible popcorn at home! It adds a little bit of extra fun to movies at home (which is pretty much all movies right now thanks to Covid). I get excited just thinking about putting my kids down to bed and getting the popcorn ready for a movie night.

In the world of online streaming there is no shortage of options for shows or movies to watch. We are bombarded by streaming platform and new shows and movies show up on a weekly basis. It can be overwhelming to find something to watch, and by the time you scroll through some new options of shows you have never heard of you just end up back at The Office for the 10th time (no shame, we have all been there). A few weeks ago I set out to make that problem go away by creating a database in Notion to manage the movies that I wanted to watch. 

Notion is a note-taking app that uses databases (and other pages) to manage your information. It’s an incredibly powerful app that I use to keep track of almost everything in my life; you could say that it’s my second brain. I don’t have time to dive into all the ways I use Notion, but I do want to highlight now I am using it to keep track of movies. The database I created is basically a glorified spreadsheet where I can add different properties. To keep track of movies I added cells for the title, a checkbox of whether I have watched it (it will sort by the checkbox), where I can watch the movie, how interested I am in watching that film (low, medium, medium-plus, high), and then a place to add tags. 

Now I can instantly sort and see movies that I want to watch on Netflix with my wife just by sorting that database. It takes something that seems impossible (finding something to watch with my wife) to something enjoyable. Then we get to sit down and actually watch a movie together! I am terrible at picking a movie in the moment (I’m terrible at picking anything under pressure), so this little tracker helps me make a good choice when I have some time to watch a movie. I have other databases for other areas of my life and they all function in the same way. I can find books, notes, home information, recipes, and data that I may need by quickly sorting tags or statuses in databases. It’s one way that I make technology work for me. 

If you don’t want to use something like Notion to track movies, you could just create a note in Apple Notes with movies or TV shows you want to watch. I would highly recommend capturing those ideas when they come to you and then sorting those entries when you have free time. I hope this sparks an idea of how you can enjoy something (that is supposed to be enjoyable) with a little bit of planning and processing on the front end.