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What's your streaming equivalent to turning on the TV just to avoid doing your chores in complete silence?
The trick is to find something interesting enough to make chores less boring, but not interesting enough to distract you to the point of making you stop what you're doing.
I used to play Friends on repeat, but that grew old when I quite literally memorized every single episode.
And my usual interests are way too interesting for me! (I wonder why hahaha).
Does anyone have the same habit? What are your current preferences? (TV shows, podcasts, docuseries, whatever suits your boat...)
Streaming doesn't work for me, for the same reason Algernon outlined above. I also have a hard time with the idea of setting up a visual medium and then not doing anything with it, visually. Just seems wasteful to me.
Podcasts are my poison of choosing. Although I've been kind of forced to do chores without them as of late due to audio issues. I don't have many exact podcasts to recommend because generally speaking any one that I don't need to 100% focus myself on is completely fine. It works just like having radio chatter in the background while driving or similar. If you are curious though usually the ones I'll put on are:
I find that I can't use streaming as a mindless distraction. There's effort involved in choosing a streaming service that I'm paying for, and then choosing a particular show on that service. I'm not going to waste that effort: I'm going to follow through by actively watching whatever I chose and paid for.
If I want a mindless distraction, I use sitcoms on broadcast television.
I listen to Japanese podcasts whenever I have a spare moment, be that walking or doing chores, so I can do my language learning on the side. Honestly most of my learning and proficiency is thanks to this habit.
Hmm, now there's a thought.
Anyone know any good Polish podcasts or YouTube channels?
Mostly it's YouTube videos of craftsmen at work. Stuff like this ideally. Minimum talking, always something interesting when you look up, but not really distracting when you're trying to focus.
I just wish there were longer videos like this. The "slow TV" bits in Norway are good examples. Bob Ross is another. Twitch streams could be interesting, but they just talk too much.
YouTube has a lot of stuff that fits. I've used stuff like underwater footage of scuba diving, walking tours of various cities, monuments, street markets, and world heritage sites, cross-country motorcycle trips, and so on. You can get creative and find some really interesting stuff. I love watching master craftsmen too but I usually can't help stopping to watch and marvel.
There are a lot of good videos of train rides that are similar to the Norway stuff on youtube I'll throw on sometimes. Can usually just put in Train POV and find some pretty decent ones.
I personally follow a lot of Bonsai youtube channels, and those can usually be pretty long/have neat stuff to look at as well as not have a lot going on.
On this note, if you have an AppleTV, the Aerial screen saver is great for this. It's just long, slow-motion shots, usually from a drone or helicopter of interesting things. They've got stuff from the International Space Station, like thunderstorms over the mediterranean. They've got undersea stuff like Jellyfish and Seals. They've got urban stuff like flying over the 110 Freeway in Los Angeles in slow-mo. Drone shots of terraced landscapes in China. Each clip is about 2-4 minutes of just mesmerizing, dream-like video. You can put on whatever music you like in your favorite music app with it, too.
I stayed at an airbnb and didn't know about this feature and got a little vertigo seeing one of these out of the corner of my eye not too long ago, hah.
Usually some music that doesn't force its way into the foreground. Right now I'm working on a project for Typography class and I've got (((O))) (you'd probably have better luck searching for "the sundrop garden") playing on in the background, IMO her type of music is perfect for this. If it's completely mindless chores, then something a little more "invasive" isn't a problem, it can take your mind even more off the task at hand.
So, I checked out the YouTube channel for a quick introduction... and the very first track is a fuckin' 360° video with a beautiful developing geometric structure. Blew my mind that you could just... make a music track on YouTube with 3D visuals.
I have a handful of playlists stored on the laptop, each with a band that tends to set a tone. It's about the type of energy, and the type of mood I'm in for this particular item of work. Can't verbalize it well, so here's the list:
I also have two assorted playlists of recent and previous collections of tracks, for no specific mood.
I'm all about audiobooks. Driving, walking, cooking, etc -- I've always got an audiobook on.
I used to be all up on podcasts, but I got out of the habit, despite running some subs for a couple decent podcasts. I keep meaning to catch up, but I'm practically years behind at this point. One day I'll get back into the swing of it.
Every other week Bret Easton Ellis will release another podcast, though -- I never miss that. For every other ounce of time, audiobooks are king!
I used to put on shows in the background, but I found that it ruined those shows. I was so familiar with them to the point where I barely had to listen to 'get it', but I wasn't enjoying it. When I'd finally watch some, my mind would automatically flip to ignore-mode.
When I need to get mindless work done: Science Fiction OTR is my drug, enough voicework to tell something is going on, not enough to care.
When I need to go to sleep: Sleep With Me Podcast, again, right number of words for me to let it drone on in the background with nothing really to say.
When I need to write or do some mindful work: Lofi Hip Hop Radio - Beats to Relax/Study to Only use this if you actually want to work on something, if you're just trying to chill, it loses its power.
This is going to sound silly, but if I'm just doing truly mindless chores, it's a world dance music channel on Spotify. It feels better to do those bathtub-scrubbing, floor-sweeping, dusty, smelly, zero-brain tasks with something that makes me want to move my booty. Bhangra, Bollywood tunes, whatever, anything with a danceable beat. I don't have to worry about creating a playlist, and there's always something new and interesting.
Youtube music playlists, the best thing that happened to music videos ever since MTV crapped the bed and pivoted to low-grade reality TV content.
old seinfeld episodes is my go-to for auto pilot
Ditto for me but with Star Trek (TNG, DS9 and Voyager).
I don't use anything that i need to see; so TV or movies is out of the question for me. I've learned that if it is a boring TV/movie, then why waste electricity and have a TV on? And, if the TV show or movie is interesting, then it will keep distracting me from finishing my chores. Instead, I'll listen to something that i can do passively like a youtube audio/music playlist, or more often just listen to podcasts. I've considered audiobooks (which i feel would be better for my brain), but similar to TV/movies, sometimes i might have to really listen to grasp something interesting, etc. I've assembled just the right podcasts for X amount of time for my chores. (And music playlists doesn't matter because songs are short spurts anyway.) For example, vacuuming my home takes about 20 minutes, so i know to listen to a podcast that lasts about that long.
95% of the time I'll listen to a podcast on my kitchen speakers. My house is laid out such that I can hear those easily in the kitchen, living room and dining room.
When I really want something different, or I don't have any new podcasts I feel like listening to at that moment, I will play YouTube videos on my Google Home Hub in the kitchen. I do that because I can easily just say, "Hey Google, play me a [funny, informative, short, long, etc] YouTube video" and it will just start playing something I'm reasonably sure I will like.
It's only a 7-inch screen, but it's good enough for me to have running and glance at when I'm cooking or cleaning.