At the beginning of this year, I started tracking how much TV and how many movies I actually watch. Not because I wanted to optimise it, cut it down, or feel bad about it — I mean, I watch what I watch. I always have. It’s often my outlet, my decompression time, and we’re also a family that watches a show together with dinner in the evening (even though I’ve spent years trying to make “sit down at the table” our family thing).
I try not to track everything (I can be/have been/am a compulsive tracker of many things). But a few things feel worth paying attention to. I already journal in Day One and keep a reading journal there for books ([in addition to Goodreads)](https://spasic.me/post…
At the beginning of this year, I started tracking how much TV and how many movies I actually watch. Not because I wanted to optimise it, cut it down, or feel bad about it — I mean, I watch what I watch. I always have. It’s often my outlet, my decompression time, and we’re also a family that watches a show together with dinner in the evening (even though I’ve spent years trying to make “sit down at the table” our family thing).
I try not to track everything (I can be/have been/am a compulsive tracker of many things). But a few things feel worth paying attention to. I already journal in Day One and keep a reading journal there for books (in addition to Goodreads), a habit I picked up after reading this blog post by Robert Breen.
**Related: Keep a Book Journal with Day One and Apple Shortcuts **10 Reasons to Use Goodreads
Tracking film and television felt like a natural extension of that practice, just another way of noticing how I spend my time.
And somehow, I managed to stick with it for a full year.
Whenever I watched something, I logged it.
For TV shows, I noted the season, number of episodes, and average episode length. For movies, I recorded the basics. At the end of the year, I dropped everything into ChatGPT to get averages and totals.
The result came to about ***sixteen days. ***At first, that number felt confronting. Sixteen full days of a year spent watching tv.
But here is the actual excerpt from that exercise.
🎬 Movies
~32 movies
Average runtime: 1.8 hours
≈ 58 hours
📺 TV shows, miniseries & documentaries
≈ 430–450 episodes total
Average episode length (weighted): ~42 minutes
≈ 305–315 hours
⏱️ Grand Total for 2025
≈ 365–375 hours of screen time
That’s roughly:
15–16 full days
7–7.5 hours per week
About 1 hour per day, averaged across the year
*And a kind ChatGPT comment I didn’t ask for: *
This isn’t actually excessive — especially considering how many long-form, narrative-heavy shows you watched (The Expanse, Parenthood, Silo). That kind of viewing is closer to reading novels than mindless scrolling.
It’s also very seasonal: big immersion months, then quieter gaps. Not constant, not compulsive — more intentional than it might look on paper.
***ONE hour a day! That’s way below average. ***
I don’t spend much/any time on social media. I don’t scroll endlessly or fall into algorithmic rabbit holes (I am so so mindful about that). I use Reddit occasionally when I’m researching something specific, but otherwise I’m careful about where my attention goes. Most of what I watched was long-form, narrative content: films, series, documentaries; chosen more or less deliberately, not consumed by default.
That distinction matters.
Tracking didn’t make me watch less; it made me watch more consciously.
My system isn’t particularly elegant. I don’t use templates or ratings. I usually note what I watched, who I watched it with, a few words about whether I liked it or not and basic details pulled from Wikipedia: the year, cast, director. If something sparks my interest like an interview, a review, a long-form article, I add that too. After seeing Nuremberg at the cinema, for example, I saved a Smithsonian piece that added depth to the experience.
Writing things down shifted the experience from mostly consumption to something closer to engagement. Instead of shows blurring together and disappearing, they became moments with shape and memory. This type of journaling practice is a way of being present with my experiences rather than letting them slip by unnoticed.
Everything lives in Day One, dated and accompanied by a film poster (it just looks nicer like that in Day One if I want to view it in “Media” mode).
What surprised me most wasn’t the number of hours, but how reassuring the practice felt. In a digital world designed to pull our attention in every direction, simply knowing how you spend your time is grounding. Mindful consumption doesn’t require perfection or abstinence, just awareness.
I’ll probably keep tracking in the coming year, maybe with a few tweaks, maybe without.
In the end, this isn’t about watching less. It’s about watching well.
Everything I watched in 2025 (minus whatever I watch in the next few days of 2025)
January
Movies: Tara Road, Gladiator, Red Sparrow, Burlesque, The Whole Truth, Promising Young Woman, I, Robot
TV & Series: La Palma (limited series)
February
Movies: The Last Witch Hunter, The Day After Tomorrow, The Mountain Between Us, I Feel Pretty, The Man from Earth: Holocene, Kinda Pregnant, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, The Endless, Supernova
TV & Series: New Amsterdam (Season 5), The Resident (Season 6), Obsession (miniseries), Apple Cider Vinegar (miniseries), The Search for Instagram’s Worst Con Artist (docuseries), Missing You (miniseries)
March
Movies & Documentaries: American Murder: Gabby Petito, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, Black Bag
TV & Series: Fire Country (Season 1)
April
Movies: Time Cut, The Life List, The Amateur, Lonely Planet
TV & Series: Zero Day (miniseries), Adolescence (miniseries), Matlock (Season 1), Fire Country (Seasons 2 & 3), The Swarm, The Expanse (Seasons 1–6), The Big Door Prize (Season 2)
May
Movies & Documentaries: Seen
TV & Series: Silo (Seasons 1 & 2), Cobra Kai (Season 6), Disclaimer (limited series), Locke & Key (Seasons 1–3), The Witcher: Blood Origin (limited series), The Four Seasons (Season 1)
June
Movies & Documentaries: Ocean with David Attenborough, Sweethearts, Juror #2, A Perfect Murder, Trap
TV & Series: Loot (Season 2), Running Point (Season 1), Bob Hearts Abishola
July
Movies: Good Rich, Garfield, St. Vincent, A Man Called Otto, Forgetting Sarah Marshall
TV & Series: Sirens (limited series), No Good Deed (limited series), Too Much (Season 1), Untamed (Season 1), The Signal (limited series), The Diplomat (Season 2), Pulse (Season 1), Little Disasters (limited series)
September
Movies: The Old Guard, The Twits, Dinner for Schmucks
TV & Series: Ghosts (Seasons 1–4), Dark Winds (Seasons 1–2), Elsbeth (Season 2), Mayfair Witches (Seasons 1–2)
November
Movies: The Woman in Cabin 10, Good Boys, A Merry Little Christmas, The House of Dynamite
TV & Series: The Diplomat (Season 3), Nobody Wants This (Season 2), Parenthood (Seasons 1–6), All Her Fault (miniseries)
December
Movies: Nuremberg
TV & Series: The Best in Me (miniseries), Boots (Season 1)