How I remember what to watch

This is a list of lists. All the places where I keep lists of TV and radio programmes that I want to watch or listen to.

A text file

This text file (well actually a note in Notational Velocity and Simplenote) is a list of TV programme that have been recommended to me; by word-of-mouth, by Twitter friends, by blogs or by newspapers. These are often US dramas and most likely to be things I buy as a DVD boxset. I just note them down when I can (on my phone or laptop) and the “x3” next to Fringe is because it’s been mentioned 3 times. Some of these (e.g. Supernatural) are ones where I want to remember to buy another series when it’s released, some are new.

A Freeview PVR

I use my PVR quite a lot to record broadcast programmes for watching later. Most programmes recorded on there are through a series link (it records all episodes of a series) and I think all are TV despite it being able to record radio. It’s fairly new, I only decommissioned my 10(?)-year old TiVo recently, so there’s plenty of disk space on there. One anomaly is that BBC 4 doesn’t work, something to do with Guildford transmitter, so the PVR records BBC 4 programmes but they are unwatchable. In which case the programmes sit on the list acting as a reminder for me to watch them on iPlayer.

A dog-eared Radio Times

Yes, i buy the Radio Times. I have a ritual where I generally try to skim through it on a Saturday morning and then fold page corners down when I see something interesting. Then later I will go through these marked programmes and set up the PVR to record or maybe check it in an evening if I’m looking for something to watch. At Christmas I might even draw a ring around programmes.

iTunes

Most of my radio listening is Radio 4 and most of it is live and at the weekend - their regular schedules and my memory helping me do that. All my podcast subscriptions are managed through iTunes though I never manage to listen to many, they’re more likely to be saved for a holiday. iTunes does some management by notifying you that you haven’t listened to a podcast for a while and stopping it updating (the little exclamation marks next to subscriptions). I tend to ignore this and just tell it to keep downloading. I also download one-off radio programmes, mainly discovered through the Radio Times, but I can’t tell you how I do that!

So what?

It's somewhat fragmented with different tools and workflows for TV, DVDs and radio, adapted to meet my particular needs and technology. And I'm sure I'm not typical in any of these habits. Also interesting is where these recommendations came from in the first place - word of mouth from friends and Twitter friends) or articles that happen to mention a programme (“...Niall Ferguson’s Civilization begins on 6 March on Channel 4”).

What about you, what do you do?