For a long time, podcasts have been the main thing that I listen to when I’m listening to something. When I used to drive to my day job, I listened to podcasts in the car. When I was driving around LA doing things, I listened to podcasts. Once I started working at home and wasn’t on the phone during my entire work shift, I had podcasts going while I worked and I paused the episode when I had to take a call or do something else that required my full attention. I’m not a big music person, so I rarely would listen to music instead of a podcast. The few times I did listen to music, it was due to me being out of episodes to listen to.
When I wasn’t working, even though I had all the time in my day, I wasn’t listening to podcasts that often. I don’t listen to them when I’m just sitting around my house, and I definitely don’t listen when I’m watching tv or reading. So even though I had more time than ever, my podcast listening went down. And when I wasn’t listening as much, I started to evaluate the podcasts I was subscribed to.
For a long time, I would listen to every episode of every podcast I was subscribed to. That became harder as I had more and more podcasts on my lists. It took me a while to be ok with deleting random episodes if they were interviewing a guest I wasn’t interested in or discussing a topic I didn’t care for. And it took even longer for me to start deleting shows as I realized I’m not enjoying them as much. But there is no reason for me to keep podcasts in my feed that I knew I wasn’t going to listen to. I became a bit more selective while I was out of work because I wasn’t listening as much. But most of the deleting happened before the pandemic.
Even when I was deleting shows I wasn’t listening to anymore, I always had a ton of podcasts in my feed. I can’t remember a time where I was subscribed to fewer than 20 shows. Some of them have episodes every day, some are sporadic. And there is a variety of lengths, with the shortest ones being around 5 minutes and the longest ones going an hour or two. And I could always pick and choose what I wanted to listen to during different tasks. Some are better for work and some are better for when I’m driving. I’ve always had fun picking out what I want to listen to for the next few hours.
Now, I’m getting more and more used to my work schedule. And I do have a lot of time that I’m not on the phone between all of my jobs that I can listen to podcasts again. I do still have times I need to have quiet to focus on a task, but so much work I do is a form of data entry, and having something to keep me entertained helps to pass the time. There are some podcasts that are easier to listen to at work than others, so there are some podcasts I have to carve time out in other parts of my day. But those tend to be the fiction podcasts, where I have to follow the story, and not the interview or news-related podcasts.
It’s crazy that somehow it feels like I have more time to listen to podcasts now that I actually have less free time in my day. But I’m glad I still enjoy podcasts and have something to keep me entertained while I work. I think working in silence would make the time go by slower and I do spend a lot of hours every day in front of my computer. Just like so many other parts of my life, this is another part that is finally getting back to the normal that I’m used to and it makes me happy.
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