The “stop” and “pause” functions of our media players are great and all (no, they really are; I’m not being flippant out here). The only problem is that (if you’re anything like me, at least) it is very easy to forget to restart your player(s).
The solution?
Stop stopping. Stop pausing. Don’t use pause or stop.
What to do instead?
Easy. Rewind and volume adjustment.
Think of it in terms of “order of operations” from algebra and arithmetic. I’m not saying you should never ever pause or stop — I had two (yes, two) Japanese documentaries playing simultaneously before I started writing this and I had to pause one of hem because I needed the extra mental bandwidth — I am saying that these are a last resort; they should not be habitual.
Ideally, you want to turn on the Japanese at 6 in the morning and not turn it off until 2 years later 😉 . And even if you don’t meet that ideal, you can definitely approach it asymptotically. Your trajectory matters more than your position, after all.
So here is your order of operations for media management:
- Write down the timestamp and leave your media playing, then rewind back to the that timestamp when you get back
- Rewind the old-fashioned way — eyeballing (or “earballing” as the case may be…not that your ears have balls but…you get the idea lol) back to approximately where you were before the interruption
- Lower volume
- Pause
- Stop