How can I decide what to watch on TV and stop scrolling?

Watching television used to be relatively simple: there was a fixed schedule of options to choose from, and flipping channels would eventually bear fruit. Now it’s at once a cornucopia and a chore: with a surfeit of streaming platforms and their infinite selections available to us, you absently rifle through menus, unsure if you’re in the mood for Is It Cake? on Netflix or a new Sergei Loznitsa documentary on Mubi, until suddenly it’s bedtime. How to get off the spinning wheel? A few tips:

Take a chance and commit: dating apps and streaming television now operate along quite a similar structure: endless options for you to consider at a glance, with nothing further to point you to the right one. The difference with streaming is that you don’t need to wait for approval from the other side to get started: if a show or film catches your eye, stop and see if you like it. Too many of us waste hours shuffling through menus in search of some ideal viewing option that we can’t even define for ourselves, instead of just choosing on a whim. Worst-case scenario? You tune out after 15 minutes and start again.

Resist the binge: yes, binge watching is the new normal in terms of how we consume series, but it can make us sluggish, passive viewers, and often shortens the pleasure we might get out of a new favourite. There’s a reason why hits like The Last of Us have taken up the weekly episode-drop of ye olde terrestrial TV scheduling: you watch more attentively, and with a communal sense of anticipation. Try imposing that structure on yourself, even with series that are available all at once, dosing on an episode a day, or even a week: not only will you enjoy it for longer, but you’ll be sparing yourself the dreaded “what to watch now” scroll for a while.

Don’t sabotage your own algorithm: the recommendation algorithm on most streaming platforms can’t read your mind – not yet, at least – which is both reassuring and a bit inconvenient. Wwe’ve all had Netflix pop something insultingly off-base in the hopefully named “you might like” section, but often we’re the architects of our own undoing. Tthat stray episode of a dreadful reality show you watched is only going to generate tips for lesser derivatives of the same thing: if you want the algorithm to recognise you’re not really a Passion Peninsula sort of person, you must feed it some healthier viewing habits in the first place.

Sharing isn’t always caring: in these times of belt-tightening, it makes perfect sense to share streaming accounts with friends and family, but the last thing you want is your neatly curated homepage getting snagged up with other people’s guilty pleasures – or, good as it is, your kids’ obsessive viewing of Bluey. Set up separate profiles on a joint account and keep everything tailored to you, whether it’s keeping track of which Seinfeld episode you’re on, or protecting your Beyond Paradise habit from others’ scorn.

Trust in a name: look, we should all remain curious and open-minded as viewers, but sometimes a key name can cut through the noise of options and draw you to something you’ll like. Whether it’s Skye Borgman’s standout true-crime documentaries, or Ryan Murphy’s gossipy celebrity worship and lurid tension, keep a mental list of the producers, writers and directors whose work speaks to you, and revert to their oeuvres when you’re at a loose end.

Read up: not to advocate for my own job in the middle of an advice piece, but critics literally watch hours of junk so you don’t have to. TV and film reviews are more necessary than ever in our era of decentralised content overload, and range from highbrow analysis to conversational blogginess. Don’t just count on aggregate sites like Rotten Tomatoes, where scores often represent an impersonal middle road. Find the outlets or voices that suit you and, at least on occasion, take their word for it.