One weekend, listen to just one albumdailyroutine

This is a daily routine for time in motion and pause. Use “One weekend, listen to just one album” to bring a little wellness into the gaps of your day.

Music can easily become a background. When cooking, working, moving—even when the song changes, your ears stay busy. It's increasingly rare to listen to an album from beginning to end.

One day on the weekend, choose just one album. No shuffling, just track order. It is listening that takes in the whole breath created by a writer.

It's not like I like just one song over and over again. It's about experiencing the flow of the entire album—fast and slow songs, bright and dark songs—in that order.

Criteria for choosing an album

I like albums I'm hearing for the first time, and albums I liked a long time ago. The important thing is to decide, ‘This is all I have this weekend.’ Choose by album, not by playlist. Whether it is 40 minutes or 70 minutes, the length is determined by the work.

Don't think too long when making your choice. Just pick up an album that catches your eye and press play. The selection itself is what kicks off this weekend.

An album that was recommended to you by a friend, or an album that contains a song you happened to hear on the radio—whatever the occasion is, it doesn't matter. The experience of listening to a chapter through to the end is important.

Keep your hands still while listening

You can listen while sitting on the sofa, leaning against the window, or taking a walk. Just make sure you don't open any other tabs. If you put your phone down while the album is playing, you can hear the gaps between songs, the fade-outs, and the breath taking you to the next track.

It's a sense that's easy to lose in the streaming age. Feel the brief silence at the end of one song and before the next begins—the breath the album intended.

You can sip a cup of coffee slowly or sit looking out the window. When your hands aren't busy, your ears reach deeper into the music.

After going to the end

After the last track, I stay still for a moment. You don’t have to play the next album right away. Feel the air left behind by a piece of music on a weekend afternoon. Next weekend we'll switch to a different album. In a month, four to twelve albums will be on your ‘listened’ list.

In the LP era, it was basic to flip through album sides A and B while listening. Nowadays, it is convenient to pick just one song and listen to it, but listening to an entire album gives a different satisfaction. It's about accepting the order and rhythm the artist intended.

One album in the morning on the weekend, quiet in the afternoon—you could split it like this. What's important is the promise to go from beginning to end without any shuffle.

After listening to the entire album, make a short note of one track you liked. When you listen to another album next week, if the music from last week comes to mind, your listening record will accumulate.

If you finish an album on a weekend evening, try spending that night without music. The afterglow of listening remains until I fall asleep.