Killing Time

I just heard one of my friends say the other day: I was doing it to kill time. I was flabbergasted! Kill time? What the heck are you talking about? I don’t even have enough time, and here you’re killing it?

If you’re the type of person who reads this kind of blog, I’m assuming this concept is as alien to you as it is to me. Oh, I don’t deny it, I used to while away hours just zoning out, but nowadays the very idea of doing something just to while time away is completely foreign to me.

There’s so much I want to do, and so little time to do it in, I always make sure I can pack productivitve and meaningful activities into my schedule to make the best use of my time.

So what changed?

I can think of a lot of reasons, but while talking the phrase ‘killing time’ over with another flabbergasted friend, we realized one thing we had in common: we’ve both killed the TV in our lives.

Don’t Kill Time, Kill Your TV

If you’re the type of person who reads this kind of blog, who is committed to personal development, wants to lead a life on purpose full of worthwhile goals, and is already off TV, you know what I mean. You know. And you can stop reading.

But if you’re that type of person, and you’re still on the TV drug, you don’t know what you’re missing, and you need to keep reading.

Just on April 24-30 was TV Turnoff Week. Could you turn off your TV for a week? I’ve been off my TV for about 6 years now, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Why Switch Off Your TV?

How about more:

1) Time

2) Focus

3) Energy

4) Freedom

5) Power

Being off TV has given me more time, focus and energy to concentrate on the stuff that I really want to do and have in my life. Plus the freedom and power to just be able to say no to TV is an amazing and liberating strength that a TV person just cannot understand. It’s like a rollercoaster ride, you can’t describe it, you can only experience it.

And how about not having:

1) Less creativity in problem solving

2) Being less able to persevere at tasks

3) And less tolerant of unstructured time

From the Scientific American Mind:

Most of the criteria of substance dependence can apply to people who watch a lot of TV.

…University of British Columbia studied a mountain community that had no television until cable finally arrived. Over time, both adults and children in the town became less creative in problem solving, less able to persevere at tasks, and less tolerant of unstructured time.

To some researchers, the most convincing parallel between TV and addictive drugs is that people experience withdrawal symptoms when they cut back on viewing.

(via Creating Passionate Users)

Yikes!

TV Is Bad But TV Shows Can Be Good

Do I live a dry and sterile life where I’m devoid of all TV entertainment, with not even a TV set despoiling my house?

Nah.

I still watch TV shows. There are some really good shows being made out there that are a blast to watch, and I’m not asking anyone to miss out.

But I watch them on DVDs or VCDs, not broadcast on TV. While TV is bad, TV shows can still be good (like Star Trek. Star Trek rules, you hear me!)

The difference is when I pick and choose my entertainment, I’m directing my time. Without the commercials, I’m more focused, and with the fast-forward option I cut out unnecessary time wasted (every 60 minute telecast has roughly 20 minutes of commercials you have to sit through).

After this kind of diet for 6 years, when I do watch broadcast TV, I find the commercial breaks very jarring. The breaking of focus is annoying and highly disruptive, and it’s very obvious.

(Kathy of Creating Passionate Users makes a similar point in her Kill the television, keep the shows post)

And After All This I Still Watch TV

Yup, I still do from time to time, rare as it is (hey, Miss Universe was on…whaddaya expect?). So have I been talking smack the last few paragraphs?

The point is: I can say no.

I’m constantly horrified by the number of people I know who can tell me they watch TV everyday. And some of these people vegetate in front of the tube for a few hours daily! Imagine this, if you just watch 4 hours of TV a day, that’s 28 hours in a week (not to mention the extra you might get during the weekends), that’s more than a day!

If that’s not scary enough for you, imagine if you went to 4 hours of gym a day, spending 1 day plus 4 hours a week of time toning that body of yours, and the sweet results you’d get in just a month. That’s how hardcore it is, baby.

The truth of the matter is, for most people, if they plonk down in front of that TV for just that half hour, their ass is gonna stay there for a lot more than that. And it’s when you can’t say no, when after that show you promised was the only one you’d watch is off, you convince yourself to stay for the next, and then the next, and then channel surf, and even until the inane TV ads are showing you’re still sitting there watching, you know your ass is in some serious trouble.

You’re an addict.

The Ultimate Point of This Post

You’re either in control of TV, or it’s in control of you. I became the former when I weaned myself off TV, unintentionally at the time, but it’s paid off handsomely. But if the TV is in control of you, you’re in trouble.

If you

1) Spend more than 1 hour a day watching TV

2) Can’t say no to watching more TV than you intend

3) Channel surf when you really shouldn’t

4) Can’t get that butt outta that chair

5) Stay for the infomercials!

You need to kill that TV right now!

The Cure If You’re A TV Addict

Where your friendly neighbourhood Life Coach lays it down for you *ahem*

1) Go Cold Turkey.

The best way, really. Plug out that power socket. Throw out the batteries from your remote. Move it out of your bedroom. Anything and everything to make it as difficult as possible to switch it on.

Go cold turkey for 1 whole week, notice the difference, and notice especially that the world did not end and you did not die at the end of the week. If you need to, go back to TV again for a couple of days, and notice how weird it feels.

Go back to cold turkey again for the rest of that week, and you’d probably not want to go back to it again after you’ve lived the benefits of having more time, focus and energy in your life.

It doesn’t mean you won’t, but that feeling is the start of you gaining control and watching TV only when you want to, and not when it wants you to.

2) Wean Yourself Off

Not the best way, but the way I did it. Cut down TV time by at least half.

To do that you need to:

a) Make every alternate day a no-TV day, or

b) only watch the shows you absolutely need to watch every week, unless

c) if they’re a daily series, in which case you need to either forget it or buy the DVDs.

I’ve found that in my own experience weekly TV series are perfectly fine, as they only require an half hour or hour’s worth of your time a week, but daily series are an absolute killer and they must be regarded as the deadly monsters they are.

And you can also get more tips at TV-Turnoff Network.

Test It Out!

And like everything else I say, don’t just take my own for it, test it out! Like I said before, being TV-free is like riding a rollercoaster, the feeling of fun, freedom and energy is not something you can get in a description, you just have to experience it for yourself.