02 : Turn off your TV

This is the second in a series of (hopefully) 52 posts related to the book Every Monday Matters. I'd love it if some other people wanted to go through the book with me. Contact me if you're interested.

Keeping with the spirit of last weeks video, I’m trying to do all that I can not to waste time.

Turn off the TV

I’ve got my TV right in the center of the living room.

I guess we know what’s important to me.

So I’m not going to watch TV today. Or maybe tomorrow. Yeah, yeah I’ll start tomorrow.

I’m not going to let myself cheat like that. It’s off. It’s done. No more, I’m not going to watch any more TV

Right after I finish watching this show.

You don’t understand! It’s the season finale of “A Salesman, an Ostrich and Three Girls Named Emily!”

I can go a whole day without watching TV

Just not today.

O.K. There’s only one way we can get this to work.

Maybe you could designate some TV-free zones in your house.

Take the TV out of your kitchen, or your bedroom, or your bathroom if that’s your style.

Limit the amount of time that you let yourself watch TV

So I asked some friends of mine, err, random people that I certainly don’t know extremely well, about their TV viewing habits and how it affects their life:

“I’ve got a part time job and sometimes they let me watch TV there too and it’s really nice so…”

“How much time do you think you spend watching TV?”

“Fifteen hours.”

And what the would do if they didn’t watch so much TV…

“I don’t know. Maybe help the homeless?”

“If I wasn’t watching TV, I’d… You know, I’ve always watched all these pilots on TV and so I’d probably try flying or something.”

You know, seventy per cent of people say that they can never find enough time to accomplish everything they want to do. Are you a part of that seventy per cent?

Do something, man! Play a game. Go for a walk. Adopt a pony.

O.K. Bottom line - It’s really easy to waste time watching TV Is that really the best use of your time?

So, just turn it off for a day.

Special thanks to Dr. Warner for helping me smash a TV.