Read the title? It’s COMPLETELY true. I HAVE NOT turned on my TV, or played video games, in a little over two years now. And you know what? I don’t miss it one bit.
My journey to not watching television didn’t actually start with me planning to not watch TV at all. My journey started when, as usual, life got so busy that I couldn’t catch up on my shows anymore. But, I of course (being an anime fan) knew that you can watch shows online on your computer(WITHOUT commercial breaks). So I started applying my methods to local shows (not just animes that aren’t broadcasted in North America). At first, I ended up actually wasting even more time watching these shows, because one show led to another, which led to another, which led to another, etc. to the point where I once spent 3+ days indoors just watching these shows straight, with no sleep. At this point, I kinda took notice of my problem (I had a life to live goddammit!).
At this point I started taking conscious notice of my television/movie intake. First, I wrote down all the shows I watched (73 <— :o) and decided that I would limit myself down to five shows only… FOREVER (or for a really really long time). Like a smoker who chooses to go cold-turkey I almost had a stroke when I was limiting my list to only five but in the end I was able to accomplish my list. For the past year I’ve only watched FIVE shows, read only THREE mangas, and I play NO VIDEO GAMES!
I’m now at the point where if I do go over my friends house and they have the television on and they ask me whether I want to watch something or play video games I can say no and feel no regret whatsoever. Altogether, I now spend at maximum 10.5 hours (1.5 hours per day) watching shows and movies (either online or at the theaters).
Some of you might judge me and say I still suck at this whole “no television” thing since I do in fact watch the shows I like online. But I can say that I did spend a month not watching television, movies, etc. anywhere and guess what… I hated it. That month I ended up wasting far more than 10.5 hours on re-correcting my work which was only incorrect because I was on edge all the time. My “edge” of course coming from me not having that “turn your brain completely off” mode that these shows regularly used to provide for me (this was/is my meditation). And thus, I decided to re-introduced these five shows (and movies) back to my life by setting aside 1.5 hours a day.
I make this sound sooooo much easier than it actually is though. This whole process took me one year to implement down to a system which I was happy with, and the cravings didn’t go away until I was 1.5 years in. All good things take time.
I will however, provide a “top 10 tips” list to help you guys along faster than me (hopefully). So without further ado:
TOP 10 TIPS
- Don’t try to completely eliminate entertainment from your life. You will be miserable and just plain angry/edgy for no reason.
- You don’t have to eliminate all your shows down to five at one time. You can (as I did) eliminate them progressively down to five.
- It’s easier to eliminate a show at the end of it’s season. So I would recommend finishing the season you’re own, and when it’s done see if you can’t live without the next season of it, or whether (like most shows) it has turned crappy overtime.
- Don’t make the top five by choosing which shows you like (this will get you nowhere since you will choose all of them). Simply, write down all the shows you watch and like, then rank them from “most favorite/watched” to “least favorite/watched”, and then circle the first five… ONLY.
- After ONLY picking the first five make sure that you at all times stay away from the other shows/time consumers on the list. The best way that I found to cut them off is to go cold-turkey.
- If you do accidentally watch a show, a movie, etc. that you promised yourself you wouldn’t watch, DON’T take this as a sign that you failed. Just realize that, yes, you did make a mistake, but that you DON’T have to thrash everything because of this one mistake (which you can now use to learn from in the future).
- For video games, the best option I found was to not buy anymore (NONE AT ALL) video games at first, then progress to only playing video games with your friends (never alone). From there you can progress to only playing video games with your friends at their houses, to only playing video games when there is a minimum of three people, four people, etc., etc., etc..
- Realize how much money you spend by NOT watching movies, buying videos games, etc.
- Throughout this whole journey continuously look at the benefits of not wasting your life watching TV or playing video games. Look at the positive of you spending more time outside interacting with the world and meeting new people, and of having so much more time to accomplish what you want to accomplish in life.
- Lastly, ignore the hype of a show, movie, game as much as you can. And realize that you don’t have to limit it to five shows and no video games as I did, you can set your own number (everyone is different).
Just ask yourself “Will something great/life changing have a better chance of happening if I spend more time watching television or if I spend less”?
And, as always, if you have anything to say about the post, the tips, or you just want to curse me off, please leave a comment.