I Disconnected My TV On Workdays — Here’s What I Learned
According to Nielsen, United States adults watch 35 hours of TV per week.
This equates to more than 77 days per year.
I was near the average
They say the first step in changing is to realize you have a problem. And the number of hours of TV I was watching is embarrassing.
During last NFL season:
- I would watch Sunday games from 12 to 9 pm Central Time (9 hours)
- Monday Night Football (3 hours)
- Thursday Night Football (3 hours)
- In addition, I was watching Sunday pregame shows (2 hours) and commentary shows for 1 hour each weekday (5 hours).
That’s 22 hours of TV each week! And it doesn’t include non-NFL time, which would get me in the high twenties or low thirties I imagine.
EWWW!!
Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is to write!?!
But we can’t make change unless we first have awareness. Unless we are willing to look honestly at what we are doing. Unless we stop playing games of self-deception and look at data.
But once we do, it liberates us to grow and make changes.
So I used psychological tricks to cut out TV
In Atomic Habits, James Clear says that humans follow the “Law of Least Effort.” We don’t waste energy needlessly, which makes sense from an evolutionary perspective.
In other words, we are built to be lazy.
Acknowledging our inclination towards laziness is useful for behavior change.
If I want to stop doing something like “watching TV,” I can simply make it harder to do.
If I “add friction” to the TV watching process, I’ll be less likely to watch it.
(See, we humans aren’t that complex.)
I made it harder to watch TV during the workweek by doing the following:
- I disconnected the TV every Monday morning, and
- I moved it out of sight.
Disconnecting the TV meant I would need to do extra work if I was tempted to watch. (If you can’t disconnect your TV, another option is to remove the batteries from your remote control.)
I moved it out of sight to remove the “visual trigger” of seeing the TV. Much like seeing a chocolate bar or slice of pizza makes you want it, seeing the TV would make me want to watch it. By hiding the TV, I didn’t have to fight that strong temptation.
For you, putting it out of sight could mean finding a closet, covering it with a sheet, or some other approach.
For me, I didn’t have a suitable closet, so I carried it to the next room and placed it with the screen facing the wall.
5 Things I Learned By Disconnecting the TV During the Workweek
Here are the lessons I learned from unplugging it during the workweek:
- Unexpected activities suddenly became desirable
- Somehow, my stress levels decreased
- The activities I was ignoring were causing me stress
- The TV itself was also causing me stress
- I felt way more fulfilled
After doing so, I made the restrictions even tighter (only Sunday) and then tighter again (only a few hours on Sunday).
In doing this, I found that my life improved immediately and significantly. Now, I barely watch TV.
1. Unexpected activities suddenly became desirable
Suddenly, I had a bunch of free nights that used to be taken up with TV.
After 30 minutes on the couch bored the first night, all of sudden, ideas crept in.
I started looking for a book to read, which I hadn’t done for months.
I started doing online research for vacations, products, and other things I had been putting off.
I caught up on my personal gmails that were seriously backlogged.
2. Somehow, my stress levels decreased
After spending the evening doing these “less fun” activities, I was sure I would be burnt out the next day.
On the contrary, I was more restored.
This befuddled me!!
I had just given up the most passive, mindless, relaxing activity I can imagine — watching TV — and was doing less fun things like catching up on emails and reading books.
But day after day, I felt more restored than I had through TV.
Here are the two reasons why…
3. The activities I was ignoring were secretly stressing me out
One reason that watching TV is not as stress-reducing as I thought is that part of me still knew what I was ignoring.
That part knew how important learning and personal development are to me. So, as I spent so little time on something important to me, that part of me was unhappy and uneasy.
In fact, it’s just that unhappiness (about the important things I was putting off) that I used TV to “soothe.”
This is the classic addiction cycle that happens with emotional eating, alcohol addiction, drug addictions, and others.
The addiction causes some negative issues in our life, which we then feel negative emotions about (in my case, not learning and growing).
We then use our addiction to temporarily “soothe” those negative emotions and make us feel better.
But because the addiction contributes to the issue, the issue never goes away.
This is the vicious cycle of most addictions.
4. The TV itself was also causing me stress
Once I stopped watching TV Monday to Friday, I noticed something new: it was actually stressful to watch TV when I did.
The stress manifested as an antsiness, a jittery impatience.
I found it hard to sit there and just watch.
To sit there for more than 20 minutes, I had to numb myself. I suddenly became aware of how often I watched TV with a beer, or a snack.
How often do you need some other “drugs” to make TV watchable?
I challenge you to try and watch TV with no other “drugs.”
TV should be able to stand on its own merits as entertainment.
My experience was that it couldn’t.
I needed to have a snack, some candy, or some alcohol to get through more than 20 minutes of TV.
5. I felt way more fulfilled
As my stress went down, my fulfillment went up.
Reading educational books and personal development books inspired me.
The added social interaction time with my wife and friends generated more satisfaction.
And an invisible weight lifted off my shoulders as I took care of backlogged life tasks.
And then the positive upward cycle of growth kicked in. This is the opposite of the addictive negative cycle.
As I no longer displaced more-important items with mindless TV, I felt more in control of my life.
I was more prepared for each workday.
The day then went better and I was in a better mood in the evening.
Being a better mood, I didn’t crave TV, and so spent time on more fulfilling activities.
This is the positive upward cycle of growth.
Conclusion
The benefits of unplugging the TV were immense — and immediate.
In addition to these, I also slept better.
So, how many hours of TV do you watch per week?
Are you afraid to know?
I challenge you to track it next week for a data point.
You might not have a problem with TV.
But if you do, awareness is the first step.
And I can tell you from the other side of TV addiction, that the grass truly is greener.
Call To Action
If you want to eliminate resistance and build great habits, I highly recommend my free guide to Atomic Habits, James Clear’s New York Times #1 Bestseller.
