Surviving Without Television
It is now somewhere around the 5-year anniversary of my separation from cable television, which to be more accurate is my 5-year anniversary without television, since I don’t watch satellite or movies on the TV either. For people addicted to TV, they are shocked to hear this. Although I will watch TV when I’m in a hotel or visiting with friends, and I have alternatives, I generally don’t miss it at all. My friend Karen recently asked how she could cut back or give up TV as well. This was the plan we came up with.
–Week one, limit yourself to 3-4 hours per week — Karen tends to watch about 1-2 hours of TV a day, not really watching but more keeping the set on while possibly doing other things like eating dinner or reading email. Have at least one full day that is a full TV fast, and have dinner completely TV free.
–Week two, try to cut back to 2 hours per week — the limit is intended to have Karen focus on shows she really wants to see compared to those that are mediocre. Identify one book that you want to read or one person that you plan to call during the missing hour of television.
–Week three, try to cut back to 1 hour this week — you should have a lot of free time for other things whether it’s spending time with other people, reading, exercising, cooking, or other things. Try to skip your favorite show so that you’re not addicted to a particular plotline.
–Week four, see if you can go for 7 days without turning on the television — by now, this should be much easier to do. If you succeed with week 4, canceling your cable subscription should be pretty easy.
shared at Works for Me Wednesday
When my husband and I got married in 2000 we bought a house where the cable needed to be rewired to where we had the tv– not a priority so we didn’t hook it up. It was wonderful! We got more done around the house, did more hobbies, were outside more and spent more time talking to each other. We watched movies on DVD but that was it. We subscribed to cable last year for the first time and although I enjoy watching a show or two and enjoy watching a football game without having to make plans to go somewhere- there are many days when I wish we didn’t have it. Our kids now know what commercials are and want to watch tv a lot. We are making a conscious effort to cut back on the amount of time the tv is on and it’s wonderful on the days when it stays off. I loved not having TV!!
Jen, interesting to hear the other side, once you added TV back. I’m not planning to hook up the cable anytime soon. Thanks for commenting.