30 Day No TV Challenge
I decided to get rid of cable about 8 years ago. I felt like I was wasting too much time watching every season of Real Housewives of somewhere…That’s time and brain function you just can’t get back. I did buy an antenna and I have Netflix though, so I can watch the main channels and whatever mindless thing I find on Netflix. Whenever I travel for work I notice that I’m so busy doing other things that I never even turn the TV on. I’ll go an entire week in a hotel (with cable) and not turn the TV on one single time. I also didn’t watch TV once the entire time I was in Europe. My Airbnb hosts didn’t even own a TV and it got me thinking. I decided to challenge myself and go 30 days with no TV. When I decided to start this I had already gone 9 days without TV. Let’s say my start date was April 23rd, and I wanted to go until May 25th without watching TV. My family was planning on visiting me for Memorial Day weekend, and I figured they would probably turn on the TV.
I did technically watch 5 movies on the airplane back from Europe (on May 1st), but what the F*ck else are you supposed to do for 8.5 hours in a pressurized metal tube over the Atlantic Ocean?
I also did turn the TV once the day after I got home (May 2nd), because the tornado sirens were going off. I determined this was a matter of safety, so I turned on the news to make sure a tornado wasn’t headed towards me. Official ruling is that this didn’t count negatively against my no TV rule, because emergency situations get a free pass!
There were times (May 9th) that I felt a desire to turn on the TV for some reason. I resisted, but I think because it had become such a habit that I would sit down and turn it on, I felt that I needed to turn it on. Half the time I would end up putting it on mute, and I would end up doing something else anyway. Which makes it even stupider that I turned the TV on in the first place.
At first the weekends were harder than the week, obviously because I’m home more during the day on the weekends. You may ask, what did I do instead? Most weekday evenings I would listen to music, and work on this blog! By the way, blogging involves way more than just writing, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that you might not think about. One weekend I went to a local art fair and worked on the bathroom in my basement. This has been an ongoing project for quite some time, and this gave me the push I needed to get working on it again. I primed the walls on Saturday and then painted them on Sunday. Generally it just gave me a lot more time to get outside, meet up with actual people, and do actual things, instead of sitting around.
One of the other things I started doing because I didn’t have the TV turned on was actually eating at my table. In the past I would sit in my living room to eat breakfast and/or dinner and turn on the TV. Without the TV on, I was able to actually sit at my table and enjoy my meals. I’ve been continuing to do this since.
My family did come visit for Memorial day and we did turn the TV on, but not until Sunday morning. My niece and nephew wanted to watch a show after they woke up and they decided to start watching Ghost Busters. I didn’t watch it then, but later that evening they finished watching the movie and I watched it with them. Then I turned on PBS to watch the KC Symphony and Celebration at the Station, which I highly recommend if you’ve never gone.
However, I haven’t turned the TV on since then, and it’s been almost a month. There are a few shows that I know I’ve missed, such as Call the Midwives, but I just haven’t been able to turn my TV back on. I’m not sure why. It’s almost like I’m continuing to challenge myself l, but also turning the TV on is NO LONGER A HABIT. When I sit down in my living room, my I study is no longer to turn on my TV right away. Anyway, I highly recommend taking 30 days (or more!) to turn off the TV, free yourself from distractions, and get back to doing stuff.
As I finish up this post, It’s June 26th (way more than the 30 days I originally planned for) and I still haven’t watched TV, besides the couple hours while my family was in town. I’m sure I’ll turn the tv on at some point. But maybe no TV is a new way of life for me?
Who’s up for the challenge?