Guys, I have almost formed a new good habit, and so thought I would boast about it around the internet.
For the past 3 months, most weeks on one day (normally a Tuesday) I stay home in the evening but...don't watch TV!
Maybe for some people, this is not that impressive, as they don't love TV like I do. Note however, the reason TV-less days normally occurs on Tuesdays is I am choosing a day I would normally be in. The goal is not to avoid TV one night a week, I mean I know how to spend a weeknight drinking with friends; the goal is to head home from work on time, get home at 6:30 and be in my flat and avoid the TV until bedtime some 4 hours later. See trickier than you first figured. Also add to this that I really love TV, and just fyi not the cool kind. I have never even seen Narcos or the Wire or Entourage. I like shows like Gilmore Girls, Ally McBeal, Pretty Little Liars (guiltily) and when I am feeling really nostalgic, Charmed. I still have the TV taste of an adolscent teenage girl in my 28 year old body.
As much as I love TV however, I worry that it is my procastination monkey's best friend, and whole evenings go by when all I had to do was water the gosh damn plants and call the bank and now it is past my bedtime and I have done neither of those things but I have somehow rewatched for the 3rd time, 40% of season 2 of Parks and Recreation.
I also think TV "numbs" me, if you will. I once read an article where a woman - I can't remember who she was, when or where I read it, most likely my Mum's Good Housekeeping circa 2002 - talked about how we went through our lives not feeling or thinking, just numb. Wasting all the feelings. This was before people talked about mindfulness, and I always remember her saying she would spot when she was behaving "numbly". Eating standing up was one, letting TV programmes roll on was another.
And so as much as I do love TV, I worry what with the old "episode 7 begins in 12 seconds" Netflixerooni I am just numbly, procrastinating and wasting away hours of my life watching the TV when I could be doing something to earn that relaxation, and not have it marred by the feeling of lingering guilt about calling banks/watering plants/going to bed. Or even if I am allowed to relax, cos, gurl works hard, I am so slumped and consumed I am not even aware I am doing something enjoyable in the first place. I have not really consciously chosen to spend my free time that way.
So I wanted to carve out a portion in my week to help me be a little more productive, but also be more purposeful and creative in the ways I relaxed. To not go to bed wondering where the heck the evening has gone.
Here are some things I've done on a TV-less Tuesday:
- Listened to music. Like actually listened to music and not done anything else, similarly to the days you used to buy an album and lie on your single bed under posters of Justin Timberlake and daydream. Sometimes if I am feeling very pretentious, I play a vinyl. (Though I slightly damaged the vinyl player one time and now I am not meant to do that, so unread that if your name is Will and you are my boyfriend and the owner of said vinyl player).
- Read half a book in one sitting - it was this one. (I read the other half the next day, even though it wasn't even meant to be TV-less y'all. Brownie points).
- Gone on a run
- Baked this cake, amongst other treats to feed me and my boo through the week (yes Will, not only did I break your vinyl player but now I have called you boo on the internet.)
- Cooked dinners which aren't stir fries, me stirring pesto into pasta or ready to cook chilli salmon fillets, like this one
- Played board games - Monopoly is our current fave, but I am thinking of buying a chess board and improving my logic skill set like a Sim. I'll be getting a limo instead of a beat up old car to work in no time (that is a very the Sims centred joke, sorry if you reader were not a Sims player. You missed out).
- Had a candlelit bath and listened to classical fm (if you haven't done this, you should)
- Put together a budget
- Written thank you letters
- Started a journal
- Tidied my bedroom
- Had an hour long conversation with boyfriend at the dinner table about our days and actually listened. Our days were not even that eventful, but it sometimes feel so good to bitch.
- Spring cleaned a closet, well sort of.
- Started (ok not anywhere near finished) this cross-stitching pattern. I've got this, and once I have completed this pattern everyone will know it.
- Written this very blog post (hence why it has been published on time today, rather than late like the last few weeks)
- Read this and many other brilliant blog posts
- Made myself a next level cheese plate as a magazine reading accompanying snack. We are talking chutney and everything.
- Given myself exciting manicures, pedicures, face masks and full on home spas.
- Taken part in some sofa side yin yoga
- Dried some hydrangeas, which are currently hottening up my fireplace.
And many more things. Ok, so I haven't built an app yet, or started a hit youtube channel but essentially what I am trying to say is depending on your commute, what time you finish work, and how much sleep you need; if you work full time you could have anywhere between 6 and 20 hours every week on the boring days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) to use wisely. That is anywhere between 300 and 1000+ hours in a year (nb this is also a reason to try and leave your work on time, as much as possible). That is over 45k hours in a working lifetime (though I guess if you have children, you might "finish work" / finish with them a little later). But however you carve it that is a long time to waste rewatching Parks and Recreation without even thinking about it. At least some of the time.
PS. Maybe you should spend a TV-less day meditating? Or some of it.
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