We can do it Wednesday!: No TV Update

Last week I committed to going a week without watching TV. So I need to admit upfront, I only lasted three days. I think I would have been able to go the whole week, except two things happened 1) I got sick and had to stay home from work for a whole day and 2) Zach went to China for a week and left me home alone and BORED OUT OF MY MIND.

So here’s a recap of my time without TV:

Day 1 – Zach and I always watch TV while we eat dinner (we do plenty of talking on the ride home, so by dinner time we’re ready to stop discussing work). So now Zach is in the main room watching a movie while I eat alone in the kitchen since I’m not allowed to watch TV – how sad and lonely…

I can’t go to the gym because I injured my back last week, so I just wander around the house cleaning and putting things away. By bedtime I’ve taken care of every open house chore I had. I definitely had a productive evening, but I’m not sure how I’m going to keep myself busy tomorrow.

Day 2 – After dinner I walk around the house aimlessly for an hour just to make sure there’s nothing I can clean. Unfortunately I cleaned everything the day before, so I settle down to start organizing our pictures – I’ve been avoiding this task for three months, but I’m literally out of things to do. I actually spend the entire night organizing and touching up pictures and starting designing a digital photo album.

Day 3 – I spend the entire night working on the photo album and am almost done by the time I go to bed. This is a pleasant surprise actually. I thought organizing the pictures would be the worst thing ever, but it’s fun because I get to reminisce about fun times I temporarily forgot about.

Day 4 – I wake up feeling awful and know I can’t go to work. I finish the album by lunchtime and then have nothing to do and feel like crap. I tried to read a book but wasn’t in the mood. This is when I finally caved and put on the TV because I wanted to take my mind off of how awful I felt.

What I learned from my brief no TV time is this:

1.       Staying away from TV is an AWESOME way to get things done. I think I’m going to employ this tactic much more often when I have a task I’ve put off for a while.

2.       I probably rely on TV too much to make me feel better when I’m sick and/or lonely. This should be addressed, but I’ll leave that for a later date.

I’m going to go catch up on my Hulu queue, see you tomorrow.