1. Give your extra TVs to charity. Allow your home one TV in a
room dedicated to nothing but reading or TV watching. Donate the rest
to a school or charitable organization in your community. You'll not
only get the tax deduction and a feeling that you did good, but it will
be that much harder to veg out in front of the tube!
2. Only turn on the TV to watch a particular show. In other
words, don't just turn it on and go surfing for something worthwhile.
Hours are quickly wasted, switching from one show to the next, watching
all and none at the same time.
3. Then, when you sit down to watch a particular show, set a
timer or an alarm clock in another room for the length of the show.
When it beeps, you'll have to get out of your chair to turn it off, a
signal to also turn off the tube.
4. Throw out the remote control. It's amazing how much less
television you'll watch if you have to get up every time you want to
change channels or adjust the volume. Plus, it eliminates all those
hours you spend channel surfing.
5. Rearrange the furniture. Design your family room so that the
television becomes not the focal point of the room, but an afterthought
that requires twisting around or rearranging the furniture to view.
6. Hide the television. Put it behind an armoire, hang a blanket
over it, or stick it inside a cabinet. Do whatever you can to ensure it
fades into the background and can't be seen for what it is -- a
dangerous time sucker.
7. Eat meals, especially dinner, with the television OFF.
8. Set a rule that you can't watch TV if the sun is shining.Instead, you have to go for a walk, ride a bike, or get some other kind
of healthy physical activity for at least an hour before you can turn
on the tube. This rule also works great for your kids or grandkids.
9. Make a TV-watching plan each week. Sit down with the viewing
guide and pick out the shows you want to watch that week. Watch only
those shows, and when they're over, turn the TV off.
10. Set a rule that you must read 30 pages of a book or magazine before you can turn on the TV. Depending on how fast you read, you may never watch TV again!
11. Create a list of one-hour evening projects. List everything
you can possibly dream of: cleaning a particularly messy cupboard,
organizing recipes, touching up the paint on your bedroom walls,
sharpening kitchen knives, sorting through your sewing materials. Then
create an old-fashioned job jar, and try to do one each evening.
12. Switch to games. With your spouse and/or children, relearn
the fun of Scrabble, backgammon, or even chess. Get out the playing
cards and have a hearts or gin rummy battle. Play Ping-Pong, pool, or
darts in the basement. Go outside and practice your golf swing with
practice balls. All of these are more fun, healthy, and life-affirming
than sitting in front of the television.
13. Develop a fast-moving news routine. Most news shows are
scheduled down to the minute. So investigate the handful of shows you
watch and figure out when they run the features you are most interested
in. For example, the local weather is on the Weather Network at eight
after the hour; the recap of the day's headlines on CNN at fifteen
after; the sports scores on ESPN SportsCenter shortly after. Add it all
together, and you have a total national news briefing in about 15
minutes. Sounds like the perfect evening television routine. Watch it
when you get home, and then turn off the television for the rest of the
night.
14. Say no to Jaws for the 15th time. Often we can be
strangely drawn into watching things we've seen many times before.
There's something comforting in the repetition. Well, resist it.
Watching the same James Bond movie or
Trading Spaces episode again and again is unhealthy for your body and your brain.
15. Get outdoors every night. Make it a point to leave your home
or apartment at least once after dinner, if only for a short walk
around the block. Too many people consider their day pretty much done
once they've eaten dinner, when in fact, evening can be a wonderful
time for getting things done and having fun.
16. Change your TV-viewing chairs. Make them somewhat hard and
upright -- chairs you don't want to lounge in for hours. Move your most
comfy chairs to the living room, and use them
for listening to music and reading.
17. Say no to pundits and celebrity talkfests. One way to cut
down on television is to rule out certain types of shows. We suggest,
start with any show in which you are watching a person talk. It is rare
that a television interview or conversation is deeply insightful. Other
categories to consider boycotting:
- Entire ball games. Why spend three hours watching a baseball or football game when the critical action can be captured in five minutes?
- Any show with a laugh track. How good can it be if it requires canned laughter to tell you a scene is funny?
- Shows filled with guns and violence. Who needs the mental baggage of all that killing and mayhem?
- Reality shows built on a cruel premise. If it
torments the participants, or causes them ridicule, or extols values
contrary to yours (like all the shows glorifying plastic surgery), then
don't watch.