So, more than two weeks have passed since I launched my television tracking experiment. And in that time I have learned a thing or two about my habits and the internal workings of my brain.
The first thing I discovered was that when I had to write down, in black and white, my television watching. It automatically dropped dramatically, not once during the two weeks did my watching exceed my usual four hours on weekdays or six hours on the weekends. Apparently, I want to deny the truth about how much T.V. I watch, so much that when tracking it I will make great strides to distort reality about my current habits. I guess awareness is the first step. I have noticed this when I begin tracking other things as well. I have a dramatic change in behavior, but as soon as I stop tracking my habits go back to the way the once were. I can only really change them if I track them over an extended period of time. So if I really want my T.V. watching to decease I need to track it for at least the next two to three months. And even then I may experience a regression within a few months of ceasing my tracking, thus making me start to track again, but normally when this happens just a week or two of tracking can get me back on course.
The second thing I discovered was that documenting how much television I watched was difficult. It was challenging because remember my goal wasn’t necessarily to watch less T.V. It was to watch less T.V. as a solo activity, so if I was doing something else but the T.V. was running I was fine with it. This experiment was to increase my productivity while watching T.V. because in my household it’s impossible to get away from. But there were times while I was doing something while watching T.V. but then I would get distracted by the T.V. and not really be working on what I was supposed to, so how was I to categorize that segment of time. Also, I tend to interact with my roommates most in the living room while the T.V. is on, so how does this time get counted? Is social interaction outside of the realm of watching T.V. as a solo activity even if we are discussing what we are watching?
In general my watching did decrease but I’m not sure my productivity increased like I hoped. It is important to note that when I refer to productivity I mean doing other hobbies and activities not just work. I want to use my time for more things than just watching the same episode of Gilmore Girls over and over again. To do this, I believe I will need to create more concrete standards in order to have a better system at diminishing my watching. However, as of now I’m not 100 percent sure what those standards should be. They need to be simple so as not to be so time-consuming that I completely give up and say, “To hell with this.” At the same time that can’t be so willy-nilly that my attempts are really worthless.
I do believe this will be a work in progress. And that giving myself access to other things will help as well. I think that many times I just sit and watch T.V. because I think there’s nothing else to do. But if I keep my crafts out and accessible I’m more likely do get up and putter with them than if their stuffed in a drawer. Apparently, I don’t want to think or have to go to great lengths to do something. I guess that why T.V. is so inciting. All I have to do is grab the remote and I’m off and running.
Hopefully, between the awareness of how much T.V. I watch and having other options available I will be able to conquer the black hole.
The Rule of Peculiar 