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Turn off the Noise!
How much TV do you watch in a day? How much time do you spend on the internet for "fun"? How about in a week? A month? A year?
Let's do some quick math.
If you watched just 2 hours of TV per day (which is less than the US average by the way), that would equate to 14 hours per week.
That's 56 hours per month, or just over 2 full days.
In one year, you would have watched 728 hours of TV! That amounts to nearly one month per year!
Let me be honest with you. I love TV. I think it's a great form of entertainment. I don't watch 2 hours per day, but I do watch my favorite shows or sporting events.
This weekend, my lovely wife and I decided to try an experiment. We wanted to see what would happen if we watched NO TV, and didn't use any electronic devices for the entire day.
Let me share with you what happened.
We started the day by running 6 miles together in New York City, and finished it off with a lovely walk along the west side of Manhattan. We came home and prepared lunch together consisting of fresh vegetables that we chopped together by hand. We talked about goals, dreams, priorities, and what we were looking forward to for the rest of 2012.
We took a nap together. We played with our cat together. We talked about things that we hadn't talked about in a long time, because well, we didn't have any distractions, and the feelings were right up on the surface all day, unable to be squished by the sounds of the TV.
We actually had to not get the answer to something instantly by going on-line to look it up.
We cooked dinner together, and finished the day with some more wonderful conversation before retiring to bed about an hour earlier than we normally would on a Sunday evening.
It was wonderful. We really needed it, and we grew closer together because of it.
This got me thinking. Now I understand fully why a lot of my New Yorker friends don't even own TV's.
It also got me thinking. Next time I find myself saying I don't have the time to do something, I need to take a look at where some of my time is going. I don't watch a lot of TV, but I DO spend a lot of time on-line.
To me the activities are the same. Unless I am actively working on something productive (like this blog post for example), then the rest of the time spent on the computer needs to be viewed in the same light as TV.
Before I open up my computer, or reach for my smart phone for instant gratification. I need to ask myself the question:
"Is this worth giving up a month of my life this year for?"
I'm not telling you to stop watching TV or using the internet or logging onto Facebook. I'm just bringing to your attention the facts. These activities, like other forms of entertainment must be experienced carefully, and intentionally.
Otherwise, you give up any rights you have to the phrase "I don't have enough time do do 'x'" because you probably do! Stop the excuses and use your time more wisely. Period.
If you want to create something awesome in your life, but feel like you don't have time, try the 24 hour test like I did yesterday. Turn off all devices, and watch what happens. You're forced to be productive, or do something really revolutionary like read a book that will make you smarter!
Thanks for reading as always.