A few months ago, I decided to start watching only one episode of TV a day.
Before this, I wasn’t the most extreme TV binge-watcher ever. But I was regularly watching up to 3 or more episodes in a day.
I didn’t think it was a big deal, because I usually watched TV while doing something else – meal prepping, doing my skin care routine, playing a word puzzle game, or eating dinner.
I’m not opposed to watching TV or a movie while you do something productive, but I felt like it was getting out of hand.
After a particular TV-heavy weekend (which I justified as “multitasking” at the time), I didn’t like how I felt.
Rather than feeling rested and rejuvenated, I just felt annoyed. I felt unmotivated and tired, and all that I wanted to do was turn on my iPad and pull up a TV episode.
So, I decided to cut back on TV a bit. I decided that I would experiment with only watching one episode of TV a day and see how it felt.
I expected that it would be a positive change, but I didn’t realize just how big a difference it would make. It turns out that the effect of TV on my day reaches way past those couple of hours that I spent actually watching it.
Here’s what’s happened since I started watching ONLY ONE episode of TV a day:
The day feels longer.
Apparently those 21-minute episodes really add up? It had become common for me to spend upwards of an hour or more watching TV in the evenings. Now I feel like there’s more time in the evenings, and no stolen hours in the morning.
My thoughts are more focused.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but whenever I watch TV during a break in my workday and then try to start working again, I can feel that my thoughts aren’t coming as quickly.
I have more energy.
I replaced TV time with things that gave me energy, rather than zapped it. Instead of sitting stagnant on the couch, I moved my body. I’m not talking hard-core workouts, either – simply moving as I tidied my apartment or picking up my guitar and strumming it gave me more energy.
I listen to more audiobooks.
Where I would have used to turn on the TV when I ate lunch or tidied my bathroom cupboards, now I turn on an audiobook.
I’m learning Italian.
A habit I’ve had for a looong time is watching a show while I wash my face at night. It actually was a helpful habit at first, because it made me look forward to taking off my makeup and doing my skin care routine (something I honestly don’t enjoy doing).
But it started getting out of control, because I’d want to watch the next episode, and this would be at like 10:30 at night, and I don’t usually want to be watching screens that late.
Long story short… I replaced that time with listening to an Italian lesson – and it’s much more satisfying to see the progress I’m making in learning a new language.
My partner and I do more interesting things together.
Before I decided to limit myself to one TV episode a day, my boyfriend and I would often watch TV together in the evenings.
Turning on a TV show after dinner was such a default decision, one we didn’t stop to consider if it was what we truly wanted to do.
Now, we are more conscious about making decisions to do activities that will be fun and engaging. We’ve played more games, sang together, painted, read books, and gone out more.
Watching TV is more fun than it was before.
I put on an episode of one of my favorite shows for my daily TV allotment the other day, and I couldn’t stop laughing. It was even an episode I had seen before, but the show seemed funnier than ever to me.
Sometimes when you have too much of something at once, you get desensitized to it and start enjoying it less. This happens with sweet treats, and apparently, it happened to me with TV shows.
It’s kind of like my brain was thinking:
1st episode of the day: Ah, so fun. I love this show. OMG so funny!
2nd episode of the day: [getting less interesting]
3rd episode of the day: [isn’t enjoying it as much, and yet I persist]
Why watching only one episode of TV a day works for me:
It forces me to be more selective about what shows I actually want to watch. I have to ask, Do I want to use my one show on this or that?
It’s not too restrictive for me. Rather than feel resentful that I can’t ever watch my favorite shows, I always know I can watch the next episode tomorrow.
“It’s okay,” my brain thinks. “I can press cancel on the next episode auto-playing because I’ll watch it tomorrow.”
It helps me enjoy the episodes more because I’m not getting desensitized to the greatness of a show by binging it all at once. Plus, it’s my one episode of the day and I’ve got to savor it and not be on my phone so much while watching.
How can I cut down on the amount of TV I watch?
If you want to start limiting yourself to one episode of TV a day, here are some tips that can help:
Disable autoplay
Most streaming services will automatically play the next episode in a sequence when one episode ends. Check to see if you can disable autoplay in the settings for your profile (some streaming services have the option to turn it off; some don’t).
Watch episodes in backwards sequence
This one sounds strange, but go with me here. If you’re re-watching a show you’ve already seen, try watching it backwards.
For example, I’ve seen most episodes of The Office many times, and I will always continue to re-watch that show. If I watch episode 15 on Monday, maybe on Tuesday I’ll watch episode 14.
The sequence doesn’t really matter in a show like that (especially if you’ve already watched the whole season before), but this way, the autoplay feature will begin a show that I just watched the day before. It’s not so hard to resist an episode when I’ve just seen it yesterday.
It’s weird, but give it a try! It works pretty well for me.
Make a schedule for what you’ll watch
Plan out what show and what episode you want to watch ahead of time. You could make a weekly schedule of your TV time, and then you’ll be able to look forward to the episodes.
Conclusion
Do I still watch TV?
Yes, I watch TV almost every single day – but only one episode.
There have been a few days that I’ve skipped watching any TV, but on most days I end up watching my episode. (And of course, a few days where I’ve watched more than one episode. I’m not perfect!)
TV is a great activity. It can make you laugh, engage you in a story, and help you bond with others who watch the same show.
But I’ve learned that it’s best in small quantities – like one episode a day.
Limiting myself to this amount has helped me to be more productive… and somehow a lot happier too.
If you’ve been thinking about cutting down the amount of time you spend in front of the TV, I highly recommend trying out only watching one episode a day and see how you like it!
Best of luck!
