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Perhaps
it's time to kick the television habit
How
do you spend the bulk of your leisure time? The America's Use of Time
Project of Maryland found that TV viewing is our most popular pastime.
Visiting was a distant second, followed by talking. Reading is not even
in the running.
According
to the book, It's About Time, by Michael and Robert Shook, 44% of
American adults do not read a single book during the course of a year.
Watching
TV has outdistanced any other leisure activity, taking up 37 percent of
the average American woman's spare time and 39 percent of a man's,
according to statistics quoted in Marshall J. Cook's book, Time
Management: Proven Techniques For Making The Most Of Your Valuable Time.
At the same time, findings by the American Demographics magazine [June,
1996] indicates 45 percent of the people surveyed reported "less
free time than five years ago."
Is
TV now in the same category as a car, and considered a necessity? Are
people too tired after work to do anything else? Are we being
brainwashed into spending what little leisure time we have parked in
front of the boob tube? Or have we simply formed this habit over the
years?
About
98% of what we do results from habit, not from choice.
That's
what the authors of Who's Driving Your Bus? claim. Earnie Larsen and
Jeannete Goodstein say that whatever we do regularly becomes a habit.
And that once established, habits exist independently in our
subconscious. That's frightening. It's even more so when you con- sider
the example we may be setting for our children. The U.S. Department of
Education reported that the average kindergarten student has seen more
than 5000 hours of TV, having spent more time in front of the TV than it
takes to earn a bachelor's degree.
Even
our eating habits seem to be influenced by TV. About half of
the 86% of Americans who eat dinners at home during the week are eating
pre-packaged or take-out foods that they pick up or have delivered. I
shudder at the thought of how many of those dinners are being consumed
by us while we are being consumed by TV.
The
future doesn't look any brighter. According to Faith Popcorn, chairman
of BrainReserve, and author of Clicking: 16 Trends To Future Fit Your
Life, Your Work and Your Business, the next generation of TVs will
probably be four-walled rooms of screens. Imagine being surrounded by
your TV set, with hundreds of thousands of channels to choose from. A
couch potato's dream!
I
do believe we have a choice. If we want to build relationships, expand
our knowledge, participate in new ventures and experience more of what
life has to offer, we should question how we spend our time. I'm really
not excited about freeing up time through time management techniques,
only to have it gobbled up the one-eyed monster in our family room. Did
I say family room?
Here
are a few suggestions that might keep TV from devouring your life.
Keep
a record of the number of hours you watch TV during a typical week. You
may not have a problem. Then again you may be surprised. It may motivate
you enough to make some changes.
 Plan your TV viewing for the week, block out that time in your planner,
and stick to your plan. This will avoid impulse viewing.
Change your mindset so that you view programs, not TV. Pick and choose
carefully. That hour between your two favorite shows could be better
used on something else.
Tape the shows you want to watch and view them at a time that doesn't
compete with family time, sports activities, exercise etc. You can
fast-forward through the commercials and save more time.
Take a one-week vacation from the TV set. If you don't go into
withdrawal, you may find that you are actually enjoying life more.
Intentionally schedule activities with family, friends so they'll
conflict with your normal TV viewing time. It's easier to resist when
you have something else planned
Time
management is life management. We must not only increase our
effectiveness at work by displacing trivial activities with priority
tasks that impact our organizational goals, we must do the same away
from the job.
If watching TV is your priority personal goal, so be it.
But if you have other plans for your life, don't let them be highjacked
by the greatest time-thief of all. Remember that your living room is
primarily for living, not for viewing.
For more Time Management advice
visit Harold Taylorīs website
or send him an email.
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