Hello, my name is Sydney and I have a TV addiction. There I said it! I have been debating whether or not to come out with this confession for a while now, and finally decided – yes I need to come out in the open for my own good! And as part of my recovery process I want to help you overcome your TV addition too!
Step 1 – Identify why you are addicted.
I’ve loved TV my whole life and look forward to watching shows all the time. I’m a homebody so it’s relatively cheap and fun entertainment. Can you tell I don’t get out much? I need to work on that! I also wanted to be an actor growing up and I think that’s also a part of why I love watching so many shows and movies.
Step 2 – Count the number of TV shows and DVDs you watch each week. If it is more than 7 (1 show a day) you are an addict!
Looking at the upcoming Fall schedule, there are 20 returning shows in my programming schedule and 5 new shows I want to watch. That gets me to 25 TV shows plus an additional 2-3 DVD movies a week. WOW I definitely have a TV addiction.
Step 3 – Next, total up the number of HOURS you watch a week. Did you know Americans watch 34 hours of TV a week on average? That adds up to almost 74 DAYS a year.
The TV shows in my list add up to about 33 hours and the DVDs are roughly 5 hours, so that’s approximately 38 hours a week. Sheeeesh that’s SO bad. I am SO going to put those hours to better use!
Step 4 – Come up with a weekly target. If you’re as addicted as me, take your weekly total and divide it in half.
Ok so my goal is 19 hours, which is still a lot of TV per week and manageable. I’m gonna make it happen!
Step 5 – Analyze your TV addiction by dividing the shows into 6 categories. Educational, Action, Drama & Sitcom, Reality, Sports, Movies & DVDs.
This is how my 38 hours a week breaks down. I sure do like a lot of Action shows!
Educational: 2 Foreign Language Shows, Passport to Europe, Samantha Brown: Latin America, Local news (~ 6 hours)
Action: Vampire Diaries, V, Fringe, NCIS: Los Angeles, Nikita, Bones, The Event, Hawaii Five-O, No Ordinary Family, Make It or Break It, Parenthood, Terra Nova, The Secret Circle, Grimm, Unforgettable (~15 hours, 4 new shows)
Drama & Sitcom: Glee, Desperate Housewives, Seinfeld reruns, How I Met Your Mother, Up All Night (~ 5 hours, 1 new show)
Reality: America’s Next Top Model, So You Think You Can Dance, Undercover Boss, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Secret Millionaire (~ 7 hours)
Sports: n/a 
Movies & DVDs: 2-3 movies a week (~ 5 hours)
Step 6 – Identify the shows you want to cut and DELETE them from your scheduled recordings. You can do it!
OK I’ve got my list down to 19 hours! These are the shows I’m cutting out: Local news, 1 Foreign Language show, Make It or Break It, Parenthood, Hawaii Five-O, Unforgettable, Seinfeld, How I Met Your Mother, Up All Night, America’s Next Top Model, So You Think You Can Dance, Undercover Boss, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Secret Millionaire, 1 movie
And if any of the 3 new shows bomb (Terra Nova, The Secret Circle, and Grimm) I’m going to those out too along with any returning shows that lose steam. I only want to watch shows that I really enjoy and drop the rest.
Step 7 – Discipline yourself to only watch the shows in your list. Don’t channel surf.
I think I can manage this. I’m not a channel flipper, I just have to reduce the amount of shows in my recording schedule.
Step 8 -.Multitask when you do watch your shows and movies.
I love to multitask, but I need to be smarter about what I’m trying to multitask. I’ve learned that reading and writing emails and articles requires too much concentration to effectively multitask with the TV on.
What does work well with the tube on is folding laundry, ironing, sorting through paperwork, paying bills, washing dishes, stretching, and doing sit-ups.
Step 9 – Have at least one TV free day each week.
I’m picking Wednesday. It’ll be a good way to break up the week and help me keep my agenda items on track before the weekend.
Step 10 – Avoid watching TV during the day. Get outside, exercise, run errands, meet up with friends, work on some agenda items.
I’ve been getting better about this on the weekends. I love to go hiking, go out to eat, pick up books at the library, and catch up on errands.
UPDATE: Since I wrote this post, I’ve cut my TV hours per week all the way down to only 6-8 hours a week and sometimes even less than that! It feels so good having more free time to be active and productive instead of glued to the tube. I still enjoy watching shows and movies, but now I do so in moderation. I hope you can overcome your TV addiction now too!
Untemplaters, do you have a TV addiction?! What are your favorite shows that you can’t miss? Any of you not own a TV at all – how do you do it?!?!
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
I used to be a tv addict! Before I regulary watched Lost, 24, Prison Break, American idol to name some. Now I watch just the beginning of Ameican Idol and skip the boring middle rounds. Actually imskipped most of it last season except for the auditions.
One of my problems was just having it on. When I would be at home, I’d turn it on even if I wasn’t watching it. Or I’d channel surf till I found something remotely interested. Wasted a lot of time.
Now the only show I watch regularly is Entourage. I love Modern Family but inhale about six episodes I still haven’t watched!
Now one thing will consume a lot of my time starting in a month and that’s football season! I know you don’t watch any sports but I need my football. I need my news and updates. I think I’ll still be okay to get stuff done cause most football is on the weekends.
As for the new shows? I would normally be excited but even last season I wanted to start watching Hawaii Five O but never got around to it.
So I’d say I was a former addict but have cut back drastically so I can get stuff done!!
You haven’t missed much with hawaii 50. I only started watching it to get to see more of Hawaii since they actually do film there. The acting doesn’t compare at all to 24 which I watched nonstop on DVD. Lost was a really fun show too and I enjoyed having debates with my colleagues abot what we thought was going to happen next!
My wife and I didn’t have a tv for the first 2+ years of our marriage (just over 3 now). We purchased one on Cyber Monday last year and use it to keep up with a few shows. Even without a tv we managed to watch a few favorites online occasionally.
Fortunately for us, we’re not huge tv watchers. During the school year we’re generally too busy with school and work to get much tv time. It is the summer vacation that gets us. We let the shows back up and watch them in chunks. Since we can watch them on netflix or just wait and get them when they come out on DVD, we don’t have to worry about commercials. We only agree on a couple of shows, and we only watch shows together, so we’re rather limited in our choices.
How did we manage those first 2+ years? We filled our time with other activities: talking to each other, going out for walks, reading, playing games, etc. Even now, we don’t have cable or satellite, only netflix (which we’ve discussed canceling a number of times. Once school starts back up we probably will do so). By limiting yourself, you will quickly find other activities to fill in the time.
Only watching shows you both like together is a really clever idea! Thanks for sharing that! And you make a good point about only watching shows once they’re out on DVD – definitely a better viewing experience not having to hit fast forward every few minutes. Just means you have to avoid reading and overhearing people talking about the current seasons or it spoils the fun.
Sydney, you’ve definitely got an addiction! But hey, at least you recognize it!
10 more hours a week, and 520 more hours a year of doing something more productive will allow you to do anything you want!
I love TV too though, especially Lost, 24, and other good shows. Good shows are worth it!
Sam
Yes, coming out with my addiction is the first step to beating it! TV shows have become so much more entertaining in the last few years because special effects are better and more “affordable” for the networks to use. Lost and 24 were so much fun to watch! Although I was a bit disappointed with the ending of Lost.
I have a nice flat screen with no cable. I don’t really watch any tv at all. My only interests are WWE and UFC. I watch the UFC ppvs with friends when we go out. I try to catch Raw on Monday nights.
I find tv to be an absolute waste of time. I would much rather go out and create my own stories than to follow the life of others on a program.
I love your last sentence. That’s such an inspiring way to put it! I’m going to remember that, thanks!
Welcome Sydney…ha! Great presentation. I could potentially watch a lot more TV, but our home renovation has cut us back to 1 TV, the kids outnumber me. I like the idea of finding awesome ways to fill your time. I think TV wins too often by default.
Thanks Hunter! You’re right. TV is the easy way out. I stuck to my Wednesday no TV yesterday and it felt great!
I am so glad you have been honest with yourself and admitted you have a problem. That is the first step to rectifying the problem. I also thank you for sharing your story because there are a ton more people like you who have the same problem and I think your tips will help them too. I must admit we don’t watch much tv, at least in the summer so I can’t relate directly.
Thanks Miss T! Coming out publicly has given me so much more motivation to fix my addiction vs when I was just thinking about it in my head. I do hope this post will help people hooked to the tube because life is too short to spend the equivalent of 70 some days a year stuck to the couch.
Love your step-by-step approach Sydney!
We just quit cold turkey with the intention of signing up again if we felt we couldn’t live without TV!
It was weird for a few days, but with Netflix and a two year old, don’t miss TV much!
That’s awesome moneycone! Saves a lot of money too cuz cable gets so expensive! Good to know the cold turkey method works too!!
I like your easy baby steps- it’s very objective and practical. Good luck- will you give us an update on how this goes?
I love how I met your mother, that’s pretty much the only show i watch. Maybe storage wars and HGTV’s House Hunters too LOL.
Thanks! How I Met Your Mother is a funny one although I still find it weird hearing Bob Saget narrating as the older Ted Mosby. It started turning that show on in the kitchen while making and eating dinner earlier this year, but have let it go as part of my cut back plan. I’ll definitely publish an update in a month or two on my progress.
I’m doing good so far. I met up with friends tonight after work so I’ve already had two nights in a row with no TV this week, woohoo!
i’m here after reading benny (getbusyliving)’s latest blog…my reason for watching them is to wind down…also sad but i’m admitting for years now since getting divorced and being a single mom i use these shows to think it’s not so bad to have a life. and living here in minnesnowta summertime is great yet… i like summer because not so many shows on but i still have my detective/action shows in the off season
my goal is to have 2-3 nights/times a week where i watch the shows online (that’s what i do after my daughter goes to sleep) and the rest for decluttering/writing/art 
to get busy living! thanks for your post!
I totally get what you’re saying about watching TV to wind down. Even though it’s still looking at a screen, I like watching TV to get a break from my computer/work, and just relax.
Sounds like you have a nice balance between your TV unwind time and get busy living time!
Sydney,
I think you can shave a few more hours off your 50% TV time goal.
By using a recording device like TiVo (even the old VCR will do the job!) to pre record all your shows, you can zoom through all the advert’s taking another 15% off your watching time.
Having done this for a while I have found you get further reductions by, deleting shows you have only part watched but aren’t really enjoying, fast forwarding to the end when you don’t feel like watching the lot….and for sports fans you can always look up the score so you don’t need to watch the ball by ball action.
By making these changes I’d be surprised if you didn’t get to below 10 hours!
Cheers
CB
Thanks for your comment CB. I already use a DVR and it’s great for fast forwarding. My TV hours have dropped a lot in the last several weeks and I think coming out and admitting I had an addiction made a huge difference! I don’t feel the need to watch TV anymore, and have filled up the bulk of the hours I used to spend in front of the tube being active instead and it’s helped lower my stress because I’m getting more done.
Oh wow. I definitely have a TV addiction problem. But if I am on my computer while I am watching TV I am multitasking, right?
I used to try to multitask watching TV a lot until I realized I was always 95% watching TV and only 5% using my computer. What’s your ratio?
I think I actually might have an addiction. Its got to the stage where all I look forward to is watching another show. I don’t make an effort to go out, see friends, work, I would rather stay in and watch another episode of being erica than hang with my friends…I can’t motivate myself to do any work (I am a student) and anything I do do I reward myself with another episode. I waste so much time, whole days far too frequently just sitting watching the lives of fictional characters, and now I don’t have one of my own. I feel completely worthless and rubbish and self absorbed, but I’m too lazy to stop. I’m hooked…I’ve tried to limit myself to one show a day, but as soon as I watch one, I binge for like 3 hours (or more).
TV is entertaining, no doubt about it and coming to grips with your TV habit is part of the first step to overcoming your addiction! Isolating yourself too much isn’t healthy and no one wants to look back on the last few months or even years and realize all they did in their spare time was watch TV. You’ll feel a lot better if you set at least 1 goal a day and accomplish it before turning on the TV. Try getting some work done in the library or at a cafe, or meeting a friend or classmate for dinner before heading home. That way you’ll get a few things off your to do list or get in some socializing without a tempting TV in reaching distance.
Sydney, Wonderful ideas. Well it works if I am addicted, but what if my in laws are addicted and my kids are not yet. They are too young, but they may easily turn to stupid drama serials. I really don’t want that to happen! I am working woman, could you guide me how to save my kids from tv?
Keep your kids as active as possible! Sign them up for sports teams or activities after school or at a community center. A little TV now and then is fine but kids really need to run around and play outside and have fun with other children. Organize play dates with some of the other moms at you kids school. Reading is another great outlet too and many libraries have free programs for kids.
Great article. I recognize a lot of this in myself. Ellie, your post above sounds very familiar – we are definitely in the same boat. I always sit down to watch one episode, but then can’t bear turning it off, and then the next thing I know it’s four hours later. When an episode of my favorite show is over, I feel a huge let down to go back to my normal activities. I can’t motivate to do any chores or projects when I know I can just turn the TV on and familiar characters will be there. Sometimes it feels numbing or like an escape from a boring or lonely existence. I’ve already tried to limit it by only watching shows I like online- so I have to actually select which shows I want. There is no channel surfing. But, there are enough decent shows online, that I can watch 4 hours per day sometimes and take up my whole evening. Ellie, be strong – I’m thinking about you!
Thanks Kris. I totally understand what you’re going through. Since it’s hard right now for you to stop after one episode, I suggest limiting the days you let yourself turn on the TV or log on to the websites that you use to view shows. Plan an activity on that day to keep yourself occupied and doing something fun so you aren’t thinking about watching shows. Go through the steps above a little at a time and you’ll start to see a difference and feeling less attached to watching so much at once. Good luck!
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