Our week of no TV ended on Sunday. At first, no one remembered. Then the kids spent some time, but not a crazy amount, watching the shows they missed. Then the Vikings played had a game at 7:00. I was reading a book, and kind of watching. And all of a sudden, it was 9:15 and I hadn’t showered or started to get ready for bed yet. I had finished the book, and the game was pretty horrible. Every time I looked up there was a fumble or interception.

Monday was a little better. I watched one show with Lily and Austin, and then, after they went to bed, another show with Chris. About 45 minutes total. I was totally fine with that until I realized, as I was going to bed, that I 1) hadn’t written at all, and 2) didn’t even care about what I watched with the kids. It wasn’t bad. It was an old Seinfeld episode (Season 1, Episode 2, to be precise.) It just wasn’t anything I particularly needed to spend my time on.

If it was up to me, we wouldn’t have a TV. Not because there’s anything wrong with having one, but because I have a hard time using it mindfully. But, since Chris and the kids wouldn’t be down with having no TV, maybe it’s a good opportunity for me to practice intentionality.

And by “maybe” I mean: for sure.

I feel like I should preface this with: We don’t watch a lot of TV. At most, between the four of us, 3 hours total each day. And that would need to be a day where everyone got up early and we had nothing going on, which never, ever happens. We have Hulu and Netflix, but no cable.

However…

I feel like TV has too much pull over us. We’re bored? TV. Tired? TV. (No, not sleep. TV. Duh!) Overwhelmed by how much needs to be done? TV, obviously. Stressed out? TV.

I first floated the idea of giving up TV for the rest of the year. Chris was not having that. But I did get him to agree to no TV every-other-week for the rest of the year, except for Vikings games.

Our first week was the Vikings bye week. Our TV has been off since last Saturday.

Here’s my first week observations:

• Overall, it wasn’t that hard. There were times when I reached for the remote and had to stop myself. But that faded.
• Last Sunday I did all of the meal prep I intend to do every Sunday but never end up having time for because I get stuck on the couch. Here’s the thing: I’m usually not even watching TV when I’m stuck on the couch. But the TV is on and other people are watching it, so I don’t have motivation to do anything else, either.
• I became more aware of other time sucks.
  • This wasn’t planned ahead of time, but by Monday night I had started unsubscribing from every email I didn’t really want to get.
  • I cut back on social media. This was a conscious effort, and probably harder than TV. Two checks a day- once in the morning and once at night.
• I became aware of other ways I was trying to distract myself.
  • Eating while reading/working/watching TV/generally doing anything other than eating. Why do I need to be distracted while I eat? I don’t. I don’t actually want to be distracted while I eat, yet it had become my default.
  • In general, I’m usually doing 2 – 5 things at a time. Somehow, without TV, it became easier to differentiate and stop doing that.
• I didn’t get as much done as I expected. I was hoping to get a lot of writing done, read two or three books, clean out the bathroom cabinet, and clean the basement. I did get a lot of writing done, more than I’ve gotten done in months. But I only read one book, and just cleaned the bathroom cabinet today.

Tomorrow begins a new week, and this one has TV. There’s a Vikings game that I guarantee will be on. I also fully expect the kids to have something on before the Fabric gathering in the morning. I don’t know that we’re going to watch a lot less TV than we had before this week. But hopefully, we’ll be watching it more mindfully.