However, for a lot of us, energy is the thing we’re lacking most, not time. After a stressful day at work and a trip to the gym, making dinner, taking care of kids etc who has the energy to learn advanced physics or Cantonese? Not me, that’s for sure. But watching a TV show I love helps me switch my brain off, de-stress and be entertained all at the same time.

Studies have also shown that watching TV with your spouse or significant other is actually an intimacy building activity – one that doesn’t occur while my husband is reading the news online and I’m absorbed in a novel, even if we are in the same room.

Finally, storytelling has been a part of human culture as long as language has been around. I wonder how much TV satisfies our need for bringing stories, empathy, and adventure into our lives?

You said:
“If you really want to start a business, or if you have a goal in mind, and you watch TV or surf the Internet mindlessly, you do have time to reach that goal — over 750 hours a year, in fact. This life is your chance to better the world around you in some way. What amazing creations can you make with that time? What will you do with your newfound 750 hours a year?”

and I really find myself wondering how I must spend these 750 hours that others spend in front of the tv! I used to stage manage professionally in the evenings, which was a easy way to attribute my lack of time, but now I work on my blog, have dinner parties, and go to sleep at a reasonable hour. I am still hard-pressed to fit in time to learn a new language or get my freelancing off the ground.

Do you have any advice for finding those extra 750 hours for those that don’t watch tv or loll around online for hours at a time?

The real solution is to turn the TV off and have very light dinners. I find elaborate , long drawn out dinners with snacks are what sparks a lot of TV watching.

If you cut your sleep time in half from 8 hours to 4 hours, in the next 10 years you will have 14,600 extra hours awake. This is equivalent to 608 days which is over 1 year and 6 months extra your awake. Imagine having an extra 1 year and 6 months over your competition. The more productive your are now,the sooner you can relax.

Read up on the REM cycle’s your brain goes through when you sleep. 4 hours is really all you need. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely the best way to have more time! I personally have changed mine from 8+ hours to 5-6. It’s not 4 hours, but it’s a start.

One thing is that we tend to swap one behaviour for another. I noticed I was spending more time online, more time stuck infront of a computer screen, so now I make it a point that on ‘days off’ (I work from home) I don’t go on the computer till after lunch. Sundays I try and stay offline all day. I’ve done so much more since doing these few things, had more time to get things done and achieved so much! And it all started by giving up TV!

I watch the shows I want to watch, when I want to watch them. They come in the mail and sit until I’m ready for them.

They have no commercial breaks, so you’re saving time.

If you’re married to someone whose mouth goes like a duck’s rear, you can rewind to catch what you missed while he was flapping his gums. Ahem.

When I get home from my rather long and stressful workday, sometimes I am too wound up to sleep, and it’s too early. I’m not going to do much productive, so I relax and unwind with some quality television and a low-cal dinner. Beats going out and spending money and eating and drinking too much socially.

The web is a time-suck for sure as the commenter mentioned above. Kill monsters and collect gold games, even the fancy new ones, are fun but they hit the right brain-receptors and keep us coming back for too many hours.

Or you could just not own a TV. My wife and I have now been married for nearly 3 years and we have never owned a Television. With internet programing you can now watch pretty much anything you want any time you want, you can even watch it in HD. I agree that one of the only downfalls of not having a TV is sacrificing watching live sporting events. Sometimes you can find them online but the quality, size and overall experience just isn’t the same.

The best part of the post though is the part addressing what to do with you new found free time. You must have a plan and some goals. Dont just plan to plan or plan to make goals -DO IT. then you will never miss your TV

This biggest advantage is it eliminates aimless watching, as well as all the annoying commercials. The hard part is not having sports, but there are always sports pubs around to catch the game….

In topic: I’m watching as much tv now as some years ago – I bought a DVD recorder one year ago but my habits remained the same: I watch some favorite series and good films.
But yeah, I waste much more time on the web, I’m more worried about that.
Though I must admit that sometimes I prefer wasting some time because I’m just tired and feel lazy – not the internet’s fault, or the tv’s fault…

By the way, one book a month is not enough to be a goal, read at least 2.

Misty
Founder
My Inspiration Lounge
http://www.myinspirationlounge.com

I’d love to be able to download shows from the internet and watch it on my television. The Appletv won’t work, because I don’t have a hdtv. Are there any other options? This would allow me to watch the shows I like but limit my watching of filler.

Though, in this day and age (and for this crowd), I suspect “idle Internet use” may be an even bigger time consumer than television.

How many hours a week do we spend chatting, watching YouTube videos, playing online games, Stumbling, etc. etc. etc.

If you’re already achieving your goals, and have time to waste, by all means, do what pleases you (TV and internet included), but if you’re always feeling pressured for time, check yourself a few times a day, and see if you’re engaged in something meaningful.

Good luck, all!

I am with a few people here in that I can’t find 14 hours in a week. I am a working mom (full time) with two small children (and have outsourced housecleaning AND lawn mowing). My husband also works full time (plus overtime and an hour each way commute).

After everyone is sleeping in my house I hop on the treadmill and/or blog for my local newspaper (which while it makes me well known in my community, isn’t going to make me a millionaire!)

Anyways, good article and helpful for some out there. I agree with many points.

But other than that Whats the real underlying suggestion here? Should I simply stop leisure activities and spend all my time with productive work? Or should I just not watch TV because some people dislike TV?

Personally I enjoy TV. Its my primary choice for how I spend my leisure time.
Yes if I cut back on TV I could have more time to do other things. But I choose to spend my leisure time watching TV. If I choose to cut my leisure time I have more time to do work. But I enjoy my leisure time and I enjoy spending my leisure time watching TV.

Theres always a balance between leisure and productive / work time. Sure, cutting back on leisure time can free up time to work, but I don’t want to work more.

Otherwise its a personal opinion and preference as to whether we want to watch TV, read a book, play cards, exercise, or do other things with our own leisure time. While I understand many people feel TV is a waste of their time any other choice of how you spend leisure time is still simply a personal preference.

The true time suck for me these days is internet, specifically wandering about yelp and reading feeds. I knit while watching tv but don’t while I’m online.

And doing without cable to watch on a small computer screen? I’d get Apple Tv and use Amazon Unbox instead. It isn’t about saving the money but about enjoying my time investment. A show here or there on the computer is fine, but I’d rather watch it on a larger screen. It’d also save me the pain of waiting for online shows to buffer.

Here’s another great read from the Journal of Cognitive Liberties — http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/5jcl/5JCL59.htm

It’s a scientific perspective on TV watching and how it affects our brains and bodies. It’s definitely been helping me cut back — and hopefully to quit soon!

A few years ago a friend bought me a TiVo for christmas and she promised it would change my life. And it did! At first, I loved being able to not worry about being home for the news (or forgetting to set my VCR to tape whatever show I was missing while I was at night school). I loved being able to forward through commercials.

BUT! for me, I ended up watching WAY more tv after getting TiVo! Now that it only took me 20 minutes to watch a 30 minute show, I’d end up watching two at a time instead – getting totally hooked! It also suggested new shows and turned me onto ones I wouldn’t have thought about otherwise, and with the convenience of having them all lined up for me whenever I wanted, it was just too hard to put down the remote. I’d say my viewing habits completely changed after TiVo, but instead of spending less time watching TV it was DEFINITELY a marked increase.

I just got back from an 8 month trip abroad, during which time I missed entire seasons of Top Chef, Grey’s Anatomy, Project Runway – some of my favorite shows. While I had the option (if I REALLY needed a fix) of watching some of them online, I found that I had way more fun actually living life, and I hardly missed them.

In the meantime, I went back to reading books. I think that in the past ten years my attention span was shortened to practically nothing by the ubiquity of information being hurled at me in bite-sized pieces on the internet, TV, etc. During the time I was away I read through approximately 2 books per week, picking up old classics that I was supposed to have read in school, as well as new recommendations from friends. My newly rediscovered reading habit, combined with daily sessions writing in a journal, have helped me to turn over a new leaf. And I don’t miss my TiVo at all!