Personal Spring Cleaning: My Netflix Diet
I’m (finally) starting to see the value in cutting out things from your life that take up time that is better spent elsewhere. I’ve started trying a few new things in my life as of late, and I’m considering this spring, my Personal Spring Cleaning. Time to get rid of all of the dirt and grime created by the first quarter of the year, and bring in some new, fresh, positive habits that will hopefully stick for the rest of the year and not become as out-of-fashion as my New Year’s Resolution…. Which I can’t even remember what that is. Oops.
Today’s blog is more or less to hold me accountable to one of the more challenging of my Spring Cleaning items: My Netflix Diet.
MY NETFLIX DIET
Yes, Netflix. I realize how much of my time to myself is spent in front of the television screen. Whether I binge watch a new series for hours, binge re-watching an old favorite series for hours, or channel surf watching just about nothing for hours on end – I’m wasting my own time. I’ve gotten to the end of the day, 10:30 or 11:00PM hits and I realize I’ve done nothing, and suddenly it’s time to go to bed and start over.
Why not make my time to myself count for something? I always complain about not having enough time to read, to get enough sleep, to cook myself a nice dinner, to exercise, to journal (or blog?)… the list goes on. But evidently I do have time to waste hours and hours watching Netflix. In case I need to remember what I need to do, here’s a brief list of things to do that aren’t watching Netflix.
1. Read a book
2. Go on a walk
3. Take the pup to the dog park
4. Start a blog
5. Plant something
6. Call or FaceTime an old friend and catch up
7. Cook a nice meal
8. Research recipes to learn how to cook a nice meal…
9. Laundry – hate to say it, but I feel like there’s always laundry to be done.
10. Feel proud of my living space and tidy up a little bit
11. Sit on the porch and just be.
12. Go for a bike ride
13. Shoot a breeze with the neighbor
14. Visit a new-to-me local business
15. Research ways to make my living room more home-y
16. Clean out my closet – dear Lord. Do I need to do this or WHAT
17. Visit a local park and sit by the lake
18. Try to write a book
19. Find a new “favorite band” – as if anyone would ever take the place of John Mayer, lol, but still.
20. Actually develop a written out budget
There are seriously so many more things I could do that would be more productive than letting my brain rot into the television screen. That being said – I’ve got my shows that I have to keep up with, and quitting cold turkey is just plain hard. So instead, I’ll use my one hour to watch 2 mind-numbing episodes of The Office or Parks and Recreation (or any show that’s ~30 minutes), or use my one hour to watch The Walking Dead or 13 Reasons Why, Grey’s Anatomy (or any show that’s ~1 hour).
Thus far, I’m on day 2 of my Netflix cut-back Spring Cleaning, and I’ve already done numbers 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 14, 18, and 19. I mean really. All of those things took the place of hours of Netflix. The things we waste our time on.
Either way, for those of you who are reading this, if anyone ever reads this, on Day 2 of my Netflix Diet, I will 10/10 recommend replacing hours of Netflix with something slightly more productive.
Also, life hack: I absolutely slept better last night than I have in a long time. It’s too soon to say if it’s because I’m cutting back from Netflix, but it’s possible. Anything is worth a good night’s sleep. I’ll keep you posted.
