Perhaps I’ve been reading too many business marketing and motivational books. Seth Godin, and The Red Lemon Club have provided me with advice on how to be more productive and extraordinary. Taking them at their word, I’ve decided to conduct an experiment as part of my approach at living a bigger life of art and design. I’m ditching TV.
This measure is requiring a certain amount of bravery on my part. While I don’t watch that much TV anyway, there are certain times when I really truly just want to relax in front of the tube and let it take me away. It’s candy for my brain. Regardless, this week I’ll be calling up my satellite provider and canceling my account.
It’s not just a matter of wanting to be more productive… if I wanted to be more productive, I could always elect to just not turn the thing on. But, my Directtv bill is approximately $90/month and I find that ridiculous. I don’t receive the premium channels such as Showtime or HBO. Nope, that $90/month goes for perhaps 4 channels I watch regularly and a whole bunch of other channels I rarely use. I’ve called Directtv and eliminated some channels in attempt at making the monthly bill less like extortion, but that only brought my bill down by about $15 and eliminated Ovation TV, which I loved. So with the support of my kids, off it goes and here are the benefits we’re hoping to gain:
- More productivity and a enhanced lifestyle
- I can either save that $90 or use it toward attending a social event. That’s $1,080/year and that’s some significant vacation money!!
- Less stress… I find that often the background noise of TV causes stress for me. Quiet is good. Music is good. Bombs blowing up, repeated bad news, loud TV commercials…BAD.
- I can enjoy television and programs without the monthly bill. I can rent DVDs from the library. Watch Hulu. ABC provides many of their regular programs online at abc.go.com. I can read the news online or in print. These things are all “On Demand”.
I think that with the economy being such as it is, and with the inflated prices Comcast, Directtv and others are demanding, television will eventually go the way of the dinosaur. Why should we pay $90+ when we can get what we need for less and On Demand. My mission, my attempt, is to take back control. Come on, join me. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
Lisa
Rose, Thanks for the support. I’ve been attempting to add hours to the regular 24 hour day for years…I didn’t realize that simply giving up TV would do the trick.
Rose
More power to you. I think that’s a fantastic idea. As they say it rots the brain anyway.