Why reclaiming time from Netflix makes all the difference

This story was originally published in my newsletter Seven Things. Please check it out and consider signing up to get similar posts into your inbox.

In the olden days, I’d roll out of bed no earlier than I had to in order to perform urgent chores and go to work in what will soon become my daughter’s nursery. After a day of work and more chores in the evenings, I’d be too exhausted to do anything active. Then I’d ‘wind down’ with whatever the algorithms of YouTube and Netflix decided for me to watch. To make things worse, I’d frequently indulge in unhealthy snacking while doing so. I often went to bed with the sour taste of knowing I’d squandered some of my limited time on Earth and damaged my body. Not a great note to end a day on.

The briefest of looks at national TV watching habits reveals I was not alone. The average person in the US is expected to watch more than three hours of TV a day this year, with British viewers reaching similar numbers. That’s 6.5 weeks of continuous viewing time per year. And this is just TV not including the use of streaming services. You’d be wrong to assume the pandemic is at fault. In 2019 this number was 14% higher still. Saddest of all, since habits brush off to the next generation, the average British 3-4-year-old child spent 12.7 hours per week in front of the telly in 2019, which roughly translates to one month of continuous watching per year.

Since nobody actually is average, you might be wondering how you are faring? You can upload your Netflix viewing history to this tool to find out. On the YouTube mobile app, you are only two taps away from seeing your current week’s viewing stats (it’s on the same screen that lets you set viewing limits and bedtime reminders).

I had already cancelled my streaming subscriptions and swapped the black box for a practically invisible projector. Armed with all this information, though, I made one more change that would all but wipe out my mindless screen time and give me a way to spend my days more deliberately. I set my alarm clock to two hours earlier. Groundbreaking, I know, but exceedingly effective. Naturally, these two hours have to come from somewhere. I love sleeping and would never compromise on it. At the time when I used to plump onto the couch, remote in my hand, I now simply go to sleep instead.

Before my work day begins, I have one to two hours that are mine. When the rest of the family is still asleep I do what I please, writing this newsletter or making a photo book about our last holiday, for example. It’s not necessarily productive time, though. I don’t want these precious hours to merely add to the daily churn. Some days I wake up early just to sip coffee and read a magazine in quiet or to go for an extended walk with Bao Bao. The point is not to spend this time in ways one might deem useful but instead to be intentional with it and enjoy myself rather than defaulting to mind-numbing Netflix and munch.

It doesn’t always work, of course. Sometimes, infants wake before you want them to. One day last week, a rodent had chewed through our external broadband cable, shutting down our internet connection and making me spend the morning on an urgent repair. For the most part, though, my days now start and end as I intend them to: on a high.