If you want to reduce your TV use long-term, take some time to figure out why you watch TV. Once you understand that, you can devise strategies to reduce your use, including by replacing the benefits you get from TV with more helpful alternatives. These tools can help you get a fuller understanding of your TV use:

• Spend a few days recording when and for how long you watch TV. Are there any patterns?
• Consider why you watch TV. Is it providing you with any of these benefits:
  • Education.
  • Entertainment.
  • Rest.
  • Excitement.
  • Social connection.
  • Comfort.
  • News.
  • Escape from troubling thoughts.
  • Escape from stress.
  • Escape from unpleasant feelings.
  • Avoidance of an unpleasant task.
  • Relief from boredom.
  • Relief from loneliness.
• Consider your experience when you watch TV.
  • When do you do it?
  • Where do you do it?
  • Are there any common triggers for watching TV?
  • What kinds of TV shows do you watch?
  • How do you feel before, during and after watching TV?
• Write down why you want to change.
  • Write down the adverse effects it has on you.
  • Write down the benefits that you will get from the change.

Cold Turkey

The quickest, simplest and most effective way to reduce television use is to get rid of your TV. Sell it, give it away or throw it out.

Breaks

If getting rid of your TV is too drastic for you. Consider taking a break from TV for a set period. Taking breaks, rather than trying to give up altogether, can help greatly for the following reasons:

• Starting a break is easier if you know it’s not permanent.
• Knowing the break will end can help boost willpower.
• It can show you that stopping is possible and easy.
• It can help show you the benefits of stopping.
• It can boost your confidence in stopping.
• It can show you that TV is less vital than it may feel.
• It can break the habit of TV use.

Reduce TV use

Another strategy is to reduce TV use rather than cut it out altogether, for example:

• Don’t watch TV for a full day once a week.
• Don’t watch TV in the mornings.
• Don’t watch TV in the evenings.
• Reduce the time you spend watching TV.
• Limit your watching to one or two specific shows.
• Don’t start watching any new shows.
• Reduce TV time to a set period a day, say one hour.
• Use the TV as a reward. Once you’ve done your tasks for the day, you can spend time watching TV.
• Set rules about the quality of your TV use, for example:
  • Don’t watch any new shows unless someone whose opinion you respect has recommended them.
  • After watching an episode, take a moment to rate it out of 10. If it’s not good enough to rate an eight or higher. Don’t watch any more episodes.

Make reducing TV use easier

• Don’t have a TV as the centerpiece of your living room. Put it away out of sight.
  • Cancel your cable or streaming services.
  • Put the TV remote in a drawer on the other side of the room to your couch.
• Before you start watching TV, set a timer in another room for the length of time you plan to watch.
• Stop watching new shows.
• Unplug the TV each time you use it.

Replace the benefits

To reduce TV use in the long term, it helps to replace TV watching with a more helpful activity that provides similar benefits. If you don’t, then you may fill the free time you have saved with another addictive and unhelpful habit. Aim to find an activity that brings you the benefits you get from TV but is less addictive and more helpful. If you can replace TV with an activity that helps you achieve one of your long-term goals, then even better.

It is common to finish school or work, plonk down on the couch, switch on the TV and watch for the rest of the evening. This can be driven by a need for rest and escape from the day’s stress. While TV does provide some rest and other benefits, a ten-minute meditation might provide you with the same relief as an hour of TV. Similarly, going for a walk or sitting quietly with your thoughts can give your mind time to process those thoughts rather than distracting yourself from them with TV.

Example replacements for TV use can include:

• Doing something creative.
• Learning an instrument.
• Spending time with friends.
• Reading.
• Taking up a hobby.
• Playing sport.
• Walking.
• Writing.
• Learning a language or skill.
• Taking a class on a topic you are interested in.

If you tend to watch TV in the evening after work, schedule something for that time, particularly one that involves other people, like a sport or game. It is easy not to watch TV when doing something else you enjoy. Having someone else relying on you to attend another activity makes the lure of TV much easier to ignore.

Sometimes we can use TV as a way to avoid uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Unfortunately, TV is not great at helping us deal with such thoughts and feelings. It is usually just a temporary distraction from them. Taking time to deal with uncomfortable thoughts and feelings can help to reduce their effect on your life and reduce the resulting procrastination. Thankfully, there are several tools that can help deal with the following thoughts and feelings that drive procrastination:

• Stress.
• Difficult tasks.
• Fear.
• Overwhelm.
• Anxiety.

Habits

For most of us, watching TV has become so habitual that we can start watching TV without consciously deciding to. Reducing TV use can be done using tools that help break other unwanted habits.