How many times have you made the excuse that you do not have time to eat healthy, exercise, or even get control of your finances? I admit that I am guilty of doing this; especially with the things I am not crazy about in the first place. One of the biggest reasons for our “lack of time” is the TV. A recent study done by Nielson shows that the average American household now has more TVs than people, and we are spending more than a third of our day with them turned on.
Televisions are everywhere; in cars, on airplanes, on elevators, even in bathrooms. If you have ever come home from work and turned on the TV, you know how easily it is to forget about all those things you have on your to-do list. You start watching and all of a sudden it is just about time to go to bed so you can start your day all over again.
Half of American homes have three or more TVs, and only 19% have just one. This is up dramatically from 1975 when 57% of homes had just one set and 11% had three or more. As a result of the number of TVs in homes, we are wasting more time than ever watching them. This leads to our common excuse of not having enough time in the day.
In the average home, the television is turned on for eight hours, 14 minutes and the average person is watching for four hours, 35 minutes. Think about those statistics for a minute. What if someone told you that they were going to give you an extra four hours in your day? Wouldn’t most of you like to have just a little more time to get things done? If you decided not to turn on the television that is exactly what you would have. Are you willing to sacrifice your favorite shows in order to start taking care of yourself?
With an extra four hours, you would suddenly have time to get around to all of those things you thought you did not have time for. Most of the things we would accomplish would go a long way toward improving our health and relationships. We could cook dinner rather than get takeout, go to the gym for 30 minutes of exercise, spend time with our kids or other loved ones. We might even catch up on some lost sleep.
The next time you tell someone that you just do not have enough time in the day to get things done, or you make the excuse that you do not have time to exercise or eat healthy, think about where you are really spending your time. Make it a goal to leave the TV turned off for one night the first week and then take notice of how much you are able to accomplish.
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