100% Productive

Television Will Only Suck You In

January 3, 2010
By: Julie McCallum,
Senior Staff

How many hours do you spend in front of the television? Do you get home from work in the evening and spend the rest of your time in front of the TV?

I refuse to let the television suck me in.

My motto is: Don't even sit down in front of the TV or you're ALL DONE. And I admit, If I see or hear a classic movie for example any of the Rocky movies, no matter how many trillion times I have watched them and have the whole collection on DVD (and VHS for that matter) , it will Try to pull me in. (and obviously sometimes it happens) When I'm home alone, the TV will be off.

In fact it happened to me one morning on the weekend, I watched the cable guy (Jim Carey) and then after that Parenthood (Steve Martin) and laughed my ass off, might I add. It was actually probably a well deserved rest, but it did suck me in.

But anyway, what happens is that once you sit down, for more than say five minutes, then you start to get lazy and obviously interested in the show or movie. So I try to stay focused on whatever my job is at hand. I have to be 100% productive otherwise I will not be happy with myself. Jobs or work is never done.

Productivity (in my book), may also include quality time with family or friends, if you have two hours to sit in front of the TV, there is two available hours to visit with family or catch up with an old friend. I suppose at the same time, the computer sucks me in, but 96 percent of that time is work related. So that's OK. Facebook? Hmmm .. If I am on Facebook it sure in the hell isn't because I'm bored! I don't play games, I don't know what Farmville or Bejeweled are and refuse to be sucked into that. Boredom is just not in my vocabulary and I cannot relate to it.

Same with working out, if I feel like I have zero ambition and don't feel like it, I pretty much have my mind programmed into knowing that If I don't, then I will feel worse, because I didn't. And that works for me. If there isn't a part of body that isn't sore from working out, then I know I'm slacking.

I try to prioritize my jobs, like I know if I don't write a new column, my boss will be sure to let me know my column is out of date, so I'm doing that first. Right now in my life the majority of the time, my mind is on work. I will get that done, because I'm SO blessed to have a job! And then time remaining I will try to get a work-out in, you NEED to 'take care' of your body, then 'it will take care of you'. (Stay Healthy)

House cleaning can always be put off as far as I'm concerned. If a friend or family member asks me to lunch or dinner, You can bet I'm NOT gonna say, "NO I have to clean house or do laundry. Also if I'm having family or friends over for dinner, I will not spend time doing dishes while they are still there, I will spend the time visiting with them first.

Here's another one, making the bed, what is the sense in that???

Anyway, I just feel better staying productive, so I try to make all my waking hours 100% productive. Can't justify it any other way.