According to a Nielson report, United States adults watch five hours of TV per day on average.
I’ve been without a TV for nine years. This was an intentional decision and commitment I made to myself in order to curate my time to support a lifestyle of learning and creativity. Do you know what happens when you don’t have a TV?
You get bored.
Really bored.
And without anything to numb and distract yourself with, you get to know yourself in new ways.
Because of this choice, I’ve gained back 16,425 hours of my life.
We’ve all heard about the 10,000 hour rule. The amount of time it takes to truly master a craft. Instead, I’ve adopted the 10,000-hour-rule of experiments. Building, writing, creating, iterating, connecting, sitting, exploring, adventuring, meditating, communing, launching, speaking, painting, reading, testing hypotheses, pitching, marketing, collaborating, stretching, jumping, laughing, filming, recording, storyboarding, shipping, and designing.
We all get 24 hours in a day. And each of us has agency over how we spend that time.
I understood that if I was consuming the same media and garbage that everyone else was consuming, I wouldn’t have enough blank space and silence to create. This one decision gave me back 16,425 hours to use towards creating the life that I’ve always wanted for myself. I’ve stolen these hours from comfort. But ironically it’s enabled me to live a more comfortable and fulfilling life.
I believe boredom is the birthplace of creativity. Try it for yourself. Turn off your TV. Turn off your notifications.
Put your phone on airplane mode, and watch your creativity take flight.