Five reasons to switch off your TV

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When we moved into our new house last year, we decided not to hook up our TV. As it turns out, this was a very, very good decision, especially for two busy bloggers who are continuously connected to technology and already distracted by a million other things.

If you want to change your life in just five minutes, there’s an easy way to do it: unplug your TV. Give a TV-free house a try for a day, two days or maybe even a week. Trust us – your life will change, and there are five very good reasons why.

We can thank Darren Rowse from Pro Blogger for convincing us to go TV-free. During the ProBlogger 2013 conference, he mentioned that if you watch TV for two and half hours a day, and live until you're 80, you spend roughly eight years of your whole life sitting on your butt watching telly. This idea actually made us physically sick, so we decided to switch off - and, far out, we get so much more done!

Now, we won’t lie - we do have a small TV and DVD player hooked up in our house. Everyone who sees our little TV laughs a lot, especially when they then lay eyes on our big desktop Mac (which is triple the size). The DVD player and TV is used for foodie documentaries and Sex and the City marathons (this is necessary for break up recovery).

Joshua Becker's Becoming Minimalist blog was another influence for us not to watch TV. Joshua describes his site as "…designed to inspire you to pursue your greatest passions in life by owning fewer possessions. It is based on the realisation that there are far more important things in life to accomplish.”

His posts really help us remember what the important things are in life: to sit back and enjoy the journey,  and realise that money and ‘stuff’ don’t make us happy.

Still not convinced? Here are our 5 reasons not to watch TV:

1. You get so much more stuff done; stuff that is focused on your life, not the lives of the characters on shows or random reality TV stars. The things you get done could include exercising, running errands or, you know, fulfilling your goals and dreams.

2. You get to spend more quality time with loved ones. Instead of sitting around watching TV in silence, get talking, eating, laughing or moving. Even when we go to friends’ places for catch-ups, we make sure the TV is switched off… they don’t mind!

3. You save money. Smaller electricity/Foxtel bills = good!

4. It’s boring. If you think about it, it’s really quite odd to spend hours every day or night watching a box.

5. It’s bad for your health. Sitting for long periods of time is detrimental enough, and watching crappy TV shows can’t be good for our brains either.

How much TV do you watch? Could you ever give it up?

This post originally appeared on The Merrymaker Sisters blog and has been republished with full permission.