Asra Yousuf

While on a sleepover at a friend’s place, I found myself lounging on the couch on a lazy Saturday morning, watching Seinfeld on the television screen. Life seemed good and I felt no motivation to get along with my day. It made me wonder if I was giving up these blissful Saturday mornings by not owning a television. Wait, what?! Yes, I don’t own a television!

Let me break down my thought-process behind my television free home. I grew up with a television set but no cable network. It was my sister’s board examinations and she decided to have the connection disabled to help her focus better. And it just happened to stay that way. I immersed myself into books- Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and the likes and never felt a gaping hole in entertainment growing up. My dad has always been a movie buff and I inherited that from him. So after every term examination, we would hit the DVD rental store (Damn, I feel old) and treat ourselves to a bunch of DVDs. Television was never a huge part of me growing up and it translated similarly into adulthood.

I admit that watching anything on a bigger screen makes the experience so much better. But what scares me is the emotion I felt that Saturday morning propped in front of a television, not wanting to do anything else. Mindless consumption just seemed easy, and effortless. Add to that a gripping television series, and I could be there all day.

I am no productivity fanatic, neither would you find me utilizing my “television-free” time in a highly optimized manner. I do watch my fair share of crap on the laptop. But the small screen does not keep me hooked as much and I can pull away a lot more easily. Having a television-free home is my small way of limiting my consumption of the endless content that exists in the world out there and being conscious of what I feed my brain.

It definitely comes at the cost of feeling left out in discussions about the latest TV series or reality show but I have found that nodding along isn’t too bad an option at times. Being intentional about the content you consume can often be quite tricky, especially in a world where the smartest people are working on algorithms to keep you hooked to the screen. But as with everything else, if you don’t fight for your time, no one will. Here are some things that have worked for me in keeping certain checks and balances in place:

Curating Spaces

In a podcast conversation between Brene Brown and James Clear, Clear talks about asking yourself the question, “What does this space encourage?”. One of the steps towards building and sustaining good habits is making it obvious and he talks about how environment design can go a long way in making habits obvious. This might translate into being intentional about how you organize apps on your phone by choosing to make some apps more accessible than the others, or placing your phone in another room while doing focus work. It might mean keeping books in different areas of your house, making it easier for you to build a reading habit. Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky also touch upon the concept of environment design in their book “Make Time: How to focus on What Matters Every Day”. One of the suggestions they talk about is rearranging your living room furniture such that instead of being centered around a television, the arrangement makes it awkward and inconvenient to watch television. The living room then becomes a space that encourages conversations as a default activity.

Time’s Up!

While phones are built to keep you hooked, they also have mechanisms that help you keep your activity in check. The iPhone offers the ability to set timers on all your apps- which means that if you are using an app for more than the stipulated time, it closes the app. While you can keep extending the time, it serves as an interruption and a good reminder to question if you are making the best use of your time. If you are a data driven person, then the weekly stats reports can offer a useful piece of information on your phone usage. You can also choose to turn off notifications on apps that do not require your urgent attention. For instance, I have my notifications off on Instagram and also have a 15 minutes timer set to prevent me from getting lost in the bottomless pit that instagram reels can sometimes be.

It’s Spring Cleaning time!

You clean your house. You clean your cupboard. Why not clean your feed as well?

As you scroll through Twitter, Instagram and the likes, it is good to constantly question the relevance of the posts you see. Maybe you once had a phase of soccer obsession but are no longer interested in the game- go ahead and unfollow all the soccer related pages, accounts and newsletters you once subscribed to. Same goes for people- if you no longer feel connected to a friend or acquaintance and don’t wish to keep a tab on their everyday life, give them an unfollow. Are the recommendations surfacing up on your YouTube feed leading you through pointless rabbit holes? Unsubscribe. Are there newsletters in your inbox that you have never opened in the past few months? Unsubscribe. Do you feel that your social network is expressing similar opinions? Diversify. Recognize if you are caught up in an echo chambers and build a network that exposes you to multi faceted opinions and perspectives.

The internet is infinite and the content on it endless. However, your time is finite. Use it wisely. It is surprising how tiny decisions can add up towards living a more conscious and intentional life. Make good choices.