One of the perks of living on my own is doing whatever I want with my time. But it’s also one of the pitfalls.
Last Saturday morning, I realized how many movies I’d watched in the last week. I don’t remember how many it was, but it was a mix of library movies and movies I already owned. And I realized how much time I was not spending reading, or doing chores, or taking care of a host of other worthwhile pursuits.
So I decided that from Feb. 2 until March 2, I won’t watch any movies. Not from the library, not ones I own. The closest I’ve gotten is those five-minute Lizzie Bennet Diaries vlogs.
It’s an experiment, I suppose, to see if I can reestablish some good habits (like daily Bible reading, or finishing at least one book per week) before I start watching movies again.
So far it’s paid off.
Since I don’t watch TV shows either, cutting out movies has forced nearly all stories (fictional or otherwise) to come to me by way of the written word. (The LBD is the exception.) I’ve had a book of my grandpa’s for probably two years, Omar! by Omar Vizquel, that I finally sat down and read. It’s by/about one of the best shortstops that the Cleveland Indians ever had, and it’s quite interesting. I’m sleeping more, since I’m not tempted to stay up to finish the last half-hour of a movie. I’m definitely more consistent in reading my Bible.
I still spend a lot of time reading blogs etc. on the Internet. Oh, and Facebooking. I’ve probably spent more time on Facebook now that I don’t watch movies, and I’m not sure that’s a great habit to be developing.
There’s not much difference in how clean my apartment is, so apparently movies weren’t taking much time away from chores. I still put off dishes until the last possible moment. (Which is usually just as they start smelling. I can’t handle a smelly apartment.)
I suddenly feel like I have far more free time though. Enough time to relax, to lose myself in a book without having to set an alarm to remind myself to go to work or get something else done.
I’ve done much more cooking this week, oddly enough (probably why my dishes started smelling last night). It’s nice to be living off of more than granola cereal, carrots and peanut butter sandwiches.
Plus I’m spending more time being active – taking walks outside and dancing around in my apartment, mostly.
Do you watch movies or TV? What would you do if you didn’t?
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