Netflix versus Reading

Today my husband told my son (6 years old) an interesting story about a man who visited my husband’s elementary school when he was a kid and told the kids about his life. The man (let’s call him Bob) spent some years of his life in prison. In prison, Bob was given the job to peel potatoes in the kitchen and was instructed to put the potatoes in the potato peeling machine for 2 minutes and then peel the little bit left over skin by hand.

There was a lazy guy who told Bob that he puts the potato in the peeler for 5 minutes so he doesn’t have to peel anything by hand. Bob liked that idea and started putting the potatoes in the peeler for 5 minutes each. He spend 8 hours every day peeling potatoes. Then, one day, he decided to turn his life around and examined every aspect of his life. He then decided to use the potato peeler as instructed and only used the machine for 2 minutes with additional 30 seconds to peel by hand. This way, he was able to complete the job in 4 hours and he spend the extra 4 hours reading and improving this future potential!

I kept a log one week of how many hours I spent watching Netflix and the answer surprised me. I typically spent about 1 hr from Sunday to Thursday and about 2 hours on Fridays and Saturdays. That added up to 9 hours a week, 36 hours a month, 468 hours a year. Imagine if I could have spent 468 hours last year on something else.

Everyone has 24 hours in a day including Einstein, Feynman, Michelangelo, Madam Curie, you and me. How we spend all of these 24 hours is not always within our control but we do have control over a few hours a day such as our lunch hour at work or our TV time at home. How many hours do you spend watching TV, surfing the web or on social media? Keep a log for one week to find out.

I think some amount of down time is important for our brain to relax. I am not saying we should give up all entertainment but we can try to reduce it and replace it with other more productive activities.

One of my new year’s (2020) resolution is to replace half of my Netflix time with reading, writing this blog, playing the piano and meditating.

One other productivity hack that I use is to listen to audio books (using audible) while driving to and from work (my commute is about 40-45 minutes each way). This way I have been able to get through about a book a month for the past 3 years. Just be safe and careful while driving!