My Life Has Been Reduced to...

THIS!

That's right fellow TV haters -- you're looking at bag #2 of feckless indoctrination obliviated into tiny bits of nothingness.

Actually I did most of the work last night, but was simply too tired to care about taking a picture at the time. Tonight, I finished up one last small stack of shredding that needed to be done. I even took time out to watch Coach Carter on DVD, which I highly recommend by the way! It was inspirational...I laughed...I cried...I felt good inside.

My office is starting to really show promise. I can see the top of my desk, and I've eliminated at least 3 of the boxes that were sitting around on the floor. However, it looks like I might need another day before I can post some 'after' pictures. So stay tuned...

If you're wondering about that little dog head sticking out of the bag, I'm not sure what to say. I tried to keep him away from the shredder, but he kept begging and jumping up on it. Next thing I knew, he was getting sucked in. Thankfully it got stuck at his shoulders, overheated, and turned off.

HA! Just kidding! Now I hope that doesn't generate a flood of hate mail from a bunch of animal lovers. Trust me, I would NEVER do anything to hurt my little Reeses boo! :-)

Of course, I did use him against his will to pose for the picture. That's pure poochie exploitation. Hey, he got a treat out of it!

I'm sure you're asking yourself why Dave spent 2 hours tonight in front of the evil boob tube to watch a movie. Well I've talked about this in previous posts, but I do think it's OK to "use" the TV once in a while for a little entertainment. It's also one of the rare occasions when I can still spend some time with the family. Remember, they're all still possessed by the thing, but I'm slowly working toward a full exorcism.

Simply trust that there is a method to my madness.

Until next time...

Time for a Party - I'll Bring the Confetti!

Friends, that is one MONSTER bag of shredded uselessness!

In case you're wondering why I've posted a picture of a bag filled with tiny scraps of paper, you'll need to read my previous posts from earlier tonight. Er, make that from late last night.


As always, you can click on the pic for a larger view.

If I had to guess, I'd say it weighs at least 30 pounds. I even had to squish it down with my foot twice to get more in there.

Do you realize that bag represents about 4 years worth of old receipts, statements, bills, and God knows what else? All the while I was shredding, I kept asking myself, "Why...why in the world would I save all this crap?!?"

Wait, I know! Because I was too busy doing other important things like trying to make a permanent imprint of my butt in one of the couch cushions.

Geesh, would ya' look at the time? I'm obviously delirious from sleep deprivation.

BEFORE: The Home Office Wasteland

After my last post, I decided to throw you a little bone by at least posting the before pictures from my home office nightmare.

Check these out... (click any picture for a larger view)




Can you believe that mess?!?! How do you suppose I can find anything in there??

Oh, news flash -- I CAN'T!!! :-(

The boxes you see sitting on the floor contain paperwork I've been moving from house to house for several years now. And there are at least three more boxes in the closet which you can't see in these pics. If you ask me, that pretty much defines insanity!

Like I said, I'm working on it now, and I'll post the "after" pictures in a few days. I would've never got around to doing this if I was still watching television.

The Paper Clutter MUST BE STOPPED!

It's Day 20 of my TV-fast and either I'm getting really bored or my energy is returning and I'm finally starting to get more productive.

Why? I'm gonna tell you...

At the moment, I'm sitting in my office next to three boxes and several stacks of old paperwork and receipts I pulled off my desk and out of my closet. Next to the paper mess is my shredder and a garbage bag full of shredded paper! For the past 2-3 hours I've been sorting and tossing, mostly tossing.

Gosh it really feels good; almost spiritual if you can believe that! Having tons of old useless stuff around you all the time literally saps your energy. You might not realize it, but you are always thinking about things in your life that are not done or not in their proper place. Even if it's totally on a subconscious level, it's still consuming your energy and affecting your daily routine.

Remember my post from a couple days ago about the book, Getting Things Done, and how it spurred me to completely empty my email inbox at work? Well, it was last Thursday when I did that, and it's STILL empty today!

This is a very strange phenomena, but I truly feel about 10 times more productive at work. Since I no longer have 1000+ not-dealt-with messages in my inbox and I'm now dealing with new emails almost the moment they come in, I'm able to get a lot more done, and feel much more in control of my day. If I'm away from my desk for a while, I take 5-10 minutes when I return to deal with everything that has accumulated. No matter what it is, I either delete it, defer it to someone else, file it away for future action or reference, or I create an appointment or task out of it depending on what it is of course.

Needless to say, this puts me in a MUCH better mood while at work, and I feel closure and accomplishment when I leave for the day.

So, do I attribute all this new found energy and desire to get organized to the fact that I'm no longer watching the idiot box? You bet I do!!! Otherwise, I'd still be laying on the family room floor staring at the cool blinky flashy screen for 4-6 hours every night. In fact, that's what Michele is doing right now. She has MAJOR issues! LOL

Stay tuned because in a few days I'm going to post the before and after pictures of my home office so you can see the results of my organizing efforts. You're gonna love it! :-)

New! Facts and Figures about the TV Habit

The TV-Turnoff Network recently posted this interesting PDF file on their website. It contains a couple pages of eye-opening statistics and facts about TV watching. I noticed some repeats of the stats I posted back on the 13th of this month, but this file has quite a bit more info than that article did.

The document also includes a full list of sources, so you know this isn't just a bunch of hooey some TV-hater threw together.

Click here to check it out (you'll need Adobe Acrobat to read it).

Dave is Getting Things Done!

Wow, time really zips by doesn't it?? My last post was four days ago!

I'm still successfully avoiding the TV and it's starting to feel more natural. Each day gets a little easier because I no longer feel drawn to it like a magnet. Just two nights ago, I got a bug up my butt and decided I was going to empty my Outlook Inbox at work. This strange idea was prompted by my reading of concepts taught in David Allen's book, Getting Things Done. The concepts are amazingly simple and it's probably one of the best time management and organizational systems I've ever found.

So while Michele was busy in the kitchen, I was sitting in the family room VPN'd into work attacking my Inbox. After about 3 hours, I managed to whittle my messages from just over 1,000 all the way down to 0 (yes, ZERO)! The incredible thing is that I only saved about 20 into a reference folder, and about a dozen others became tasks for me to take care of later. I had no idea how wonderful it would feel to see an inbox with ZERO messages in it after almost 4 years of working at the company. But, let me tell ya', it was great!

(Did I mention the TV was TURNED OFF the entire time? Man it was awesome! We listened to CD's on the stereo and talked while we both worked productively. What a concept!)

Oddly enough, Friday at work I felt about 10 times more productive. As new emails came in, I dealt with them immediately or turned them into tasks to be dealt with later. I left work with my Inbox once again at zero. David Allen calls this "Zero Base" in his book. Of course, zero base also includes all the other inboxes (is that a word?) in our life such as desks, coffee tables, kitchen tables and wherever else we have papers strewn about that need to be dealt with. I'll be working on THAT part of my life very soon. I've really only scratched the surface of Getting Things Done because I haven't even read the whole book yet.

Have you noticed yet that I like to jump around from book to book to book? I never seem to finish anything. I skim and skip, taking all the nuggets of wisdom I want, and then I move on to something else.

See, I told ya' I have ADD! :-)

Still TV-free and loving it!

My sister gave me a little crapola today because I haven't posted any updates in 2 days. Geez, a guy has to sleep ya' know!

Anyway, I suppose I'm on day 13 now and, I'm still TV free! In fact, it's getting noticeably easier, but I'm still not doing enough important stuff from my task list. When I'm bored, I find myself getting on the computer, or just laying in bed and staring at the ceiling. I guess "stir crazy" would be a good descriptive phrase for what I've been experiencing. I even stopped reading my stock market books and started reading about adult A.D.D. I'm pretty much convinced I have it.

The last couple days have been pretty busy anyway. After Father's Day, I actually took a personal day from work because of some stuff I needed to take care of. I would tell you about it, but it was, well...personal. :-) Last night, we drove up to the lake again and finally found a small empty lot we've decided to make an offer on. After work tonight, we figured up our initial expenses, our new monthly expenses compared to our current monthly expenses. It was pretty much a no-brainer, so we called the realtor to make an offer. Unfortunately she wasn't home so we're waiting on a call back. If all goes well, we'll be moving our manufactured home to a nice lot about 200 feet from Devil's Lake in Michigan by the end of next month. Several "shacks" in the area are getting $700-$1000 per week in rental fees, so we should do quite well with a brand new (well, 2002) 4-bedroom manufactured home sitting up there.

As far as the boob-tube goes, I've been doing a great job of avoiding it, but I'm no longer spending much time in the same room with my wife. We ordered pizza tonight and I decided to sit in the family room with her while we ate. She, of course, watched TV while I glanced around the room or stared outside. Ok, I admit, the TV caught my eye about a half dozen times, but for no more than a second each time. I tried talking to Michele, but she was more concerned with the blinky flashy lights emanating from the idiot box. She even "Shhhh'd" me once and turned up the TV!

The more I'm able to observe her watching the tube, the more I'm convinced it is truly a sickness and a VERY powerful addiction. She's actually sitting there for hours upon hours passively watching someone else's life wiz by. It doesn't matter if it's a fantasy life on some sitcom, or the depressing real life of someone on a newscast. I guess it's all fantasy when you aren't living your own life. That was me just 13 days ago!!

That's all I have for now...my fingers hurt. :-(

Day 11 - Fathers Day, and still TV-Free!

Well, it's been 11 days since I started this little adventure and I'm still 99.95% TV-Free. Of course I pulled that percentage out of thin air, but I'm just figuring .05% will account for the movies (didn't really want to count them anyway) and all the times I unconsciously glanced at the TV or watched an entire show like "7th Heaven".

Confession time... Last night I went downstairs around 10pm with one of the books I'm reading and sat down on the love seat. Michele was already fast asleep on the couch after another long afternoon up in Michigan looking at properties. As you probably guessed, the TV was on and the remote was sitting within arms reach of Michele. For some reason, I figured I could sit there in the same room and read my book without being distracted by the tube. Boy was I wrong! Next thing I know, Billy Gillman (remember him?) was on some show singing one of his new songs. Well let me tell ya', this kid has an AMAZING voice and I couldn't help but be drawn to it. I sat there for at least 5 or 6 minutes watching the TV as Billy performed his song. As soon as he finished, I jumped up and turned it off.

I think I'm actually doing pretty good on this TV fast, considering how addicted I am to the thing! A few moments of weakness are to be expected, right? C'mon, I need some assurance!

The absolute hardest part for me is still trying to figure out what to do with myself when I'm not watching the idiot box. Despite the fact that I have 4 gazzilion things on my "to do" list, I still find myself pacing around, upstairs, downstairs, back and forth and really doing a whole lot of nothing. Oh sure, I'm thinking about my list, but I just can't get into a good project yet. I suppose it's a little too early and I'm not going to beat myself up over it. Once the really strong withdrawal symptoms pass, I'm sure the situation will improve on it's own.

Oh wait, I did do one good thing yesterday... I washed and vacuumed my car, renewed my license plates (remember my birthday was last week) and took it over to an empty lot on a really busy road nearby to advertise the fact that it's for sale. I even put my bike in the back seat so I'd be forced to get some exercise by riding home. Michele has been bugging me for at least a couple weeks to get it out so people can see it. Once it sells, we're going to buy an older, inexpensive used car that my daughter and I can share.

Well, that's enough typing for today... For all you fathers out there - HAPPY FATHERS DAY! I'm going out to breakfast with my family.

Non-Scientific TV Addiction Test

This originally came from the Kill Your Television website, but I'm re-posting it here for everyone's benefit:

Test Your TV Addiction -- A Non-Scientific Quiz

Please try to answer honestly!

1.) I eat meals while watching TV.
a. Just about every meal
b. Sometimes
c. Occasionally (ed: er .. what's the difference between 'sometimes' and 'never'?)
d. Never

2.) When forced to miss a favorite TV show in order to spend time with friends or family, I would usually:
a. Find a way out of the social engagement
b. Suggest that the entire group watch the show together
c. Reluctantly agree to miss the show
d. Not be at all bothered by missing the show

3.) Without looking at a TV guide, I am sure of the channel and starting time for (not counting news programs)
a. 10 or more shows
b. 5-9 shows
c. 2-4 shows
d. 0-1 show

4.) I get irritated with others for being too loud or otherwise disturbing me while I'm watching TV
a. Frequently
b. Sometimes
c. Occasionally
d. Never/rarely

5.) In order to make me give up TV entirely for a year, somebody would have to pay me
a. A million dollars or more
b. Five thousand dollars
c. Five hundred dollars
d. Nothing - I'd do it for free

Scoring: For every "a" give yourself 4 points, 3 points for a "b", 2 for a "c", 1 for a "d"

16-20 - You're going to die a TV-related death.
11-15 - Not quite as bad, but turn off "The Bachelor" already.
9-10 - Still not great -- I bet you're unwilling to give up "Will and Grace," huh?
6-8 - You're getting there, but you still have to deal with your unshakable crush on Peter Jennings.
5 - Nice work. Now don't be one of those people who brags about it in every conversation.

My score: If I were to answer these based on my life before this personal TV-turnoff campaign of mine, I would have to say I'm definitely going to die a TV related death! As far as giving up TV (question #5), last month it would have cost you a million dollars, but today I guess I'm doing it for free. And I gotta tell you, it's worth every penny!

If this don't make ya' quit TV, nothing will!

Here's an old article I found about an experiment done back in 1974:

TV Addiction: "In 1974, the Denver Post persuaded 25 families with young children to participate in an experiment: Go one month without watching any television. The 15 families that managed to stick with that boob tube blackout reported that, after the initial adjustment, their homes were more peaceful and relaxed . . . the children helped out more (with the dishes, in the garden, etc.) . . . they played together better and played outside more often . . . they became more involved with crafts, puzzles, family games, reading, and model building . . . the parents spent more time on their own projects, such as sewing, woodworking, and reading . . . meals were more leisurely and enjoyable . . . everyone got more sleep . . . they all interacted better, and generally felt much closer as families. It was as if someone had given them all a gift of extra hours in the day."

Read the full article here...

My Incredibly Boring Night...

Nothing much happened tonight, so I'll try not to bore you to death.

My wife and kids were gone again when I got home from work and I struggled to keep busy. I rode my bike to the video store (about 4 miles) to take some rented movies back. Then I came home and watched "The Aviator" (the only one I didn't return) because my wife said it was really good!

That's two DVD movies I've watched now since kicking off this whole anti-TV thing. Still, it's way better than the 6 or 7 hours of mindless channel surfing I was doing before. So, I watched The Aviator, turned off the TV and read a book before falling asleep on the couch. Michele and the kids woke me up when they got home and then I went to bed.

Gee, wasn't that exciting??

Of course, I had to make a blog pit stop on my way to bed so I could record this incredibly riveting phase of my TV fast -- aren't you fortunate to have been a part of it? ;-)

Staying Busy is My Only Hope!

Whew! I thought tonight was going to be a battle when I got home from work. The wife and kids are gone and I have the house to myself. That's the absolute WORST time for a TV addict because boredom takes over and you get powerful urges to watch TV.

Thankfully, as I walked up the driveway, I noticed two packages on the porch. One is the new cordless phone with digital answering machine I ordered from Amazon.com and the other one is the new vertical blinds Michele got me for my birthday. Hey wait a minute! She gets me a gift and I have to install it? Something is wrong with that picture!

Anyway, I'm not complaining because it gives me LOTS to do tonight while the wife and kids are away.

TV Addiction Article (PDF)

Hey, I found the entire TV addiction article from Scientific American as referenced in my last post (breaking the TV addiction link). It's a PDF file so you'll need the free Acrobat Reader program to view it. Click here to download Acrobat for free if you don't already have it.

I haven't read the entire 8 pages yet, but what I started reading on page 1 looks pretty interesting. I'm printing it off now and will read it before I go to sleep tonight.

Sweet dreams!

Strong Signs of Addiction Starting to Show!

After mowing the grass and eating some dinner, I was left all alone in the house because my wife had to take the kids to a concert. I checked my email and surfed the net for a few minutes, Then I went downstairs and found myself wandering around, looking out the windows, wandering some more, wandering, looking, wandering... Ultimately I laid down on the family room floor to crack my back. Ah! That hurt so good!

As I lay there on the floor, I started to think about all the reasons why this whole "kick the TV thing" is a dumb idea. In my head, I was criticizing my blog, telling myself nobody cares, trying to convince myself that watching TV isn't really so bad, realizing I'll never stick to it anyway, and so on. I mean, c'mon, what's the point? What's so terrible about watching a little TV??

Whoa Nelly! Is that a classic addiction thought pattern or what? I've never been through any 12-step programs for anything, but I have done enough reading to know I have a real problem! I damn near had myself talked out of all this foolishness and was ready to turn on the tube and settle in for some nice channel surfing.

Thankfully, I came to my senses for 2 seconds, flipped on the stereo, and headed back upstairs to tell my blog what an idiot I am.

Before submitting this post, I decided to do a little research on "TV Addiction". Google spit back a little over 2 million hits on that phrase! Not everything in the top 20 or so hits was worth looking at, but I did find the following two items I recommend you read. The first article in particular gave me a good chuckle because it mentions the show, "7th Heaven". If you recall from the other day, that's what I watched in my moment of weakness. :-)

Check out Breaking the TV Addiction. It's a quick read. Then move on to the next link.

Now this one is great! Some guy named Vikar has a website with a bunch of stuff he calls his "rants". He has about three full pages of his "rants" on TV addiction and some progress reports on his own attempts at giving up the boob tube. Most of it felt as though he was telling my story. I gotta email this guy!

Think of the Children

I just discovered the Parents Television Council website yesterday and actually found it to be pretty interesting. I especially like the "look up a TV show rating" at the top where you can select a show and get feedback from a parental perspective. It always a good idea to know what your kids are really watching.

Better yet, work with them to stop watching TV and start doing things to stimulate their mind and/or make their body stronger.

A Moment of Weakness

I got home from work last night and my wife & kids had rented a few movies. My son has been bugging me to watch Boogyman with him, so in a moment of weakness (for the child you understand) I agreed to watch the movie.

That's all I did though - I swear! Besides, I do think it's OK to "use" the TV to watch movies once in a while as long as it doesn't become a new habit.

Oh Joy - Michael Jackson is FREE!

Good grief! My foot was barely in the door after work when Michele was shouting at me that Michael was found not guilty on all counts. Thank God she was here glued to the TV all afternoon to get the riveting events as they unfolded.

PUKE!

I, on the other hand, was much more excited to rip open the box from Amazon.com that contained my new USB 512MB Titanium flash drive and "Winning On Wall Street" by Martin Zweig. Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!

Tongue Depressor Required!

You'll need a tongue depressor before you read these TV statistics because they're guaranteed to make you swallow your tongue! A nice pair of vice grips will work too.

I especially like this quote:

According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube.

Gee, I should be very proud that I'm so far above average. I was watching 6-7 hours per day which means by the time I'm 65, I would have watched almost 18 years worth of TV brain droppings.

I want my mommy!

Watching TV Makes You Fat

Yes, I know that title is shocking and hard to believe, but it's true. Parking your rear end on the couch and not moving for several hours at a time just might add a few pounds to your "bottom line".

I found this article the last time I decided to stop watching TV which was also when I went on a big kick to get into better shape. I was following the Body for Life plan (reference at the end of the article) and went from 198 pounds down to 170 in about 6 months. I felt great!

Unfortunately, words just can't describe how wonderful it was to get back to watching TV and see ALL that weight come back in a matter of two months! ARGH!!!!

Do yourself a favor, read "Watching TV Makes You Fat." Some of the statistics are pretty scary, but I can personally attest to the fact that watching TV is NOT part of an effective diet & fitness plan!

By the way, I've read more than my fair share of diet and fitness books and I have to say that Body for Life (BFL) is probably the best I've ever encountered. It's easy to read, easy to follow, and is full of plain ol' down to earth common sense. I highly recommend it as part of your "Stop Watching and Start Moving" campaign! For an even more comprehensive program that is very similar to Body for Life (and possibly more effective), check out my review of "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (BFFM)." BFFM comes in eBook format so you can download it instantly versus waiting for a book to arrive via snail mail. :-)

This is going to take some work...

I can see that my wife is going to be a tough nut to crack when it comes to this TV stuff. Last night I went downstairs to ask if she wanted to play a card game for old times sake.

See, we used to play 500 Rummy (or something like that) all the time when we were dating. Apparently, after you get married there is some unspoken rule that you have to just sit in front of the tube and watch each others butts get fatter.

Needless to say, the answer I got to the playing cards question was a reluctant "NAH", but she did want to talk about our modular home and buying property on a lake. I was happy to talk about that, so I asked if she would please turn off the TV first. That request didn't seem to register with her brain, so we talked for about 10 or 15 minutes while I tried my best to ignore the flashy lights and crap spewing from the television.

Our talk ended, I said goodnight, and she resumed her TV viewing... Lord, give me strength!