Without a doubt, we are experiencing one of the most challenging periods in the history of human beings. At the time of this writing, the number of deaths from the coronavirus has crossed more than 2 million cases.
Yet, at this time of human struggle, there are many of us who have been very fortunate to have escaped the trials of deaths and upheavals. In fact, we have had more time than ever on our hands, as we worked from home and did not need to spend the time commuting to work. We were also forced to minimise our social activities to a bare minimum.
What have we done with the time we have had one our hands?
At the start of this period, I must confess that I spent an unhealthy amount of time watching Netflix. It seems like I was not alone. As Netflix stated on its website, it added 15.77 million subscribers in the first 3 months of 2020, and 10.09 million subscribers between April and June 2020.
There is nothing wrong with a bit of binge-watching of dramas on Netflix. However, if that was the major activity consuming the bulk of your time, there is something seriously wrong.
After one too many episodes of Korean drama, a light bulb suddenly lit in my head. I finally realized that something was wrong with the way I spent my time.
Time is a precious commodity
Father Time is fair to everyone. Every one of us, nobody if we are rich or poor, get the same 24 hours a day. How we spend these 24 hours each day determines our lives.
There are many ways meaningful ways to spend our time. Although these activities may not bring you as much pleasure, they are activities that your future self will thank you for.
I am sure many of us face the same conundrum. We are aware that we are spending an inordinate amount of time on activities such as internet-surfing, gaming or tv-watching. However, we cannot get ourselves to stop! We have become “addicted” to these activities.
Well, if I can get myself to stop watching Netflix altogether, I am sure you can do it! Let me share some of my personal experience in getting myself to stop my bad habit.
1. Replace a bad habit with a good one
One of the best ways to break a bad habit is to replace it with a good one. Instead of thinking of stopping yourself, which is difficult to do, whenever you crave that activity, you substitute it with something else instead. For example, if you wish to break the habit of smoking cigarettes, whenever you wish to do smoke, you chew on a mint instead. Think about it, it will make your breathe smell nicer rather than stinky!
2. Make it convenient
Many of our bad habits arise out of boredom. If you are driven by boredom, why not surround yourselves by good activities that can relieve you of your boredom? For myself, I found that it was effective to surround myself with good books. I take a book with me all the time in my bag. Whenever I have pockets of time, instead of reaching for my handphone, I whip out my book instead. In that way, I have found that I have been able to read more books than ever.
3. Go cold turkey
Going cold turkey has worked well for me. Instead of reducing my time spent on Netflix, I just totally eliminated it from my list of possible things to do. In fact, when I finally decided to spend my time more meaningfully, I deleted the app from my personal gadget. In that way, if I want to watch any drama, I would have to first download the app again, which makes it a bit harder to access it.
4. Announce your commitment to the whole world
Once in a while, you will hear the siren call of the bad habit calling to you. This is natural and it will happen to anyone. Remember, cold turkey is the best. If you tell yourself that you will just do it once, you may go down the slippery slope of doing it more and more. In order to prevent that, you have to get some “insurance” for yourself. One of the ways is to announce your commitment to the whole world. You can tell all your loved ones about your willingness to kick the habit. You can post your commitment on your Instagram or facebook. In that way, if you go back to your old habit again, one of your friends will remind you about your commitment (or rub it in your face, haha).
Start with awareness
Kicking bad habits work best when you are the one who wants to change. So, it all starts with self-awareness. Are you aware of how you spend your precious time on Earth? Treat the time that you have like the precious commodity that it is. In fact, treat your time the same way you treat your money. Spend it wisely, and invest it on activities that will reap you returns.
Hullabaloloo 