How Stewie Stopped Bingeing TV Shows
This is part of my How to Stop Procrastinating series.
Hey, friends!
It was a Sunday night, and my wife was rolling her eyes at me. Her hazel eyes were practically rattling in their sockets. Why? Because I was doing dumb stuff again.
I was staying up late, again, but not for any good reason. I wasn’t studying for a test or ending world hunger. No, I was lying on the couch in our tiny apartment and bingeing TV shows.
Were these shows educational in nature? Were they documentaries that’d challenge my thinking and change the world? No, of course not. I was plowing through the latest season of “24.” (Remember that one? Where the lone wolf and his trusty sidekick are the only competent people in the whole freaking world, and only they can save the world.)
My wife reminded me I had to catch the 6:15 am bus to work. She reminded me that tomorrow, I’d be grumpy and grouchy, grumbling about everything. Did that matter? No, of course not! That was a problem for Morning Stewie. Right then, Nighttime Stewie was running the show. Nighttime Stewie said, “Just one more episode,” but he secretly intended to watch every last one.
Nighttime Stewie was consumed by the craving for moar. More episodes, more jelly donuts, and more impulse purchases from the clearance section in Barnes & Noble. This desire whisper-shouts, “Just one more, and I’ll go away. Just one more, and you’ll feel satisfied. I promise!!”
But this desire is lying to me. It never leaves. It never packs its bags, buys a one-way ticket, and departs for far-off Fiji. No matter how many episodes I binge, I want to binge more.
This perpetual craving is a trademark of addictive personalities. And I don’t know how to stop it. (If you know how, please tell me! It would certainly simplify my life.)
Every night, I turn off the TV and sigh with disappointment. When I limit myself to one episode, I’m disappointed that I can’t watch more. When I limit myself to five episodes, I’m still disappointed. So if disappointment is inevitable, why not set reasonable boundaries with TV-watching? Why not go to bed early and wake up feeling good?
Why not heed my wonderful wife’s advice and stop doing dumb stuff?
And that’s my advice to you: Pay attention to what you crave. Is it TV shows, jalapeño kettle chips, or buying random physics toys on Amazon? (I check all of these boxes!) Which desires lie to you? Which of them never leaves, no matter how much you indulge?
When we accept that certain cravings are ever-present, we can escape the endless cycle of “maybe this will make the longing go away.” We can confront desire head-on and say, “Indulging never kills the craving, so let’s set sensible limits.”
For me, those limits include only watching one TV show per night.
But what about you? Which of your cravings never leave? And how would reasonable limits improve your life?
Read more on How to Stop Procrastinating.
Thanks to Brynn Stewart, Diane Callahan, and Thomas Weigel for reading a draft of this!