I don’t recall the exact moment that I decided to start a self-imposed experiment and quit TV, for real this time. I know it was cold outside, and the time of year when I turn to the Hallmark channel for its reliably numbing plot lines and make-believe families. I was looking forward to my annual cry while watching ‘The Family Stone.’ It was around the same time I realized that indulging my recent StarDew Valley obsession during my self-monitored lunch breaks as a remote worker with loose boundaries and spotty self-control wasn’t working for me. I’d spent quite a few nights catching up on work I’d avoided in the daytime in order to plant crops and fulfill adorable quests that left me feeling charmed and accomplished, at least on a surface level. I was listening to Cait Flanders’ “The Year of Less” on Spotify while tidying and sorting Christmas decorations in my garage.

Somewhere amongst all that end-of-year debris, I decided I didn’t want to spend another evening watching reruns of 57 Survivor seasons that I’ve seen already, and going to bed hours after promising myself to turn off my fake farm game after twenty minutes. I decided I was done, and I wrote this in my diary:

QUITTING TV RULES:

1. No TV.
2. No phone games.
3. Movies per month: 2, with company of fiancee or friends.
4. No YouTube binging, but you can watch videos for work/online courses, or gardening tutorials.

This blog is my account of what happens next.