10 Things To Do In The Evening Instead Of Watching Netflix

Device-free habits to increase your productivity and happiness.

Aleid ter Weel
Better Advice
Published in
5 min readFeb 15, 2022

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Photo by MART PRODUCTION from Pexels

Anyone worried about spending slightly too many hours bingeing Netflix or watching TV, you're not alone.

British figures released in 2021 showed that adults spent a third of their waking hours watching TV and online video content at an average of five hours and forty minutes.

Now, you don't need to throw your TV out the window and force yourself into some complicated evening routine.

What you need is a set of tools and alternative activities that you naturally gravitate towards and can rotate between — keeping your evenings fresh, flexible, and fun.

Just pick a few that spark your interest to replace (part) of your TV time. Then experiment, adjust, and add your own. With time, you'll learn what positively fuels your energy, brainpower, and relationships, so you go to bed with a rested mind and a smiling heart.

Tame Tomorrow's Triggers

Instead of fighting distractions during the day, manage your impulses ahead of time.

Take a few minutes before going to bed to prevent tomorrow's distractions. It can be as simple as cleaning your desk, preparing your work materials, taking five minutes to plan your day, or leaving your phone out of the bedroom.

Eliminating distractions in the evening makes focusing in the morning infinitely easier.

Clear Your Head Of 'Open Loops'

Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.

— David Allen

Not all distractions are external. We probably keep our most distracting stuff in our heads.

Capture your personal concerns by writing a to-do list, planning appointments in your calendar, or doing a 5-minute brain dump in the evening.

Writing down your thoughts prevents the unresolved items from today from weighing on our minds tomorrow.

As Chris Bailey writes in Hyperfocus: “An empty brain is a productive brain, and the more stuff we get out of…

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Aleid ter Weel
Better Advice

Articles on digital minimalism, living offline, and happiness | Support my work and get unlimited access on Medium: https://aleid-tw.medium.com/membership