Habit before the habit hacks • How to not watch TV all day

Throughout the lockdown, we are going to be showing you how to put BeeZee Bodies’s Habit before the habit methodology into practice to keep you all feeling healthy & happy. The first habit we want to make/break – is finding a healthy balance for TV time…

While we’re stuck at home all day, it might be tempting to binge watch our favourite Netflix series from dawn ’til dusk, and let the day slip away without achieving things we want or need to do (such as… read a book, get chores done, get some exercise, or study something new!).

But by making a few small changes, you can create a future environment that will enable to to have a healthy and productive day… here’s our easy hack!

Step one – turn off Netflix’s autoplay feature.

You know when you finish an episode, and the next one starts playing in 15 seconds without you even having to lift a finger? That’s a recipe for a binge watching marathon. But here’s the good news – you can easily go into your Netflix settings and turn this feature off, so that you have to make a conscious decision before turning on your second, third, fourth episode… Watch Stu’s video above to see how to make this simple hack.

Step two – put a helpful trigger in the way of your next episode.

So you want to watch ONE episode and then get on with something productive? No problem.

• Set up your episode and enjoy the first minute of viewing. Then rewind the programme back to the start and let that opening scene play again.
• Meanwhile, while the bit you have already watched is replaying, go and hide your TV remote next to the thing it is you want to do. For example, if you need to do the washing up, put the remote next to the kitchen sink. If you want to get out for a run, put the remote inside your trainers.
• Run back to the TV just in time to be back up to where you stopped watching. Enjoy the rest of your episode!
• After your episode, because you turned autoplay off earlier – nothing else will play. You’ll then have to go and retrieve your remote control if you want to watch more.
• Oh! But you have to fish the remote out of your running shoes, or be faced with a sink full of washing up! This visual trigger will remind you that you really should be getting on with some more productive tasks before you allow yourself to watch the next episode.

And it’s that simple! Your earlier habits of turning off autoplay and hiding the remote, will lead to the desired behaviour of going for a run or doing the chores. The Habit before the habit – magic!