10 Things To Do In The Evening Instead Of Watching Netflix

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 our heads, the more clearly we think.”

Don’t Let Your Mind Eat Junk

Reality TV, talk shows, celebrity gossip, are like junk food for our brains. It’s low quality, highly processed, and despite knowing how bad it is, we consume it anyways.

One of the best decisions I made a few years ago is to stop consuming what author

Paul Greenberg

calls 'junk media'. Instead, I put on a good movie or documentary, and I follow a handful of creators on YouTube who make high-quality content.

If I do decide to watch something in the evening, this type of content leaves my brain in much better shape than if I’d stuffed myself with junk media.

Resist The Urge To Mindlessly Distract Yourself All Evening

Our evenings rarely involve enough rest as they should. As soon as we come home from a hard day of work, we busy ourselves again by checking social, scanning the news, and putting on the TV.

Instead of resting our brains, we’re distracting our brains with more input, more information, and more stimulation from our devices.

I know it’s not realistic to eliminate all devices from your evening, and I don’t think you should. There’s nothing wrong with blowing off steam and having some mindless fun.

However, low-quality leisure shouldn’t outweigh high-quality leisure. At the end of the evening, you want your mental clarity and energy to have moved forwards, not backward.

Introduce Board Game Night

If your family’s after-dinner routine is to withdraw into your separate domains of the house and disappear into your own virtual reality, try implementing one night a week in which you’ll play a board game as a family.

According to Digital Detox expert Tanya Gooding, playing board games gets you into a flow state — a meditative state in which your brain can restore, and your breathing and heart rate slow down.

In addition, your brain produces rewarding chemicals in a flow state — making it a pleasurable experience and a joyful way to pass some time in the evening.

Call the Friend You're Texting

Research shows that while texting creates an illusion of closeness, it actually decreases a relationship’s stability and satisfaction.

Use texting for logistical purposes and save emotional conversations for phone calls or face-to-face communication.

Read Something Fun And Not Work-Related

Research shows that reading fiction is one of the most effective ways to reduce stress. Stress levels are shown to decrease by 68% after reading fiction — which is more than listening to music, walking, or drinking tea.

Most of us see reading as a tool to become something — more productive, more knowledgeable, more interesting.

But as bestselling author Matt Haig once wrote: "Reading isn't important because it helps to get you a job. It's important because it gives you room to exist beyond the reality you're given."

I’m currently re-reading The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson.

Let Them Wait

Platforms like Whatsapp and Messenger have made communication free, easy, and instant.

And with this ease, we’ve developed the unhealthy expectation that you always have to be there — to pick up the phone, get back to the text, answer the email, and update our social media.

Choose to free yourself from these unrealistic expectations of instant messaging and take back the power over your availability.

If your friends are friends, they’ll understand when you need some time and headspace. And if not, they’re probably not worth getting back to anyways.

Remove The TV From Your Bedroom

Rooms serve purposes. Kitchens are for cooking, dining rooms are for dining, offices are for working, living rooms are for entertaining, and bedrooms are for sleeping.

The better we use each room for their purpose, the more productive they become. Use your bedroom for sleep and intimacy, and remove work items, laptops, and televisions from your sleeping environment.

Write One Line A Day

My favorite birthday present from last year has to be my One Line a Day journal. In contrast to having a complicated journaling practice, writing just one line a day feels manageable and attainable.

It’s a great way for me to put down a final thought before falling asleep at night, and it helps me focus on the small joys in my days.

I hope at least one of these activities inspires you to spend less time on your devices and more time investing in your relationships, rest, and focus.

Thanks for reading, and as always — Stay kind! :)