Reduce Your TV Watching and Boost Your Side Hustle Success

We’ve all been there, me included, even now. You sit down after a long day at work, turn on the TV, and before you know it, hours have passed and it’s time for bed. You’ve maybe binged a couple of episodes of your favourite programme or watched a film that you’ve seen a dozen times before, but it just happened to be on and so you watched it. This might feel like harmless relaxation, but the truth is that spending too much time in front of the television can be a major barrier to building a successful side hustle.

When you’re juggling lots of balls - a job, kids, ageing parents, alongside a desire to start a side hustle, finding extra time in the day can be a struggle. Let’s be honest - it feels nigh on impossible most of the time. But here’s the hard truth: if you’re spending a few hours a day watching TV you’re wasting valuable time that could be used to grow your side business and move you closer to your goals. In this post, I am going to explore why watching television is a waste of your time and offer practical ways you can put that time to good use to work on your side hustle.

Television Is a Time Suck

Television is designed to capture and hold your attention. Streaming services, like Netflix, keep you watching by automatically playing the next episode. The endings of episodes are written to make you watch the next chapter so you ‘know what happens’. As humans we love stories and struggle when we don’t know how they end. Never mind that the next episode is not going anywhere and you could watch it tomorrow or even next week. It pulls you in and gets you addicted, you  tell yourself you’ll just watch one more episode and then you’ll go and do something else. You know the scenario. You sit down for a ‘quick break’ to relax after a busy day at the office, but that can easily turn into several hours lost in front of the screen without even realising it.

And think about it. What is television? It’s watching other, usually fictitious people, live their lives. It makes not one iota of difference to your life. And if they’re real people (think I’m a Celebrity or Big Brother) usually they’re acting idiotically.

If you watch just one hour of TV a day, that adds up to 7 hours a week—or a whopping 28 hours a month! That’s nearly a full day’s worth of time each week that could be dedicated to your side hustle. Now imagine if you cut back on TV time and reallocated even half of those hours to your business. The amount of progress you could make would be transformative.

Television Often Feeds Procrastination

It’s easy to justify watching television as a way to ‘relax’ after a long day, but in reality, it can lead to you procrastinating, where you are constantly putting off working on your side hustle. You tell yourself you’ll work on your side hustle tomorrow night, but you end up in this endless cycle of TV watching, never getting around to spending the time that you want on your business.

This can leave you feeling frustrated and stuck; you’re not making the progress that you want and you may not even realise why this is happening. You probably tell yourself you just don’t have the time to work on a side hustle right now. But the sad reality is you do, you’re just choosing to spend it watching TV. Replacing TV time with work on your side hustle will not only help you move forward but also boost your sense of achievement. When you make a bit of progress building a side hustle will start to feel doable.

You Miss Out on Personal Growth

Whilst there’s nothing wrong with the occasional telly watching indulgence, too much time in front of the box can stunt your creativity and limit your personal growth. Television is passive entertainment, requiring little to no effort from you. You can just lay there, on the sofa, zombie-like and be entertained (or maybe fall asleep). None of this is adding to your personal development, unless you’re watching something educational, but if we’re being honest here, you probably aren’t.

On the other hand, using that time to work on your side hustle provides an opportunity for personal growth. You could be developing new skills building your website or creating social media posts on Canva. Perhaps you could read a book to build on your expertise or just tap into your knowledge and brainstorm blog post topics. Whatever it might be, it’s using your brain, unlike TV, which takes very little thought and effort.

The Emotional Drain of Television

Do you ever get to the end of an evening of telly only to feel emotionally drained? Many programmes can leave you feeling washed out. I also find that whilst sitting on the sofa in front of the TV is okay for a while, if I do it for several hours I struggle to get up off the sofa afterwards (it might just be my age). Our bodies were designed to move and sitting for long hours at a time is killing us (literally - apparently sitting in the new smoking).

In contrast, spending time on your side hustle can be emotionally energising and uplifting. Working toward your own goals and seeing progress—even small steps—can leave you feeling really motivated. Rather than draining your energy, you’re using it for something that adds real value to your life.

How to Repurpose TV Time for Your Side Hustle

Now that we’ve established why watching too much television is a waste of your time, let’s talk about how you can use those hours in a better way and put them to good use in your side hustle.

(i) Set Limits on TV Time

Start by setting a daily or weekly limit on how much TV you’re going to watch. The amount is entirely up to you. And maybe rather than going completely cold turkey just reduce it a little. Cut down from two hours a night to 90 minutes. If you try to make a really big change all in one go you’re unlikely to stick to it, so it’s better to take small steps. This will give you time to adjust. It may also give your family time to get used to your new routine. If you and your partner spend several hours every evening watching TV together and then all of a sudden your side of the sofa is empty all evening they may wonder what they’ve done wrong. And when you’ve put aside this extra time use it to focus on side hustle activities that will help you move the needle forward, whether it’s brainstorming new ideas, creating content, or planning your next steps.

(ii) Use TV Time as a Reward

Rather than using TV as your default downtime, turn it into a reward. For example, after spending an hour working on your side hustle, allow yourself to watch one episode of a show as a way to unwind. This not only keeps you accountable but also gives you something to look forward to after putting in the effort on your business.

(iii) Focus on the Long-Term

While watching TV may offer instant gratification, the long-term payoff of dedicating more time to your side hustle far outweighs the short-term positive feeling of being entertained. Every hour you invest in your side hustle is an hour invested in your future. Whether you’re hoping to turn your side hustle into a full-time business or simply want to generate extra income, the effort you put in now will compound over time. In a year’s time you’ll be glad that you spent less time watching TV and more time on your side hustle.

Conclusion

Television might be a convenient way to unwind, but too much can keep you from achieving your side hustle dreams. By cutting back on TV and reallocating that time to work on your business, you can make meaningful progress toward your goals and feel more in control of your time.

So, the next time you reach for the remote, ask yourself: is this the best use of my time? Your future self will thank you for making a different choice.The choice to work on your side hustle.

For more help finding time for your side hustle grab my free guide ‘Five Simple Steps to Making Time for a Side Hustle’