TV watching anti-binge hack 🍿

I love watching good TV. I’m grateful to be in this Golden Age with the world’s best talent putting on extended plays for us, on demand. 

But I like being in charge of my schedule —and I like to limit my watching— so a few years ago I started this little hack to keep from getting caught in the cliffhanger-binge cycle. I watch the first few minutes of the episode following a cliffhanger and turn it off at the opening credits.

Probably tons of you do this and I’m a weirdo that gets uniquely roped into the dopamine reward cycle of clever storytelling. But maybe some of you, like me, had unconsciously committed to a structure you didn’t choose (episode length, for example). Some of you may be sensitive to the ways various systems are designed to use us as a resource, rather than be a tool we use.

Some of you may also have voices like the one in my head saying, “This isn’t very deep Jordan. This is what you use construct-awareness for? This is, in fact, a really lame thing to share in your newsletter”. 

Perhaps. But it’s pointing to a practical application of some of the skills we train in Relatefulness: The ability to see the frames we’re unconsciously committed to, and thanks to a little awareness, the ability to step outside of them based on remembering the deeper values we’re committed to.

With love, Jordan