In the past month and a half, I have watched television twice. Once was for the season premiere of New Zealand’s "The Bachelor" (this was used strictly as a means to gain insight into the kiwi culture, I swear), and the second time was the extended version of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers." And while the extended version is four hours long, I fell asleep for half of it, so it barely counts.

While I was swinging in a hammock, I realized how little time I had spent being mindlessly entertained in front of a computer screen. As we lounged under the sun, "Life" documentaries came up in conversation. We started chatting about a mutual love of David Attenborough and our favorite nature documentary episodes (mine always has and always will be The Deep episode of "Blue Planet." It's absolutely mind-blowing). As the sun set, I packed up my hammock and returned to my room with a desire to re-watch these gems of filmography. I opened my laptop and pulled up Netflix. To my surprise, Netflix asked for my username and made me log in again because I had not visited the website in so long. Then I realized the extent of my vacation from Netflix.

So, what have I been doing with all this time, liberated from the constraints of mindless entertainment? I began to contemplate this question because I have to have been doing something else. I came to the conclusion that the main answer is either sleeping or being outside. Instead of returning home at the end of a day and curling up with either Michael Scott’s uncomfortable cubicle interactions or George Bluth’s plight in prison, I just would go to sleep. And then wake up early the next morning and get my day started.

Or instead of sitting inside and watching movies, I would wander around outside if the weather was nice. If the weather was poor, I would sit inside and do work instead, accomplishing something with my time. And when you travel on the weekends, you have a lot less down time, and so a lot of different tasks tend to require your immediate attention when you return. The thing is, all of this happened organically, so I didn’t even realize it. I have never been a big television person, so it was not a dramatic difference. I have too short of an attention span for most of it, honestly. I am far too easily distracted and impatient to commit myself to a full two and a half hours of a film. As many people can attest, this also makes me decently annoying to watch movies with, simply because I either fall asleep or get bored and fidgety.

So what happens when you stop watching television? Nothing crazy, I have to say, which I think is implied by the fact that I did not even notice it was happening. It is just a shift in priorities, and donating your time to different activities instead. Activities that may be more rewarding in the long run. But there’s still something so very satisfying about twenty-two minutes of Leslie Knope trying to save the world.