Breaking the Drama Addiction: Tips to Manage Your Viewing Time

Have you ever found yourself watching drama series after drama, everyday, evening, and night? If your answer is yes, you might be suffering from a drama addiction. Here's how you can break free from this addiction and regain control of your time.

Personal Experience with Drama Addiction

Just last year, I was a slave to Korean dramas (K-dramas). My daily routine revolved around watching dramas from morning till night. The cycle was so addictive that I would eat and sleep while enjoying these series. However, after a year, I made a conscious decision to break this addiction. I realized that it was time to take control of my time and prioritize my responsibilities.

The first step was making a firm decision after finishing a drama—no matter how many I had on my list. I deleted all relevant apps and content sources to minimize temptation. Initially, it was hard to resist the temptation, but after a while, the desire to watch dramas waned. Keeping a record of my endeavors, such as noting down countless dramas I had to watch, only pushed me to find other productive activities to fill my free time.

Strategies to Manage Your Drama Addiction

Watching dramas can be immensely relaxing, but if it is becoming a time-consuming distraction from your responsibilities, here are some effective strategies to help you regain control:

Set Specific Time Limits: Allocate a specific time each day or week for watching dramas, and stick to it. For instance, set one hour per day or reserve weekends for binge-watching. Task Prioritization: Create a to-do list, ranking daily tasks by their importance and urgency. This helps you stay focused and avoid procrastination. Set Personal Goals: Define realistic goals and create a plan to achieve them. For example, aim to complete a certain amount of work before allowing yourself to watch a drama. Find Alternatives: Instead of watching dramas, engage in other activities that are both enjoyable and productive. Options like reading, exercising, learning a new skill, or spending time with loved ones can be beneficial. Create Accountability: Seek support from someone who can hold you accountable for your time and help you stay on track. This could be a friend, family member, coach, or mentor.

Personal Experience and Reflection

Like many of us, I experience cycles in my life, often alternating between consuming and creating. I might immerse myself in a game for 100 hours or watch a TV series like Doctor Who for weeks. However, all this immersion in consuming art needs to be balanced with the creation of something of value. Reflecting on the amount of time I spend consuming art compared to creating, I recognized the need to shift the balance.

Producing something of value does not necessarily mean changing the world; it simply means creating something that brings you satisfaction. You can start with small ideas and develop them through your own efforts. Here are a few projects I've undertaken in the past 30 years:

Creating a Fictional Sport: Crafted a detailed sport and even built a website for it. Collecting Historical Sports Materials: Gathered old baseball books and compiled online magazine PDFs from the early 20th century. Building a Lego Castle: Constructed a Lego tower for my daughter, which later became less fearsome when filled with Hello Kitties. Designing a Board Game: Working on a simple board game for my daughter and I to enjoy. Creating DIY Baseball Cards: Starting with photo software, I even drew cards in my early days. Compiling Fight Catalogs: Curating detailed catalogs of fight scenes or stories.

These examples show that creating something valuable is vital, both for personal satisfaction and to achieve a better work-life balance. When you immerse yourself in creating rather than consuming, you regain control and find new sources of joy and fulfillment.