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Yesterday I talked about some of the problems caused by having too many gadgets in your life. Today I’m going to help you downsize your TV habit and TV clutter.

The single best thing most people could do to improve their lives is to stop watching TV. It saps your energy and your time. TV is a really easy brain dead default: “I don’t know what to do, maybe I’ll turn on the television.” Also, 99% of shows are total crap designed to deliver advertisements. Remember, unless you’re watching pay channels like HBO, you are not the “customer” of a TV network, the advertiser is. Episodic shows are written to get you hooked but the stories don’t actually go anywhere. Law and Order, CSI, and soap operas are the best at this. Each episode follows a formula down to the minute in order to maximize lead ins to commercials.

So what to do? Instead of watching TV the old broken way, try the following:

1. Cancel your cable. Without cable it’s impossible to let your night slip away while you sit there unconsciously flipping through channels.
2. Only watch what you really love. There’s no point in watching a show just out of loyalty or habit. I loved Battlestar Galactica, but after about 2 seasons it started sliding so I gave up on it. Note that TV shows, like rock albums, tend to have a sophomore slump. It’s probably because the first effort is a labor of love that takes years while the second effort is an obligation churned out in a rush.
3. Get a Mac laptop and whatever adapter you need to hook it up to your TV (PCs will work, but Macs have Frontrow and a really sweet tiny remote). Now you can watch DVDs, YouTube, photo slideshows, iTunes shows, FrontRow movie previews, and shows streamed from ABC.com and other sources on your living room TV. See below for info about cables.
4. Subscribe to Netflix: You’ll be able to rent movies, TV shows, how to videos, and best of all you won’t be buying DVDs that clutter up your house. You also get a certain amount of hours a month to steam video directly to your computer. Unfortunately Netflix streaming is Windows only, but it works under Parallels and Bootcamp.
5. Go to CBS.com, ABC.com, and other websites of your favorite channels. You’ll probably be able to watch your show for free, in full screen, at reasonable quality, with limited commercial interruptions.
6. Get on iTunes what the network sites won’t stream.
7. Stop watching cable and local news entirely. That’s what the internet is for.
8. What about live sports? The truth is, most games aren’t really worth watching. Just catch the highlight clips online. If there is a can’t miss game, go to a sports bar or bring some chips and beers to a friends house. It’s more fun to watch with a crowd anyway.
9. Just wait for full season DVDs. I hate waiting a week for episodes, and odds are the quality of the show will deteriorate anyway (compare Sopranos seasons 1-2 with everything that came after).

Congratulations, you’ve just eliminated your DVD player and cable box while creating a portable media center computer.