Life Beyond the Glare

My husband and I recently sold our house and moved into an apartment which includes a cable television package with the rent.

This, for me, was a very big deal.

I'm one of the zillions in the world with a very addictive personality when it comes to passive entertainment. So much so that it majorly got in the way of accomplishing my goals. So in spring of 2006, with no small amount of self-righteousness, I cut the cord.

And it was glorious. I left the house. I talked to people again. I made phone calls to family members. I read like crazy, learned to transliterate Cyrillic, and - most importantly - wrote several books. Now that we have cable back after a full decade without, I'm dealing with some pretty mixed feelings. I mean, this isn't Netflix we're talking about. This is real TV.

That blasted TV, that beacon of passive entertainment, was always the siren to my Argo. It didn't matter what was on - if it was a hemorrhoid commercial you'd still find me sitting in front of the flickering glare completely mesmerized for the 15 seconds until something else came on. My hobbies suffered, my social life (such as it was) suffered, and my house cleaning habits were non-existent. Who can think about spring cleaning when "Supernatural" re-runs are on???

So now that we have cable - my old arch-nemesis - again, I've had to learn how to protect myself from accidentally getting caught in a channel-flipping loop so I can live a full life beyond the glare. Especially considering I've got a book due this spring! Here's what I've done so far:

1. Figure out what shows I'd like to see, and DVR them. 
2. Only watch them via DVR and ONLY when I'm already caught up for the day.
3. Never turn on live TV. I did make exceptions for the debates, though a large part of me wishes I hadn't.
4. Prioritize show-watching by how quickly they're likely to be spoiled by Facebook trolls. By this reasoning, we always watch "Game of Thrones" and "Walking Dead" before getting around to "Big Bang Theory."
5. No turning on the TV for "background noise" while cleaning. You know what happens if you do that - you'll end up immobile the couch with a rag and polish in your hand watching crime drama re-runs before you know it.

Now I'd like to hear YOUR methods for keeping TV from taking control of your household. What are the boob tube rules at your house?