Thank god we have Netflix. You’ve probably said the same when they launched if you’re a movie/series addict like myself. There’s only downside to it, it can get rather addictive when you work from home. Before you know it you do nothing but watching series after series and saying to yourself, okay one more episode and then I’m going to bed, or one more episode and then I finally finish this project for my client.
Yeah, yeah, one more, we all say it but one thing leads to the other and before we know it it’s 5 AM with the sun almost coming up. I’ve been there plenty of times and you probably too so some self-discipline wouldn’t hurt.
How to Discipline Yourself
Create a working schedule with daily tasks and simply stick to it, no exceptions, only after you’ve completed your list you are allowed to put Netflix on. Also make an agreement with yourself, a maximum of 4 episodes at a time or two full-length movies if you really have to but once again, not before your work is finished.
Some other tips to reduce your time in front of the television are to limit yourself to certain series only, and/or don’t start to watch a new show before the other one finishes. If that’s not enough you can also gradually increase your watch time as not everyone works from home. Some of you might have a disability that forces you to stay at home all day so in such cases it’s hard to focus on work that doesn’t exist.
You also might want to record how much time you spend on your sofa watching at that screen, and later on add a timer that forces you to get up but it’s all up to you. In the future there will most likely be rehab clinics to stop people from watching tv, it can’t get any crazier than that.
The Never Ending Debate
Many of the series and moves on Netflix are in a foreign language and later they added the option to change the audio to English, I tried this last night with a series called Diablero, you’ve probably seen it already, after switching to audio and putting the subtitles off it was so awkward as the series is Spanish/Mexican so although the actors try to throw in a Mexican accent it just doesn’t appear natural so eventually I turned it back to Spanish and put the subtitles back on.
This same debate applies to manga/anime movies where the main language is Japanese of course, with all their squeaky sounds it’s so odd to have an English voice-over so most people obviously prefer to use subtitles only as otherwise it ruins the whole experience. Not everyone agrees with that though. You can discover more here about that where it almost leads to war; the subbers vs the dubbers as they like to call themselves, and I can’t really speak in favor of the dubbers as it’s just plain idiotic to listen to English speakers while watching a Japanese cartoon but hey, each to its own.
No Shortage of Anime on Netflix
Before I keep on writing I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of cartoons, no matter how it’s called, Anime, Manga, you name it, but there is a huge amount of anime series without a doubt. They even turned Altered Carbon into an anime version, who would’ve thought that. Other popular series are Saiki K, Sword Art Online, Fairy Tale and many more.
The nice thing about Netflix is that they add minimum ages to each series as we all know that Manga isn’t just for the youth, as a matter of fact, there are more adult manga movies than there are for children so kudos for Netflix to make this possible.
While I’m browsing through the dozens of titles most of them start from 13+ year old, but there are also a few for the younger ones from 7+ year old though they are quite rare. If you want to introduce manga to your young one I would recommend the Disastrous Life of Saiki K which is about a high school guy surrounded by a weird bunch of kids, but at least you don’t have to worry about sex or violence.
Interactive TV on Netflix
Without any announcement, in advance, Netflix pulled a trick lately, with a new series called Bandersnatch – Black Mirror, it started a little weird, asking the viewer to click a button on the screen with their mouse. I was like are we even serious, I mean is it even possible that they built-in some overlay that’s clickable in the movie but I took my chance and wow it worked.
Later on, I tried it again and after I made a choice I still wondered if it wasn’t just pure randomness/luck that he picked up the pack of cereal that I selected. I tried to rewind but it didn’t allow me to so this was definitely something new. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of it but if you’ve never tried it before head over to Netflix to see for yourself, you might even love it!
