How to Make Time to Watch Favorite TV Shows

In this day and age in the TV world, there are so many shows on TV, it can be difficult to find the time to watch them all. There are ways, however, to catch all your favorite shows, and still have time to work.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• DVR or TIVO

1. Set up a spreadsheet on your computer. Separate days and hours to determine all of your favorite shows, and what day and time they can be watched. Enter your work schedule and other commitments in a different color than your favorite shows.
2. Purchase a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) or a Tivo with the ability to tape two shows at the same time. TiVo makes a model that only allows one show at a time recording, which may be less useful in achieving maximum show watching ability.
3. Set up your DVR to tape whole seasons of your favorite shows. It is best to set the season pass on "Tape All Shows," not just new episodes, because while your DVR or TiVo is smart, you would hate to miss an episode because the first time the show was on a baseball game ran late and cut it off. (No system currently can adjust for last minute TV schedule changes.)
4. Go to the different TV channels' websites in order to find the schedules for your shows. Be sure to read up on some new shows that might be the "must sees" of tomorrow. Go to each channel's website and take a look around. The sites will give you everything you need to know including times, days, along with actor bios, interviews and information about shows you might not have heard of yet.
5. Take time to watch your favorite television shows stored on your DVR or TiVo system. Remember with DVR or TiVo, you no longer have to watch commercials. For thirty minute shows, you will now have approximately 22 minutes of show time, and only 42 minutes for 60 minute shows. Eliminating commercials alone will allow you almost twice as much actual show watching.
6. Have your friends help out by recording shows you all watch, if you watch too many shows for TiVo to keep up with. Then make a night of watching the recordings during the week. Make some snacks for your friends to enjoy while watching a marathon of missed shows.

Tips & Warnings

• TiVo is the original DVR system and appears to consistently outperform the competition. Most cable companies offer their own DVR systems which will suffice, but they tend to not carry the same features as TiVo.