Dear LPG, 

I recently read a post on the LPG pages about improving your eyesight, which I found interesting. I noted that we should use the time between television programmes to exercise our eyes (and the rest of our bodies).   I agreed wholeheartedly with SY when she advised that we would all be better off not paying to avoid adverts on those television channels where it is becoming an increasingly popular option and using the advertising time to get up and take a walk.  

She did not actually say that but using the time to ‘get up and stretch your legs, make a quick cuppa, phone a friend and comment on the story so far or just have 40 winks’ is not only good for your eyes, your legs and back are likely to appreciate the break from all that continued sitting in front of the box too. 

I was inspired by this idea some years ago, and it took some time before I could trigger myself to follow the principle. At the start of my resolution to make TV advert time more valuable, all too often I would remember my ‘take a TV break strategy’ some two or three adverts in, and my head would then tell me that it is so close to being over that there is no point in getting started until the next one. But I would like you to know that ‘practice makes perfect’ (gradually), and I am getting much better at using at least some of my ‘advert time’ in a more beneficial way. 

When the idea was first put into my head, I decided to use some of them to do a bit of a survey. I timed a few adverts breaks one evening during my favourite soap operas and found that quite a few lasted for as long as five minutes.     

They say that ‘time flies when you are having fun’, which must mean that five minutes well spent could be long enough to achieve a little something if you put your mind to it, and I would argue that there is something special (if not ‘fun’) about any achievement we accomplish. 

So I am working on not being swayed by all those suggestions and ideas that the adverts put into our heads if we are that engrossed (even though I have my favourites - at the moment, I like the Virgin mobile one with the hang gliding goats; I like the music), or having my mind switch off (sometimes those adverts are the reason that I miss the next part of the programme because they help me to nod off for a lot longer than five minutes).

I suggest actively turning the sound down as soon as the ‘we are going to the adverts now’ screen interrupts the programme you are watching. It is one way of focussing and, if not the eye exercise SY suggests, I have found many other things you could spend that five minutes doing.   Ladies, can I tell you that a film with 3 or 4 advert breaks is perfect for painting your nails and then you can use the program to let them dry.  

 The internet has a few suggestions; although many of them are designed for the working young people of this world, some of them can be tweaked to make just as much sense for us retired types. I have asked LPG to add links to them below…

BJ, Lewisham 

BJ shares her research…

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