Eight Things to Do with 143 Hours Besides Watch TV

The average American watched an eye-aching 143 hours and 37 minutes of television in the second quarter of 2010, according to the most recent Nielsen survey. Simply put: That's to

Exercise

An hour of jogging each day at just 5 miles an hour will burn 584 calories. And 3,500 calories is how many you'll need to burn to lose a pound of fa

Build a House

According to a North Carolina Habitat for Humanity organization (PDF), it typically takes 12 people 16 working days to build a home for a needy fam

Get Scuba Certified

It only takes three or four days to get your scuba certification—a maximum of about 40 hours. D

Become a Yoga Instructor

The Equinox gym chain has a 200-hour yoga teacher certification course. If you devoted less than six weeks of TV time to th

Learn Spanish

Rosetta Stone language software claims it takes 40 to 50 hours to complete the content of each level of their five-level programs. In 143 hours, you could n

Get Smarter Than Your Friends

It takes 77 hours and 22 minutes to read the Bible at the pace of a book on tape. Instead

Volunteer

Idealist.org is currently listing more than 12,000 volunteer opportunities, at least one of wh

Write a Movie

According to film director Luc Besson, it only took him 30 days to write The Professional. Instead of watching TV for almost 150 hours, take abou