I quit watching TV about 5 years ago, and it has changed my life immensely for the better. At the beginning of that five year span, I used to read a lot of books in English. But then, in January 2013, I decided to quit reading books in English—if I wanted to read a book, it had to be in a foreign language, namely Japanese (but sometimes Spanish).

Now, this was painful. I love reading. I was an English major in college. I used to read about one to two novels per week. And not only novels, I read books about marketing, web development, self-improvement—anything. But, yeah, I quit doing that in English. And I would have these urges to read something, but I wasn't allowed to read in English, so I would pick up a book in Japanese and… complete failure. This is partly because I was trying to study above my appropriate level.

Anyways, I'm getting sidetracked. Fast-forward a few years, and I actually could read books in Japanese. Yay! When I want to relax, I pick up a book in Japanese. It's become a kind of habit. When I can't fall asleep at night, I pick up a book in Japanese. Japanese audiobooks work nicely for this, too.