We live in the information era. We produce so much information per day so that a human's single life isn't enough to consume it entirely. An excessive amount of information causes confusion, anxiety, fear of missing out, and lack of focus.
An ability to filter information and consume only the valuable one is a skill I call an information diet. Like we don't want to eat unhealthy food, we want to avoid being overwhelmed by tons of low-quality information. What we consume defines how we think and what we do in our lives.
If you want to change yourself, change what information you consume and how.
Time is a precious resource, but you only can do a few hours of productive work per day. Your attention is limited.
Attention ≠ Time, use it wisely.
A good diet will require some cooking tips:
- News is an incredibly low-quality source of information—too much noise, propaganda, and no fact-checking.
- Social Media steals your attention. Consider limiting its usage, especially if you find yourself unconsciously scrolling feed.
- Mix in-depth information with a shallow one. The former takes a lot of your attention but makes you a better thinker; the latter is useful for exploration and helps with idea generation and creativity.
- Do not try to consume everything. We're not superhumans, after all. If you can't read another valuable newsletter or listen to your favorite podcast, bookmark it for later. If the growing queue of great content is overwhelming for you, drop it. Good ideas repeatedly pop up pretty often; bad ones do not.