Let's talk about consumption
Not of food
But your information consumption
Do you find yourself endlessly scrolling social media, jumping from one platform to another? You try to keep up with your friends' posts, news updates and trending topics but it all blurs together. By the end of the day you feel drained, but don't know how to stop.
Or do you start your morning with a podcast, to get your brain going. You keep listening to different topics throughout the day and by the end your mind is swimming with conflicting advice and ideas.
Or maybe at work you juggle multiple responsibilities, have a never ending stream of emails and meetings, and when you finally have a moment to yourself, want to decompress but end up catching up on more emails and articles related to your work. You feel like you are running on overdrive, but also feel like if you don't you'll miss out on what's important.
You finally end your day, and decide to watch a funny video on youtube to relax, but hours later you're deep into unrelated and meaningless content. You feel overwhelmed, and don't remember much of what you watched.
These might be extreme examples
and
It's infinitely easy to spend an entire day consuming information
And infinitely much harder not to
So why is this worth your time to read and think about?
Near constant intake of new information can hurt your wellbeing with
🤯Overthinking and Mental Clutter
When there are so many different ideas, opinions, and potentially conflicting information, how can you possibly sort through it all, even if you try!
Having all that information swirling around your brain can make it difficult to make decisions, and lead to confusion and mental fatigue.
😭Emotional Distress
Trying to digest all that information can make you irritable, anxious and feel overwhelmed.
😐Comparison and Negative Self Talk
With the glut of information, influencers, and focus on other's achievements prevalent on social media and in the world today, it can be really easy to shift into comparison mode and start telling yourself that you won't ever have or be enough.
So, what to do!?
🌟Be Selective
What are you trying to achieve?
If you are trying to learn something new, what specifically do you want to know? Find the sources that give you the answer.
If you want a new recipe or workout ideas, zone in on those questions and stick to it!
If you just want to scroll to scroll, give yourself a time limit.
🌟Process and Reflect
When you learn something new, give yourself some time to process what you heard, saw or read before moving on to the next thing.
Ask yourself
What did I learn?
How can I verify or confirm what I learned?
How does this impact me or how can I use this information?
What are my own insights, thoughts and opinions about this topic?
🌟Detox
Schedule time away from your devices (meals, bedtime, worktime, etc..)
Consider having an information free day, where you can just experience the world and other people (take a hike, play a game, work on a hobby or start a new one!)
How do you manage your information?
"Be aware of and attentive to the time you spend as an online spectator. Social media will have you believing that your life is meaningless even though you're doing more than most people, offline"
~ Germany Kent
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