How to Create a Low Information Diet

Written by Vincent Tan - 20 Comments
Categories: productivity tips

pile-of-books.jpg
Image courtesy of wonderlane

The internet has forever changed the way we gather information. In the past obtaining information could be tedious. If you wanted to get the financial report of a company and learn about its business, most probably you would need to visit the company personally to collect the financial reports and talk to the management. Now, with the help of the internet, anyone can easily learn the history of Walmart by googling it or searching for it on Wikipedia.

So the internet had greatly reduced the time it takes to gather information, but has it really made us more effective and efficient?

The Problem

My daily intake of information includes magazines, newspapers, news sites, email and my RSS Reader. I love the feeling of having information at my fingertips and the ability to instantly satisfy my curiosity by searching for information on Google. However, instead of getting more done, I have found my productivity has actually suffered. Because acquiring information on the internet is such an easy task, I often find myself flooded with too much new information. For an example, when I started blogging I searched for information on how to set up a blog. Google gave me so much information I didn’t know where to start. I’m also guilty of following too much blogs (currently 64) through my RSS reader. With that much to read, there is no doubt my productivity suffers if I try to clear all the unread articles.

With so much information available to us, there is a need to prevent information overload. The following are 3 tips to curb our tendency to over consume information.

3 Tips To Help Create A Low Information Diet

1. Focus

When I started blogging, I googled for topics on how to blog and found tons of information related to how to set up a blog, how to structure your blog post and how to increase your traffic. When I began to read an article on a certain topic, there would then be links in that article that I will click and be directed to another article on blogging. This just went on and on and in the end I was left feeling at loss and not knowing where to start. In order to solve this problem, I chose a single topic and stuck to reading articles on that topic. This stopped me from opening too much tabs with articles that I couldn’t possibly finish.

2. Regulate your email

Do you really need to subscribe to 20 newsletters on the same topic? It can be tempting to opt in to receive a newsletter out of fear that if we do not subscribe, we will miss out on something. But it is worth asking yourself if you truly need the newsletter or promotions and, if you don’t, to then unsubscribe. Reading email can be one of your biggest time wasters and if you do not control it, this activity can expand to take up lots of your time. Always have a specific time slot for reading email and reconsider reading all of the forwarded emails you receive.

3. Don’t Chase Blogs

Although I am following a lot of blogs, I do not try to clear my RSS reader by finishing reading all the articles. I choose a limited number of articles that I will read so that I don’t spend the whole day reading articles and doing nothing. By setting a limited number of articles to read, I take in less information and end up with more time to do other things.

Parting Words

The internet can be used to increase your productivity, but don’t allow it to bombard you with so much information that your productivity suffers. Handle the amount of information that you are taking in with care and let information be your friend instead of foe.

Do you maintain a low information diet? If so, what tips do you have for doing this?

About the writer: Vincent is the author of Hit Your Goals. If you like this article, you can subscribe to his blog to receive his latest articles or follow him on Twitter.

  • http://www.howtomakemyblog.com HowToMakeMyBlog.com

    Good article! Personally I have cut out all the TV, newspapers and magazines.

    Majority of my news intake is from my RSS. I subscribe to many feeds but it doesn’t mean that I read all of their articles. If the title sounds good I read it, if not I mark is as read.

    In your blog example, the best tip is just to start writing. With so much information out there, you must know when to focus and when you have enough information to just do it.

    Marko
    http://www.howtomakemyblog.com

  • Faran

    I love information and am also a junkie. But I do apply the principles of minimization and optimisation to it, so if I find that I skip almost every post of a certain blog i’ll eventaully remove that blog from my list.
    The information diet is great when you’re on vacation but any avid internet “geek” would eventually get hungry and go binging.
    So I guess what i’m saying is that if you apply organization and elimination regularly it’s very fulfilling to be an information junkie.

  • http://blog.neverthesamerivertwice.com Maria | Never the Same River Twice

    As Tim Ferris recommends, I generally don’t pay attention to the news. Although I went off my media diet for the recent U.S. election and inauguration, I’m back on it now and find that my head is much more clear without all the media noise.

  • http://mikewalzman.wordpress.com mike walzman

    On my good days, I set a time and day to do this. So I don’t feel guilty. I can relax and enjoy the moment.

  • http://www.personal-development-coach.net Simona Rich

    It is very easy to get lost in information. There are so many sources to choose from.

    I think the best way to control your information intake is by using the 80/20 rule and only reading about issues that are the most important to you.

  • http://SourcesOfInsight.com J.D. Meier

    I think it starts with figuring out what you need to know versus what you like to know.

    Once you know what you need to know, then find the trusted sources.

    From there, set a timebox for exploratory learning and random hunting and gathering.

  • http://www.healthmoneysuccess.com/677/how-to-have-good-sleeping-habits/ Vincent

    @Hi HowToMakeMyBlog,

    By subscribing to lots feed doesn’t mean that we are required to finish reading all of them. It would take us a whole day to clear the feeds if we had subscribed to tons of them.

    @Hi Faran,

    I believe that minimization is definitely required. It helps to prevent us from being overwhelmed by the vast amount of information. Thanks for the point :)

    @Hi Maria,

    I saw your article on your media diet and it is really an achievement. Maybe I should give it a go too. :)

    @Hi Mike,

    By setting a time do you mean time boxing? Time boxing is definitely a great way to help us to control the activity from using up too much of our time.

    @Hi Simona Rich,

    I love the concept of 80/20! It is definitely a simple and yet effective system of helping us to focus on the 20% of the information which help provide us with 80% value.

    @Hi J.D,

    That is a combination of 2 technique of time management, 80/20 rule followed by time boxing. That is a great way of using them both to control the amount of information that we consume.

    Cheers
    Vincent
    Personal Development Blogger

  • http://abundance-blog.marelisa-online.com Marelisa

    Hi Vicent: I like these tip. Something I do is photoreading, in which one of the main ideas is to set a purpose for why you’re reading something and then scan the material looking for the information that will meet that purpose. That way it’s active reading instead of passive reading.

  • http://www.varsityblah.com/about Eugene (Editor, Varsity Blah)

    • Prioritise. What would you do if you just had a heart attack and could only work for two hours a day? What about two hours a week? After coming across this question in the book, I knew the answer was simple. It’s about eliminating everything you don’t need and filling your life with what you do. Since then, I’ve stopped watching TV (except for my favourite shows), stopped listening to annoying DJs on the radio, stopped watching the news bulletins several times a day, cut back my online subscriptions from nine to two, and cut back my print subscriptions from five to one.

    It may be hard to let go of all the data, but do you honestly need to check your email and other messages several times a day? Besides, if anything that important happens, you’ll know.

    (from http://www.varsityblah.com/need-for-speed/)

  • http://www.somedaysyndrome.com Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome

    I timeblock my day and limit myself in other ways. For example, I give myself an hour to clear my blog reader each day, with a goal of ten comments left on other blogs. It means that I need to be hyper-selective about what posts I read.

    And although I might read email throughout the day, I generally only answer it in the morning during another block of time.

  • http://www.freedomeducation.ca Stephen Martile

    Hey Vincent – good on ya man!

    Nice to see a fellow personal growth blogger guest article at PicktheBrain :-)

    -> keep up the good work!

    And to answer your question, ‘yes’ I do keep a low information diet as I’m only subscribed to 10 Newsletters and don’t follow anyone using an RSS reader.

    Maybe my info-diet is stretched too thin, what do you think?

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  • http://www.healthmoneysuccess.com/677/how-to-have-good-sleeping-habits/ Vincent

    @Hi Marelisa,

    Photo reading is a great way to speed up the way you pick up the information and it definitely help to save us time.

    @Hi Eugene,

    When we know our priorities, it will help us in choosing what information we will take in. This is an important step because most of us waste too much time in taking in too much information which is not useful to us.

    @Hi Alex,

    It seem like you are doing a great job in selecting the content that you take in. I love time blocking and I believe it will help us to choose the information we take in more wisely.

    @Hi Stephen,

    Personally I prefer to follow people through the RSS reader because I can scan through huge amount of content in a single go to keep me updated with the latest news going on in the blogosphere. Sometimes I get ideas for my next articles in the blogs that I follow too. Maybe you would like to start to follow some blogs and check whether this approach works for you. Anyway it is just a preference of mine :)

    Cheers
    Vincent
    Personal Development Blogger

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  • Zoe

    Ah, thank you. 
    I find myself spending so much time on the internet, but I don’t know what to do about it. Thankfully, your concise, clear and achievable tips are just what I need.
    I really love how you don’t write in that overly enhanced preacher style that a lot of motivational blogs use: it’s not motivational, just artificial…and patronising.
    Top notch, keep it up!