“In your thirst for knowledge, be sure not to drown in all the information - J.D’Angelo”
(Information Consumption: A Short Guide To Cutting Out Distractions, Saving More Time And Becoming More Productive) Check out the Introduction and Chapter 1 here
Are you like this?
Switching from a Facebook post to a tweet. Then quickly jumping on a Reddit thread before it hits the front page. And to catch up more, you take off to YouTube to watch a funny cat video. This is just after upvoting a picture on Imgur. C’mon, it’s just 5 seconds, you say. I’m just gonna watch a couple of Vine videos to release the happy “endorphins” in my body.
And oh, there is this model I’ve got to follow on Instagram and a cool image to pin on Pinterest. Don’t worry, while at work, I would check if any of my witty comments on Facebook has gotten a like and a share. I should also remember to brag about my Reddit Karma to my friends. Call it karma whoring or whatever. I’m just hip.
This scenario above, sadly, is a situation most of us experience once in a while. For many, it’s a daily experience.
Getting stuck in the internet click-hole was something I constantly battled while in college. I was worried this might affect my personal goals so I scoured the web looking for the perfect article that would help me manage my social media consumption productively. I tried tens of techniques and made several resolutions. The tips listed below are have been used by several successful people and it would also work for you.
More Tips On Managing Your Information Consumption for Increased Productivity
Manage Your Subscriptions Like A Cold-hearted Executioner
“Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language”
A study reveals that the average Internet user receives about 84 emails per day. This is much worse for office workers who spend 28% of their work hours dealing with emails. The menace of time wasted on emails is so disturbing that several books have been written on how to manage your inbox effectively. And this is not about to stop anytime soon.
With the advent of more social media networks, it was posited that email usage would reduce drastically. However, the opposite has been the case. As more media outfits realize the importance of a newsletter, more resources are being used to ensure you, the consumer subscribes to more and more services. While this is not inherently bad, as some newsletters have great immense value and has helped in bettering our lives. Having your inbox overflowing with subscriptions you made can lead to a feeling of loss of control.
But you can change this.
James Chartrand, a great writer, put this in the most succinct manner. The excerpt below is taken from the introductory mail of her newsletter.
“
Stop reading.
I'm not kidding.
Reading gets you nowhere. In fact, it can build a nasty habit that sticks you deep in a rut you can't climb out of.
Think of all those blog updates that land in your inbox every day. Or those boring newsletters. Or your overfull RSS reader. Or daily deals you never buy. I bet your inbox fills up quickly with a bunch of stuff you never really read.
You skim. You scan. You delete. You move on.
That's wasted time.
Your time is precious - and you should be investing it towards better goals.......
So for the next few days, pay attention to your inbox. Be absolutely cold and objective. Ask yourself:
- Have I opened the last three updates this blog sent me? Have I actively read them? If not, unsubscribe. (You won't hurt anyone's feelings, trust me.)
- If you've opened even one of the last three updates, did you just skim through and think, "That's nice," then delete it?
If you aren't actively reading those updates and immediately putting the free advice into action, get off that list. This is business. Those useless subscriptions are costing you big time.
Protect your time like an angry bulldog growling at thieves. Yes, that new post might be from your favorite blogger, but if all you do is skim and move on, it brought you nothing.
In fact, it just stole precious minutes right from under your nose, and you didn't even realize it!
This week, do a major, brutal cleanup of your inbox. Unsubscribe like a cold-hearted executioner...........
This mail from her is one of the best I’ve read on inbox management. And I’ve read tens of them.
Determine Your Priority
If you’re hanging out on Facebook or Reddit or any other platform everyday instead of writing that term paper, working on that pitch or solving that problem that is silently bringing your business down. You’ve made a choice: Facebook or whatever social platform is a greater priority than that important thing you’ve to do.
I know. This seems hard to do. But you’ve got to dig deep and manage your priorities.
Embrace Content Curation
“There is nothing more gladdening than standing on the shoulders of giants. Let experts do the hard work for you”
Content is King, they say. And several individuals and companies realizing this are putting more resources into content creation. Every day, millions of blog posts, slides and infographics are released daily. You certainly can’t go through all these daily. Why not embrace content curation?
These days, several experts release their daily, weekly or monthly curated lists. Why go through the hassle when you can have others do the time-consuming activity of filtering through junk for you.
There are several curated platforms for every industry you can think of. You just have to find and use the right tools.
Some popular content curation tools are:
Feedly: a news aggregator application for various web browsers and mobile devices running iOS and Android. It helps organize, read and share what matters to you.
Highbrow: a platform for 5 minutes long bite-sized email courses delivered to your inbox daily. I highly recommend it.
Short: A reading list for busy people. It goes through your news aggregator apps and filters only Short articles for you. That way, you don’t get overburdened by the length of your reading list.
There are several other great content aggregating apps. Find which work best for you and stick to it.
Cost of Free
A common reason why we subscribe to several newsletters is the thought: “Oh, it’s free, cost nothing and it’s awesome. Subscribing to one more newsletter won’t hurt anyone.”
However, if you value your precious limited time, you would consider an extra hour spent as very important, never to be gotten back.
Tools: Unroll, Mailstrom, and Unsubscriber are three popular apps used for unsubscribing from annoying, unwanted emails.
And to “Steemit Addicts” ;).
Here’s a reply to my post : To My Fellow Steemit Addicts by @cryptoctopus that perfectly sums up how we should strive to strike a balance between our online and offline activities.
“I have to be careful, I still have a job that pay the bill. I need to make sure I deliver on that front too!”
I would love to read your feedbacks. :)