Consumption is not creation!

however it comes in the same dress and fools you and me!

We all know this;

‘overeating is not good for health and so to say; anything in excess has its own downsides’

Well; we all are over consuming information in all the possible form.

Look at what you consume on day to day basis ;

articles, tweets, messages, emails, podcasts, videos etc. and you will amaze by the sheer amount of information every individual consume in a day.

Every day from last a decade; our screen time is continuously increasing and some of the statistics showing average screen time of 7 Hrs. for everyone of us. Which is a king of high, very high.

Even it is not possible to keep up with the information we intake. As what you consume daily, you need to process and we are not having enough of time to keep up with the information we are consuming.

Even when we are not facing the screen, we might be consuming the information by listening to Podcast or having some music playing in the background.

A simple self observation will bring a clarity. What is the wayout?

How well you filter all the irrelevant information.

as quoted in the book ‘the distracted mind’ by Adam Gazzaley, We all need to set a filter.

Information is the key but we must find the way to process and filter the right information.

Consume wisely and make sure what you consume supports your learning in any possible way.

the simplest trick to be more productive can be; consume minimum in order to support your creation for example: research notes, video or tutorial etc. and act more.

avoid the trap of constant urge of being online, trying to be productive or looking forward for inspiration.

to be better in anything you need to work on it. Instead of doing we trapped ourselves into the web of material, data, videos, articles, tweets from the key influencer’’ about that subject.

for example;

I keep google about task management and best practise of note-taking where as I should actually be working on both the topic.

Make a conscious effort to learn and take relevant notes for the subject of your interest. This small exercise will go long way to help you in learning at a pace while being mindful about your information consumption.

Some ideas — I am working on are:

• Take note of what information you are consuming
• Divide your screen time in 2 zone — useful and not-so useful
• Set a simple ‘Email rule’ — only access twice in a day and block time accordingly
• Develop a habit of deep work
• Keep notifications — OFF
• Act more often

Being mindful about the information consumption is the need of the time and being aware about it is the first step.

Thank you for reading.

Keep reading, keep sharing.

Astu.