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If you tend to spend most of your day trying to get through vast amounts of information, consider Albert Einstein’s words: ‘reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.’ Nobel Prize winner Herbert Simon believed that information ‘consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention’. Find out more below.

Become selectively ignorant

Tim Ferriss advises that the first step towards developing a low information diet is to become selectively ignorant. He says ‘it is imperative that you learn to ignore or redirect all information and interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant, or unactionable. Most are all three.’

Ferriss adds that most information is not only time consuming but also negative and outside of your influence. Consider the daily headlines in the newspaper, for example.

Go on a one week media detox

Try adopting Ferriss’ challenge to go on a one week media detox. ‘The world doesn’t even hiccup, much less end, when you cut the information umbilical cord.’ It’s best to do this quickly with a week’s information fast because information is too much like ice cream to do otherwise, says Ferriss. Going on a one week media fast requires going cold turkey.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it: ‘There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant.’

The rules of the media detox

To start with, the week comprises five working days. During this time, no reading matter of any kind is permitted: no books (although it’s okay to read pleasurable fiction for an hour before you go to bed), no newspapers, no magazines, no news websites and no web surfing.

No television is permitted either, except for an hour of viewing for pleasure each evening, and no non-music radio. You can listen to music as often as you like.

You’re going to have extra time on your hands, but what to do with it? Ferriss recommends that you use the extra time from nine to five to complete your top priorities. Otherwise use the extra time to do things like connect with your spouse and bond with your children.

Fill in the information gaps as you go

The next step is to get into the habit of checking if the information you’re about to consume is important and immediately applicable to something. If not, don’t consume it. ‘Information is useless if it is not applied to something important or if you will forget it before you have a chance to apply it,’ says Ferriss.

Reading information way in advance of actually needing to is often pointless because you’ll end up having to re-read it closer to the time. Rather ‘follow your to-do short list and fill in the information gaps as you go.’

Lastly, ‘develop the habit of nonfinishing that which is boring or unproductive.’

Tags: lifestyle