āThe goal of media is to make every problem, your problemā - Naval Ravikant
I read that a little over a month ago, and suddenly the amount of mental fatigue that was stopping me from doing anything functional made perfect sense.
My consistently āmehā mood, my avoidance of any content forwarded to me - it all made sense as well.
Hereās a stat thatās insane: The average adult in 2018 spent 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phone. Iāve had periods where I exceeded that on the regular. Not proud.
And when weāre talking about āspending timeā on our phones, what this really means is consuming media. Whether itās from Twitter, Reddit or Instagram, the algorithms are gauging our demographic, preferences, and whatās popular on the platform - then sending it straight to us.
Often, this stuff is a complete overload, even if itās content that you want to consume, even if itās education - itās overkill.
With a constant influx of content coming in, we need to realize that thereās no free lunch. We canāt have all this stimulus without a hangover. Unfortunately, that hangover comes in the form of a reduced attention span, a constant need for more stimulus, and a declining ability to reflect.
Initially, I thought, screw it, Iām just going to avoid the news and media altogether. But with that wilful ignorance comes a cost too - you become detached from whatās going on in all the spaces you were once paying attention to; itās not a great solution.
A previous solution of mine was to delete all time-suck apps from my phone and have a dedicated time to consume them on my computer. But with every platform being mobile-first and phones being the default driver these days - itās been difficult to do that too.
So I experimented with a few new methods.
Hereās whatās been working for me, and youāll notice that these arenāt very new, which is good. It means they work.
š» Curing The Digital Hangover
The idea is to reduce stimulus and increase the ability for self-reflection.
Reduce
Firstly, Iāve reduced my media sources only to get what matters to me the most. I read Morning Brew for business news, for a podcast, I listen to Tim Ferriss - anything else comes to me from friends.
I reduce notifications with the liberal use of airplane mode on my phone.
I set hours to check emails and other distractions.
I set hours for entertainment.
Is this perfect? Hell no, but itās been working so far. Thereās no FOMO, and itās freeing me up to be more critical and aware of other things that pop up.
Reflect
I included this in the link dump 2 weeks ago, but Iām expanding on it here.
An hour, yes, a full hour, in the morning of meditation, is fantastic. Sitting there, unguided, and letting the mind do what it feels like doing. Thereās no wrong way to do it.
Historically, Iāve struggled to do this in general, specifically in the morning, because thatās my most productive few hours. It feels unproductive to sit there and do ānothingā for such a long period.
But itās quite the contrary; it can be one of the most productive things we do. It teaches us to be okay with not receiving stimuli. Itās a daily exercise in being okay with our thoughts. Some of the deepest concerns weāre not aware of may come out of these sessions.
Itās been a game-changer for my digital hangover. The guy from the quote above recommends everyone try it for at least 60 days. I mean, weāve all wasted more than 60 hours over the past 2 months; why not give this a try?
š Last Week
If you were waiting for an email from me last week and didnāt get one, it was because my brain was out of commission. Iām deciding on a better direction to take these weekly nuggets of thoughts and didnāt think I had any value to add last week.
Why send you something subpar, right?
Consistency is great, but value is better.
With so much value out there, Iām moving towards showing you where it is versus creating it from scratch.
Now, nobody wants to be a 5-Bullet Friday copy-cat, but personal stories and learnings arenāt always coming in troves. Luckily, what I find cool is hopefully in line with what you find cool - this is where the value comes (hopefully) š
š Link Dump
šø How Unsplash went from a Tumblr page to a fully-fledged photography platform.
š£ I save $1000+ every year because I finally understand these 4 slimy marketing tactics.
š§µ A fantastic thread on 10 life-altering ideas and perspectives.
š° New York Times election coverage; man, that was an intense few daysā¦
šø How The Economic Machine Works, in 30 minutes, by Ray Dalio.
Thatās it for this week, ladies and gents, enjoy and take it easy :)
Thanks,
Sah