How To Craft An Information Diet That Actually Works

Lifehacker Australia has an interesting post on crafting an information diet that I think is worth reading and considering as we prepare for a new year.

Some of us watch a lot of TV. We may read more articles than we need to (the irony is not lost on me here). We go on Twitter to kill our boredom. By consuming information more carefully and treating it like food for our minds (which it is), we can do it in a way that actually works without completely cutting it out of our lives.

Get the rest of the article here: How To Craft An Information Diet That Actually Works | Lifehacker Australia.

Ideas that resonated with me?

• Create A Separate Account (or Use A Separate Device) for Consuming Information (I use Gmail)
• Make the Information Come to You (I use Feedly)

They conclude “The amount of time we spend mindlessly consuming information can be astonishing. In order to get a grip on your information diet, separate your information consumption and let it digest, understand what you want from each piece of information, and save time and expose yourself to new ideas by making the information come to you.”

To their advice I would add

• Jealously guard your business email address — don’t give it to anyone with whom you don’t want to do business — use that Gmail address for everything else!
• Learn to use RSS and select a feed reader and use it to make information come to you. I have found the best tools to be Feedly, Digg and Feedspot as well as the feed reader in Microsoft Outlook. Use them to lighten your email load.

It might also be a good time to read Clay Johnson’s book ‘The Information Diet‘ — it’s a great resource on this topic.