You’ve likely noticed a trend in my writing recently. I’ve been homing in on focusing more and doing less. For a long time I’ve been great at keeping my possessions and systems minimal (and am proud of how that has continued even with a baby!), and now I’ve been working on doing the same with my time and commitments (especially my move away from social media).
Today I want to discuss how to stay informed with the topics you care about, without feeling overwhelmed and like you constantly have to keep up. This post will help you decide what media (news, books, podcasts, etc.) to consume and how much time to dedicate.
Ask yourself these question to figure out what you actually care about
Back in the day you had to subscribe to newspapers and magazines, then wait for them to arrive at your home to consume information you were interested in. Or you had to wait for a show on the radio or tv to come on. Now that we have unlimited information at our finger tips it is so much harder to decide what you want to prioritize learning about. Why not everything?
Well, because you can’t possibly retain it all, nor can you live your life if you’re stuck in a constant state of consumption. Here are some questions to ask yourself so you can understand what you really care about, instead of doing what you think you should or what’s convenient.
- What helps you with your work?
- What helps you with your personal development?
- What entertains you?
- What leaves you feeling informed?
- What leaves you feeling overwhelmed?
Consider how much time you want to dedicate to reading/listening/watching
In the same vein as the post I wrote on asking yourself “is this necessary,” you’ll want to consider how much time in your day you can reasonably spend on becoming more informed. It’s likely easy to read a short newsletter everyday, but not multiple essays. It’s possible to listen to a 15 minute podcast, but not a two hour one.
This is your opportunity to think about what can fit into your routine on a daily, weekly, monthly basis and help you decide what to subscribe to.
Make it easy on yourself to access high quality, useful information
Because anyone and everyone can publish their thoughts now (like this very blog you’re reading!), it becomes harder to shift through and find what you want to consume and to keep up with it. Look at where you spend your time today and consider where you can fit in the media that you want to see.
For example, if you check your email religiously, newsletters could be a good fit for you. If you always have a pair of headphones on, podcasts can be your best friend. And it doesn’t all have to be digital! Maybe a subscription to your favorite physical publication is what you need to narrow down your focus a bit and get the benefit of dedicated time reading.
My personal routine
For News
- The Daily Brew email newsletter
- The Journal podcast
For Work
- Stratechery email newsletter (tech industry)
- All-In podcast (tech industry)
- The Advanced Selling podcast (sales skills)
- Brandon Fluharty email newsletter (sales skills)
- Ian Koniak videos (sales skills)
For Personal Development
- How to Take Over the World podcast (leadership)
- Awesome Etiquette podcast
- Wiser Than Me podcast (life perspective)
- Boho Beautiful Yoga YouTube channel
For entertainment
This is a selection of my favorites – I have other YouTube channels and blogs that I subscribe to for entertainment as well!
- The Bowery Boys podcast (NYC history)
- For the Ages podcast (history)
- The Gilded Gentleman podcast (history)
- XO, MaCenna YouTube channel (design)
- Allison Anderson YouTube channel (travel)
- The Everygirl and The Everymom blogs
What I’ve done is made sure that I can keep up with the frequency of updates (only my news section is updated daily, everything else is weekly or monthly) and I unsubscribe whenever I find something is no longer valuable.
I hope this gave you inspiration to assess what you currently take in on a regular basis and that you check out my recommendations if you are looking to make adjustments to your routine!
Leave a Reply