Just stop. None of it is that important at all. Want to know more about a subject? Buy a book. Unsubscribe from all of your automated email. Stop bookmarking things. Live in the moment and free yourself from all of that anxiety.
Social media and blog posts should be passive entertainment. You aren’t going to miss out on anything. You will accomplish more by letting it go.
Agreed completely. Buying a book is the best way to really learn more about a subject, and saves me from the binge-bookmarking. I've also made it a habit to clear out my bookmarks at least once a year, based on if I've visited the site or not, and if I still have any desire to read/use what I bookmarked. I've also started making it a habit to try and keep my email as decluttered as possible. All-in-all, it's really helped me mentally and actually made me more able to stay focused on those things I really do want to learn enough to invest time into (currently Abstract Algebra, at the moment).
Part of me feels bad that this sort of thing doesn't freak me out, that I'm not bothered accumulating things like bookmarks, unread emails, and files. Maybe that I'm comfortable living with so much noise is why I go through periods where I don't get anything done.
It doesn't freak me out, per se, but it definitely distracts me, as I do feel I should go back and look through them. That said, I've gotten much more done since adopting this habit, even if Reddit kills me time a lot nowadays.
Highly recommend the unsubscribe binge, it's reversible and while time-consuming it's progress against future deluges. With regards to email, using search by source you can probably group and cull in batches, and actually, dismissing something short and trivial can take a lot less than 5 seconds so there is hope!
I second this. One year, I simply deleted all of my unread emails, booked-marked articles, and anything else that I was “saving” for later.
The insight that I had was that if it was import, interesting, or meaningful I would find it again.
I do this every year now. This boundary and requirement is now ingrained and I make sure that to really read, save, or process anything important because I will lose it.
My takeaway from the last three years is that there are only a handful of “important” or interesting things on my list.
It also reinforced focus.
P.S. I don’t delete important links like services or shortcuts; Simply reference material that’s not in an archive. I equate an archive to a recipe book.
> Social media and blog posts should be passive entertainment
You sir hit the nail on the head! I analyzed over all (almost all) my bookmarks, lists, notes, posts and emails from 2018 and 6 months of 2019 only to realize this - its entertainment.
I could find 7 distinct valuable things from hours of consuming text/videos for over 18 months. That was insane and in stark contrast to why I picked up reading blogs/tweets/HN in the first place - 1. to dig deeper in what I know and 2. seek new shiny things. I now use books for the former and HN/twitter/reddit/blogs for the latter.
Whats interesting, important and valuable finds its way to my feeds/searches/conversations and has the characteristic of showing up multiple times. The signal/noise ratio is Goddamn low.
I now have sticky notes on the wall right above my desk, one per area of interest. I look for books around what interests me, have real conversations with real people, explain or try to get folks around me hooked onto something that also interests me.
Overall I like it and my favorite part : are only so many stick notes that will fit on the wall. When there are too many, I will know, unlike my twitter/HN/reddit feeds.
Social media and blog posts should be passive entertainment. You aren’t going to miss out on anything. You will accomplish more by letting it go.
You can do it! Just stop.