Information Reduced Diet
Over the holidays, I read The 4-Hour Workweek. Not because I'm actually after a 4-hour workweek, but more so, because I'm always open to new ideas for balancing work with life (often a challenge for many association professionals).
The book was a quick and entertaining read with some solid tips for focusing on what mattered, and wasting less time on work for work's sake. Though, there was a little too much emphasis on world travel as the ultimate end-product of freeing yourself up from endless work crunch.
Here is the book's author, Tim Ferriss with a brief interview where he discusses the "information abuse epidemic":
Anyway, the most worthwhile section was titled "Elimination", where among other things, the author says we should stop watching/reading the news, stop surfing the web, only check email once a day, unsubscribe from all newsletters/etc, never answer your office phone, and so on. By doing so, time is freed up to do the work that really matters. The book does go into more detail, as well as give tips to avoid distractions and reorient output towards results (as opposed to volume).
As a New Year's Resolution, I've taken on this "information reduced diet", doing many of the things suggested in the book (though, not all ;) And, so far so good. I don't feel any less informed or out of the loop. There seems to be less chaos/urgency to each day. And, most importantly, I'm crossing off many of the big items on my to-do list that kept getting pushed off due to the deluge of email and other daily distractions. Will be interesting to see how long I can keep it up for...
PS: Tim Ferris did a more extensive discussion, along with One Person/Multiple Careers author Marci Alboher, as part of the Authors@Google lecture series.
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Comments
I read and love The 4 Hour Work Week, but it's tough to reduce the constant flow of information.
Posted by: John | January 10, 2008 1:29 PM
I've also been interested in Tim Ferris's ideas (which, like you, I've heard via podcast), though I haven't yet read his book. I have to admit that I wondered about whether or not reducing information would make me "uninformed." It's good to know that you don't feel out of the loop, and that one of the aftereffects you experienced was less chaos/urgency to the day.
Don't know if Ferris gets this much into the weeds, but one trick I've discovered: I used to schedule specific times to do specific tasks. For example, 8:30 to 9:30, edit x; 9:45 to 11:30, draft y. It always made me "crazy" when the time interfered with my sense of completion.
Now, I simply list the priority tasks of the day (in my electronic organizer) like this, with no times attached: 1-edit X; 2-draft Y. This makes me feel much less crunched for time and allows me sensible stopping points. Somehow more gets done, and I'm less frazzled.
Posted by: Joanne Lozar Glenn | January 10, 2008 8:07 PM
I was stuck in an airport several months ago and the title of Ferris' book jumped out at me enough to induce me to make an impulse purchase (not a recommended practice if you actually want to get to the point of having a 4-hour work week!). I don't follow it often enough, but the simple tip he gives about checking e-mail only once (or possibly twice) a day is very powerful. With all the Blackberry'ing and Twittering going on these days, I think most people can hardly imagine doing this, but it really can make a tremendous difference. I am a huge fan of connectivity, social media, etc., but there are benefits to be reaped from a bit of discipline in interacting with the Network.
Jeff
Posted by: Jeff Cobb | January 11, 2008 1:10 PM
"... the author says we should stop watching/reading the news, stop surfing the web, only check email once a day, unsubscribe from all newsletters/etc, never answer your office phone, and so on ..."
Wow, the idea of not reading the news or the internet makes me break out in a cold sweat! Of course, I've always been a reading junkie--I never go anywhere without a book.
I can see the efficiency of eliminating aimless websurfing and keeping your e-mail checking down to once or twice a day (I certainly need to be better about the latter). But my best ideas come from the reading that I do. I find that a magazine article, a book chapter, and a conversation at a meeting can all gel together in my mind and lead to an idea I might never have had otherwise. I'd hate to miss out on that if I went on too severe an information diet. (Your mileage may vary, of course!)
Posted by: Lisa Junker | January 11, 2008 2:30 PM