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Tag: low information diet

Distraction Detox – September 2014

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I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, but maybe I just needed that extra kick in the butt.

Well I got two kicks in the butt, and I want you to join me!

The first kick was from a section I came across about having a “Low Information Diet” from the book The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Here’s an excerpt from the book that explains it a bit, but I’d recommend checking it out for more in-depth information:

The Low Information Diet – Cultivating Selective Ignorance

From this point forward, I’m going to propose that you develop an uncanny ability to be selectively ignorant. Ignorance may be bliss, but it is also practical. It is imperative that you learn to ignore or redirect all information and interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant, or unactionable. Most are all three.

The first step is to develop and maintain a low-information diet. Just as modern man consumes both too many calories and calories of no nutritional value, information workers eat data both in excess and from the wrong sources.

Lifestyle design is based on massive action – output. Increase output necessitates decreased input. Most information is time-consuming, negative, irrelevant to your goals, and outside of your influence. I challenge you to look at whatever you read or watched today and tell me that it wasn’t at least two of the four. – Timothy Ferriss

My second kick in the butt was from a YouTube post from Unconventional Living which I’ve posted below. He challenges us to do #30daysunplugged from the internet in order to increase productivity, and not use it as a distraction because we’re bored.

My Distraction Detox!
And why you should join me!

While the internet in general is not my focus, I am committing to a 30 day Distraction Detox of my mindless YouTube and Netflix watching. I want to be deliberate and mindful of the time I’m spending on the internet, so I can get FOCUSED on my personal dreams and goals. It is so easy to get sucked into the land of aimless video watching, and it’s not getting me where I need to be. Yes, there is a lot of valuable info out there that we can get by watching videos that are more educational, but if that is the case, it’s also about taking a break from the research and absorbing, and doing a little more… doing. I’ve already disconnected from Facebook and have noticed a huge benefit of the extra time I got back.

Let me know if you want to join me. What is distracting you from achieving your current dreams and goals? What are the things you know you should focus on but keep getting sidetracked by?

I’ll follow up at the end of the month and talk about my experience. This is something I want to revisit from time to time, or maybe every month, there will be a new distraction to detoxify from!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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