Anti Depression Guide

The next concept of Ferriss’s that is of utmost importance to the productive bipolar is the Low-Information Diet.

This concept will be expanded on and morphed for our purposes but we must give credit for the inspiration behind the idea to Timothy Ferriss.

Before we get started, Ferriss extends on the concepts of Pareto’s and Parkinson’s Laws by giving a couple of pointers regarding to-do lists, another area we’ll expand upon as Manic Productivity develops.

Ferriss advises using not only short to-do lists, but also not-to-do lists.

From experience, this is a much more effective technique for the productive bipolar than solely utilizing a to-do list.  The keys are to keep the to-do list short (ideally 2, and never more than 3 key tasks per day) in order to narrow down productive bipolar energies.  A vast majority of the time (like 99%) the not-to-do list will be substantially longer than than the to-do list.  If the productive bipolar can learn to successfully utilize this technique, she should find that her energies will serve to be more effective in successfully completing a couple of key tasks per day than going the traditional bipolar route of starting 15 tasks and completing none.  I’ve found that writing your lists on 2 separate 3 by 5 inch index cards and keeping them in your back pocket (to avoid the typical clutter in the side pockets) is best to serve as a reminder of what the day’s priorities are.

TIP-Remember Pareto’s Law and you should find your not-to-do list much lengthier than your to-do list.

Also, to cut out the urgent and focus on the important (remember “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People), Ferriss recommends asking yourself the following question when deciding on the important tasks for the day,

“If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?”

Okay, so we went off on a bit of a tangent there.  You can now see why developing techniques to focus productive bipolar energies is such a necessity.

So back to the application of the Low-Information Diet to the productive bipolar.

I for one am still have some troubles adjusting to the concept of the Low-Information Diet.  I’m one to attempt to read at least 2-4 non-fiction books per month in addition to my ever-growing RSS feed subscriptions.  But in context of lifestyle design for the productive bipolar, it can play a crucial part in saving time and focusing attention and energy on priority tasks.

If you’re skeptical, Mr. Ferriss found a great way to disarm your defenses.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but Albert Einstein was a remarkably brilliant man.  This is his take on the Low-Information Diet,

“Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind to much from its creative pursuits.  Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain to little falls into lazy habits of thinking”-Albert Einstein

Ferriss’s thinking behind what he calls “selective ignorance” is that most “information and interruptions…are irrelevant, unimportant, or unactionable…most are all three”.  Adding to this, he tells us the “lifestyle design is based on massive action-output” and that “increased output necessitates decreased input“.  For the productive bipolar, who tends to have a fairly healthy output, “selective ignorance” is an important strategy in managing such symptoms as racing, disorganized thoughts and the resulting unfocused output that results in numerous unfinished tasks.  In this light, I’m amazed at how much information I consume a day through my RSS reader that has no importance in contributing to not only my day’s priorities, but my overall life goals.  I also know that I’m one to suffer from information overload and general glut that rather than increasing my productive output can actually paralyze me entirely with a racing mind!

If we apply Pareto’s Law in the context of information, then 80% of the written output found in this blog comes from only 20% of the information I’ve consumed to write the article.

In some ways I’d agree that Pareto’s Law is somewhat flawed unless very narrowly focused.  For example, I’ve read articles published today at Treehugger.com that have no relevance to this blog, however the knowledge I’ve gained is applicable to other goals in my life, though not tasks specific to today.

That is where we find the challenge in “selective ignorance”.  My advice to the productive bipolar is when completing your daily priorities is to:

1. only consume the necessary information to complete the task
2. finish the task before moving onto anything else, including responding to the email alert you probably have set on your computer as that is one of the biggest distractions to staying on task
3. when moving onto the next task, once again consume only the required information needed to completed that task
4. once all daily tasks are completed, then feel free to consume whatever other information you may find in books, RSS readers, emails, etc. that is pertinent to your longer term tasks and goals/objectives

You will find by cultivating “selective ignorance” in this way that you don’t actually become entirely ignorant, but still are able to complete your daily priorities in a focused and time-constricted (remember Parkinson’s Law) way.

It must also be said that sometimes good old face-to-face communication, or even telephone conversations with people that may hold information related to your tasks can save you an extraordinary amount of time that would otherwise be used searched for the required information yourself, whether that be through searching through the plethora of information on the web or browsing your local library.  I’ve found in my own journey to becoming a productive bipolar, especially through the world of blogging, that people you may assume would be impossible to contact, whether that be New York Times bestselling authors of founders and CEOs of startups or even larger publicly traded companies are usually eager to talk about their projects and in many cases, if contacted can result in productive friendships and work relationships as well.

Just remember to always ask yourself, as Ferriss teaches us, “Is this information relevant to a task that is immediate and important?“

Well adjusting to the Low-Information Diet may seem difficult at first, I’ve found that it can be extremely helpful in focusing the productive bipolar mind on immediate and important (not urgent) tasks resulting in increased output and more time for relaxation and information consumption related to longer term objectives.

Here are some resources that elaborate on some of these ideas.  Just keep in mind that certain concepts of Ferriss’s do need to be repurposed to be of utmost use to the productive bipolar.  Changes of course are found within the content of this blog.

• here is a video of Tim Ferriss talking about “Mastering The Low-Information Diet”
• here is a link to a PDF file written by Ferriss entitled, “The Low-Information Diet: How to Eliminate E-Mail Overload & Triple Productivity in 24 Hours” featured on Seth Godin’s ChangeThis.com
• here is a listing of postings written by Tim Ferriss regarding the Low-Information Diet and selective ignorance from “The Blog Of Tim Ferriss”