Anti Depression Guide

I’ve discussed both information consumption and selective ignorance on this blog, so to avoid confusion I thought I’d compare the two. They both have their uses depending on what your goals are. Timothy Ferriss, author of “The 4-Hour Workweek” coined the term selective ignorance and he definitely takes it to the extreme. He basically eliminates any non task-related info from his life in order to be more productive, and it has worked well for him and his business. This is a man that really doesn’t read books, watch the news, check his email 100 times per day, or spend hours pouring over his RSS feed subscriptions. I’m not going to go into a full detailed study of his process here; I’d encourage you to pick up a copy of his book, check out his blog, or read his ChangeThis manifesto on The Low-Information Diet. Instead I will point out some of the benefits of utilizing selective ignorance in your working life followed by the benefits of info consumption.

Pros of Selective Ignorance

1. Saved Time-you will save a ton of time using this approach which can be used for important rather than urgent tasks or just plain old rest and relaxation.
2. Minimized Distractions-by setting specific times to complete tasks such as checking and answering emails and utilizing auto-responders and similar tools, you won’t have the constant info glut in your head that takes you away from important tasks. This goes for other sources of information as well. Remember opportunity cost and the phrase “time is money”.
3. Increased Productivity-you can see by now that the pros of selective ignorance all kind of fall into the same category. Don’t waste time consuming information and filling your head with all kinds of non-task-relevant info and you’ll get more important, income-generating tasks done quicker.
4. Simplicity-there is definitely a freedom in ignorance. Less to think about, better sleep, less stress. Believe it or not, reading all those RSS feeds are probably driving you slowly insane. Simplicity breeds sanity in our fast-paced society.
5. Increased income-if would make sense that if you’re spending the majority of your time once you’ve eliminated all of the time spent consuming information working on income-generating tasks that your income will rise. Probably the key benefit to be found in selective ignorance coming as a result of the previously listed benefits.

Pros of Information Consumption

1. Synthesis of ideas-in Daniel Pink’s book, “A Whole New Mind”, he tells us that symphony is one of the aptitudes required for success in the coming Conceptual Age. Those that can integrate disparate ideas from seemingly different realms and come up with something totally new and innovative will be tomorrow’s success stories. The wider the breadth of information that you consume, the more opportunity for this type of synthetic thinking you will have.
2. Higher creativity-now I don’t mean this in the strictest sense of the word creativity because not everyone that reads a whole pile is creative. What I mean is that the wide range of information consumed by the consumer can lead to interesting applications in the business environment. Look at Steve Jobs reading the classics or Eric Reynolds, founder of Nau studying the lives of great leaders such as Gandhi and then applying those lessons into developing innovative business models.
3. Ease of networking-now some may say I’m going out on a limb here, but being well-read and being able to converse on a wide range of topics makes the networking process so much easier. How do you have a conversation when you have no idea what’s going on anywhere but within your own business? Not everyone wants to hear you talk about yourself.
4. Idea generation-reading, whether it be the newspaper, a book, or your Google Reader allows you to brainstorm and generate ideas that could be relevant to your business and personal life. Ideas don’t just pop out of nowhere.
5. Relaxation-there is nothing more relaxing than sitting outside on a nice day and reading a good old fiction book for fun. May not be goal or task-oriented but you need to relax once in a while.

Both schools of thought have their upsides.  It really depends on what works best for you.  If you find by limiting information and thus stimuli in your bipolar brain, you’re able to be more productive, than the low-information diet may be for you.  I myself value learning and growth very much and am constantly reading something new.  I will say however that most of what I read is related to my important tasks at the time.  Try both methods out for a few weeks each and compare your productivity and stress levels and see what works for you.