One of the greatest misconceptions in our age of mind-blowing technology is that "information is free" or wants to be.
Information is actually one of the most expensive things in the world, and no matter how much money you have, you'll never be able to afford as much of it as you need.
I would even go as far as to say that generations past had it better because the information had more tangible costs: a $300 encyclopedia volume that took up an entire shelf in your living room, a 10-pound Yellow Pages directory, or hundreds of documents in a complicated filing system. The trouble of extracting knowledge from these forms of media meant that the seeker made sure it was going to be worth their while.
Let's get practical here...
As an entrepreneur and Applied Neuroscience Strategist, I make about $125/hour (more if I account for the continuity of my cryptocurrency investing and affiliate revenues). Since I'm fast, it takes me 15 minutes to skim a decent blog and watch a YouTube video on a subject (and remember the 80/20 principle; I probably need to skim more than this to learn what I need to).
This has a finite time costto me of about $32.
- I'm going to have to work overtime to cover the time spent consuming information, so it's cost me another 15 minutes that should be spent enjoying the life I'm working so damn hard for.
- Like you, I only have about 8-10 hours of productive mental energy a day. Active, applicable information consumption takes at least twice the mental energy of doing work (and sometimes, it's a much greater gap, depending upon what you do).
- Those 15 minutes cost me 30 minutes of mental energy; 30 minutes stolen from the energy that could have been devoted to actual work.
Keep in mind that this example is for just 15 minutes of information consumption; sometimes, we spend hours a day!
If I treat my time as money and my knowledge as potential power, it becomes clear that I need to get equity above and beyond the value of the knowledge I am getting to cover the high cost of acquiring it. Whenever I engage in information consumption, I put myself in a position of information inequity. I need to be selective about what I pay attention to...
- This is why I don't watch popular TV shows.
- I don't watch sports.
- I turn movies off after 30 minutes if they aren't amazing.
We live in an interesting time where there is this massive disparity between the amount of information we can consume and the amount of time we have to do it. Our success, individually and culturally, over the next century will be decided not by the amount of knowledge we acquire but by our ability to leverage it.
Anyway, enough philosophical mumbo jumbo (I hope you love it, you voracious consumer of information!) This article delves into practical ways to increase information equity...
7 Hacks for High-ROI Information Diet
Weāve discussed the dynamic of information equity. Letās now cover seven ways of increasing the equity and value you get from your information consumption, including task batching, mental segregation, and using memory triggers.
How to increase information equity...
**Task Batching in Combination With Passive Information Consumption
\ Separate Your Work Into Two Categories...
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Creative/mental energy-consuming tasks |
Monotonous or repetitive tasks that require little mental energy |
|---|---|
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Examples: blogging, negotiating, sales calls, designing, meetings, strategizing, planning, communicating with other people, etc. |
Examples: responding to emails, organizing paperwork, data entry, etc. |
Plan your monotonous tasks at the end of the day when your mental energy is low and batch the most similar, monotonous tasks one after another. While you are doing this, consume information passively. Here are my top favorite forms of passive information consumption...
- Listening to podcasts ā Which you download free from Apple Podcasts or Castbox.fm - my favorite podcast app.
- Watching documentary films ā About history, science, travel, conspiracy theories - whatever I'm curious about at the moment. Top Documentary Films has +3000 documentary films, which you can watch for free.
- Online video (YouTube, Rumble, Odysee) - I'll create an hour or two-long playlist about whatever subject interests me.
- Listening to audiobooks ā If you don't want to pay for an Audible membership, the Castbox app has a huge library of public-domain audiobooks. Or you can use the excellent ElevenReader app to convert any PDF or Epub book into an audiobook; the AI narration is damn near the quality of a professional human narration.
Memory Triggers
When you consume a piece of particularly valuable information, use a memory trigger to make sure that information is benefiting you at some point in the future. For example:
Sometime within the next month, you are going to be having a conversation with someone about blogging and you are going to use the phrase information equity (itās going to make you seem really smart!) Hereās the memory trigger you are going to use...
Memory Trigger: the word blog
Association Stream: every time you hear the word blog think blah > Then imagine a personās mouth making an āOā shape as they say *blah-blah-blah **> ***Now imagine a fraction sign inside their mouth (which is making a zero shape) > That zero represents the amount of information equity their blogging creates.
Reinforce the mental association: Mentally say the word blog, then mentally yell at yourself *BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! (*while visualizing the mouth). Do this 3 times (should take about 30 seconds).
Initially, forming these memory triggers will feel a little odd and will take some mental energy and creativity, but as you do them more often, it will become natural and automatic.
Application-Based Information Consumption
I highly recommend a top-down approach to your information consumption. Start with the end in mind; clearly identify a problem or issue you are having. Determine first whether itās a definitive solution problem or an ambiguous solution problem. Here are some examples to illustrate the difference...
Definitive Solution Problem: How do I set up a Facebook fan page?
Ambiguous Solution Problem: How do I improve my online presence for my small business?
For an ambiguous solution problem, I would use a forum or consultant and describe your problem specifically so you can get answers tailored to your specific situation.
Quora - Quora is a forum-style website where you can post questions about a wide variety of topics. Often, you'll get responses to your questions from very well-educated people with years of relevant experience. I prefer to use forums like this to let the information I need come to me as opposed to chasing it. This can save a lot of time over searching blogs for what you need. Follow me here on Quora.
Reddit - This is a hive of scum and villainy online, but there might be some decent subreddits devoted to the topic of your inquiry. Share your question in multiple subreddits that don't seem to be total "cults of the amateur."
Forums - For nearly every topic under the sun, there are internet forums. Forums can actually be pretty decent places to connect with and question people who know what they are talking about. My favorite is the antiaging forum Longecity.org; connect with me there.
**Mental Segregation Between Infotainment and Learning
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We spend an increasing amount of time-consuming information for pleasure. Itās important to put up a mental wall between the times of the day and hours that are spent on productive activities and the time thatās spent enjoying the life you are working so damn hard for.
Infotainment during work hours will distract you from getting things done. So, make sure that information consumption during work hours is directly related to improving work.
Do It, Delegate It, Dump It
We all have dozens of activities on our mental to-do lists. Itās important to put these activities into three categories...
Do It ā You should ideally have under five activities that you need to accomplish in a day. Schedule committed time to these activities.
Delegate It ā Pass this activity off to someone who works for you or a colleague.
Dump It ā Whatās the worst that could happen if you donāt do this activity? If itās not that bad, dump it.
**Accountability
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Find a partner who holds you accountable for following through on finishing the things you start. Let your accountability partner know you have invested your time in information consumption and commit to them that you will do whatever it takes to follow through.
Practice Discipline and Persistence!
Did you think this blog was just about shortcuts and clever ways of hacking life?Nope! Whenever you consume knowledge, make a mental commitment to yourself that you will put this knowledge to valuable use. Make sure you have a specific plan to do so, and then follow through!