If you’re anything like me, you read the news sporadically throughout the day.
Ten minutes here, half an hour there. Lunchtime, bedtime, any time.
Books? Who in their right mind reads a book for five minutes? You’ve gotta have a big chunk of time with no distractions, work, or family pressures, if you wanna read a book. Definitely not in the middle of the day, there’s just too much going on. Ideal conditions, please. No promises otherwise. Okay, maybe no promises at all.
Since news is such a “snackable” thing, it easily derails activities that require more focus and discipline. For example, when I set aside two hours to read a book, I occasionally slip back into the news rabbit hole: “I’ll just check what’s going on. Ten minutes won’t hurt.” Then, before I know it, an hour’s passed. No, wait, that was two hours. I might as well keep sorting through my 100+ tabs and get to that book tomorrow when I’m definitely not going to step on this rake again.
You already know how tomorrow turns out, and just like that, your reading diet turns into a fast food cesspit.
But the news doesn’t have to be a pathologically on-the-go activity.
Here’s how you can change that:
Give yourself permission to be slightly late to the party. There are current events and there’s analysis. Both have a place in a balanced information diet, but I do my best not to skew to the former. When you follow the cycle too closely, right as developments unfold, you expose yourself to too much emotions and too little processing. But when you shun breaking news and read later in the day, you get to save time, keep your head cool and enjoy leaner, calmer coverage with a stronger emphasis on “why” and “what does it mean” rather than on “what.”
Read books before the news. I don’t know about you, but I’ve found myself incapable of reading a book before bed (maybe video games and Netflix are too powerful an alternative). So, if I don’t read a book before 2-3 pm, there’s a 99% chance I won’t get to it at all. Besides, swallowing short articles puts me in an agitated state where a book seems like too much of a commitment. I find it psychologically hard to switch the mindset (exactly why I write first thing every day, too). Like vegetables taste bland after eating fast food, the same way my racing mind becomes weary of digesting “serious” reading later in the day. To avoid this effect, I try to do the slow and reflective first, and leave no-time-to-think-just-drive content for later when my key tasks are already completed.
A meal in its own right, not a snack on the go. None of the above means news is unimportant. And that’s exactly why it should get a dedicated time block of its own. I find that if I read the news mindfully rather than gobbling it up on the go, I get to actually think about what I’m consuming. So, I bundle the news with blogs and newsletters and they get a separate block of time.
Maintain emotional hygiene. When you use a concentrated approach, you get to process emotions better and limit their impact on your other activities. Just look at this screenshot from a study on sentiment changes in headlines across 20 years. The graphs clearly show that the news packs a much greater emotional punch these days. Unsurprisingly, this charge skewed heavily toward negativity, even pre-pandemic. My take is that if you spray the news all over your day, you set yourself up for mood swings and an unneeded impact on your overall well-being and productivity. On the other hand, when you read the news in a focused way, emotions, at least to me, stay limited to this designated time block and are easier to control with a cool head.
Treat it like an asset. Liability approach: “I have to read this to be in the know. Can’t afford to fall behind.” Asset approach: “I get to access a wealth of info in nearly real time. I better use it wisely.” What is a good news article or a blog post if not a compressed idea trove? Especially when we’re talking about analysis, not current events. News does serve a purpose. I use it as fodder for tweets, blog posts, copy, better analogies, business insights and on, and on, and on. Plus, getting exposed to tidings outside of my own industry yields new viewpoints on how I can do my own thing better. I’m sure that’s worth taking seriously.
In the end, it doesn’t even matter if you read, watch, or listen to the news. I’m used to reading, but I’m sure these tips work just as well for almost any medium. And, of course, you don’t have to follow my playbook mechanically. Many people prefer to read the news in the morning and books just before bed. It’s totally fine as long as you avoid mindless consumption and shield your key processes from the “bad side” of the news.
It’s not surprising to realize that the internet transformed the news into the fast food of reading. The overwhelm with too much information and its deteriorating average quality caused its catastrophic devaluation. But if you want to escape overwhelm and negativity and be on top of things, rather than the other way around, you must break free of the immediacy and constant snacking. Yes, a lot depends on your choice of sources and quality curation, but there are so many ways to turn the news from a productivity drain to a meaningful asset.
Don’t pass them up.