partake in a media diet

Okay, the 10 minutes an hour thing worked for a week, but didn’t really feel worthwhile enough to continue this week.

I think the real issue with media consumption is the tendency for it to turn us into compulsive multi-taskers. Speeding through tasks, switching tasks during lulls, intolerant of a thought that lasts longer than a moment, etc.

So, this week, I’m trying a new thing. One thing at a time. If I’m working on something, work on it without multi-tasking. If I’m surfing the web, surf it until the wave ends, then stop. No need to hop waves and live in a crazy chaotic whirlwind of snippets of information.

One thing at a time. I’ll try that this week and see if it’s any better.

I’m only going to surf my favorite update-heavy websites in the first 10 minutes of every hour. These sites include, but aren’t limited to: Twitter, Live Journal, Flickr, Facebook, Google Reader, and Tumblr.

I’m also turning off all email notifications, and any Twitter desktop notification apps I have.

The point of the media diet is to reclaim my brain. Especially my daytime working brain. The overload of update-heavy input has me switching sites every 5 minutes in order to see if anything new is posted. It’s like painting the Golden Gate Bridge, and will never end.

Much better to reclaim my brain and miss a few updates or links here and there.

I’ll try this out this week and see how well it works.