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Creating a Healthy Information Diet

Wisdom in an age of endless noise

We’re all force-fed information now. Nobody asks if you’re hungry.

The average person consumes 34GB of data daily—equivalent to 174 newspapers—yet somehow feels less informed and more anxious than ever. That’s not a consumption problem. It’s a digestion problem.

I woke up last Tuesday with the familiar itch. Within seconds, I’d reached for my iPhone, unconsciously opening Twitter before my feet even hit the floor. Forty-five minutes later, I’d consumed dozens of half-formed opinions, several outrage-inducing headlines, and a smattering of clever memes.

What I hadn’t done was write a single word. Or think a single original thought.

Sound familiar?

Your information diet shapes your thinking more profoundly than most realize. Just as processed foods devastate physical health while making you crave more, low-quality information damages cognitive health while leaving you perpetually unsatisfied.

It’s time to reclaim your mind.

The Information Obesity Epidemic

We’ve become information hoarders, not information hunters. And like most hoarding, it stems from fear—fear of missing out, fear of irrelevance, fear of being uninformed.

Three realities about our current consumption patterns:

  1. Quantity has obliterated quality. We scan hundreds of headlines but deeply read almost nothing.
  2. Urgency has replaced importance. Breaking news trumps timeless wisdom.
  3. Reaction has replaced reflection. We consume to respond, not to understand.

The consequences are predictable but devastating: fragmented attention, shallow thinking, increased anxiety, and—ironically—worse decision-making despite more information.

Too many inputs becomes no signal at all. Just noise.

Digital Nutrition Labels (What You’re Really Consuming)

Not all information is created equal. Before overhauling your diet, understand what’s actually feeding your mind:

Junk Information (Limit Severely)

Processed Information (Consume Moderately)

Whole Information (Prioritize)

The Four-Step Information Diet Reboot

1. The 72-Hour Information Fast

Begin with a complete reset. For three days:

Instead:

This detox breaks the dopamine loop and resets your information hunger cues. You’ll feel anxious at first, then bored, then—finally—clear.

“The noise becomes obvious only when you step away from it,” as a creative director told me after completing this fast. “I realized half of what I was reading was making me think other people’s thoughts.”

2. Define Your Information Goals

Before diving back in, ask yourself:

Write these down. Be ruthless. “Staying informed” is not a goal; it’s a phantom obligation that keeps creative professionals in a state of anxious paralysis.

3. Design Your Inputs

Now build a deliberate diet based on your goals:

Daily (15-30 minutes)

Weekly (2-3 hours)

Monthly (4-6 hours)

For Apple users, leverage:

4. Implement Processing Practices

Consumption without processing creates information indigestion. For creators and entrepreneurs, implement these habits:

A filmmaker I work with uses Apple Notes with tags to organize her processed information. Each note contains the source, her one-sentence summary, key highlights, and specific applications to her current project. “This turned random reading into a deliberate creative resource,” she explained.

From Consumer to Creator: The Final Transformation

The ultimate goal isn’t just better consumption—it’s transformation from consumer to creator.

Information should be fuel, not entertainment. Its value isn’t in acquisition but in application.

Ask of everything you consume:

The hard truth is that most information fails these tests. That’s okay. The world will keep producing it whether you consume it or not.

Your capacity to create valuable output depends directly on the quality—not quantity—of your inputs. And your mental health improves when you consume deliberately rather than reactively.

The Real-World Impact

When I overhauled my information diet last year:

These aren’t small changes. They’re life-altering.

An artist who followed this system told me: “I stopped filling my creative well with sewage and started filling it with spring water. Suddenly I could see the difference in what flowed out.”

Your mind is built from the information you feed it. Feed it trash, and you’ll think trash thoughts. Feed it wisdom, and you’ll develop wisdom.

Start Now

Don’t wait for the perfect system. Begin with these three steps today:

  1. Delete the most distracting app from your phone for 72 hours
  2. Set a 30-minute timer and read something substantive with your full attention
  3. Write down three information sources that make you feel worse after consuming them

The world will keep shouting. The notifications will keep coming. The headlines will keep breaking.

But you don’t have to listen to all of it.

Your attention isn’t just a resource—it’s the raw material of your creative life. Guard it as fiercely as you would guard the most precious thing you own. Because it is.

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Mind Management