Low-information diet

I did two major things to create more free time at work and at home.

First, I stopped reading and watching news. Before, I used to read over a dozen news websites and blogs every morning. It took more than an hour to go through all that stuff. Now I am instantly available to work as soon as I reach office. The result, I finish all my tasks before lunch and rest of the day is free to be utilized on my personal projects. I don’t feel like missing anything by not reading news. I get to find out what’s happing in the world by participating in discussions etc with friends.

Second, I cut my reading list by half. Now I only read blogs that are directly related to me or my profession or my interest. Everything else is noise and hence eliminated. Again, I am truly enjoying the free time.

In addition to that, I configured MS outlook to check for new emails once in an hour. Previously it was set to download new messages every minute. Getting new emails all the time was very distracting, and most of them were not that important to be read immediately. So now I can concentrate more on my work without any interruptions. This is productivity at its best.

Another good side effect of reducing the unimportant is that my mind is more relaxed than ever before. Previously, in my quest to know everything going on the world, I was always stressed out. Now I am at peace and I am loving it.

Operating elimination is working.