Mindfulness - The Key to Success⚑

This originated as a ramble on the topic of Mindfulness during a long walk while listening to the Focused podcast on Information Overload.

Related: Information Overload | Collectors Fallacy | Productivity | Personal Knowledge Management | Building a Second Brain

Mindlessness and the Problems it Creates⚑

The problems stemming from a lack of staying mindful and in-tune with one's actions have tremendous negative consequences, yet the ease of falling down the path of Information Overload & The Rabbit Hole Trap is seemingly more difficult than ever to avoid.

Elaboration of a Typical Mindless Endeavor⚑

To elaborate, when faced with a problem requiring a creative solution or decision, my first instinct is to immediately outsource to outside help online.

This occurs on both complex, abstract problems which require innovative solutions as well as extremely simple and insignificant decisions. (i.e what should I name this folder, or what is the indisputably perfect way to organize my task list, etc).

A typical rabbit hole trap situation usually follows a progression similar to as follows:

  1. I am faced with a problem - could be small, big, difficult, urgent, irrelevant - it doesn't matter.
  2. The brain triggers an amazing new opportunity to learn some new and life changing solution and the best way to find this solution is online via the infinite wisdom of the almighty internet.
  3. Start searching and hoarding information on Google, Reddit, etc. initially for a solution
  4. See another interesting way to solve the problem and then another interesting, cool piece of information shows up about a new app with a word that triggers another spark that I resonate with.
  5. Usually in a way that has nothing to do with initial reason for researching!
  6. Have overloaded browser full of tabs, wasted money on useless new products, cloudy brain that has forgotten what the initial purpose actually was and no sense of clarity because the desired outcome has now become completely blurred by overload.
  7. Realize that hours upon hours have passed, my brain is fatigued, and I've lost touch with my days purpose. I forget to eat, sleep, exercise and keep in touch with those I love and respect.

Mindfulness as Your Guiding Compass⚑

Brain First, Results Later⚑

Mindfulness requires more than action, it require deep behavioral and psychological strength and stability to build up over time. In other words, change the way you think in order to think about the ways you act.

Trust Your First Brain⚑

Recently, there has been a surge around the realm of Personal Knowledge Management and Building a Second Brain.

As much as I personally enjoy these topics, I have found that the exciting pursuit of new information and knowledge can interfere with my ability to simply get things done.

It is important to realize that our brains are fundamentally different, and much more sophisticated and talented, than a system such as the internet which simply hoards data in different ways.

The brain derives knowledge in a much more involved process, through molding and restructuring networked thoughts resulting in a curation of a creative, personalized knowledge store built from past lessons-learned and one's previously built skillsets and education.

Context is King⚑

When faced with situational problems to solve throughout the day, think about the context in which you placed yourself to find a solution.

If the problem you are facing or the lesson you are trying to learn needs external research: it is easy to take the road most traveled and scavange the internet for the perfect, elegant solution. However these attempts to find the perfect solution, more often than not are either:

  1. Too simplistic, vague, and shallow to be helpful or
  2. Too specific, abstract, and opinionated
  3. Too complex given your original problem does not need an overly complex solution.

There's a reason for this and it's that my problem is specific to the context in which I am faced with it and nobody online it dealing with the exact same issue in the exact same context as me.

The Problem with Vagueness⚑

Online articles are rarely specific and are purposefully more vague in order to cause one to expand their horizons, avoiding the initial endeavor, and allowing for an easy target to click bait.

Aside from the adds the simple links in articles to every ephemeral resource related to nothing helpful become the golden solution to all your problems.

Concluding Thoughts⚑

Counterintuitive and often simple solutions frequently solve the grandest farthest reaching problems. Thinking and forcing deep mental endeavors is more valuable, healthy, and efficient than deciding to find an easy, shallow, thoughtless solution.

Irrational thinking due to addiction to technology and information. Dive deeper into the things I am already pursuing myself. Stop consuming redundant information phrased differently. Instead, building on what I already know and using the resources I have mentally retained due to actual helpfulness stems a much quicker and elegant solution.

Instead of always reverting to online resources - stay mindful and in-tune with your own personal priorities. Don't try and solve everything at once, but tackle one thing at a time and be disciplined in your fight against mindlessness.

Stay mindful and you will find your pursuit of knowledge becomes a deeper, more interesting journey that is specific to your own personal way of thinking and though processes.

Collecting and hoarding others information online is not a good use of time and is a direct result of one's lack of confidence, issues with perfectionism, and an unwillingness to finish what you start through procrastination. See The Collectors Fallacy.

Anyways, Ramble complete.

  1. A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος gûros, "circle" and σκοπέω skopéō, "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. ↩