Leaving in a fast moving world I started to think about slowing down more often. I feel that year after year I consume more and more information. This is not necessarily useful information. Even when it is, oftentimes it’s just too much of info.
So I started to include into my days more habits which make my life slower and decrease information load that I have.
The ways to slow down information consumption which I use include:
- Use phone consciously. Nowadays smartphone is our closest gateway to the world of internet. It’s easy to get distracted from task at hand when new notification arrives and get derailed for tenth of minutes. Or just mindlessly browse in the phone. I have two major habits to limit these problems. First of all I keep my smartphone away from myself when I’m at home. It just lays at secondary desk. Secondly, I configure my phone to have minimum notifications either restricting app or limiting notification types app is allowed to use.
- Reading instead of watching. By it’s nature reading is slower, it involves less distractions (especially when reading a book or web article in reader text-only mode), it triggers more thoughts. One more thing is that text is scannable. It’s easy to come back and reread specific part. Also it’s easy to scan ahead and assert if I want to read it deeply. With video this is much harder to do.
- Lying down calmly. It’s good to have a reset period in the middle of the day. Many people advocate to have a nap. I guess this is great idea, but unfortunately napping doesn’t happen to me. At the same time I can simply lie down with my eyes closed for 10-15 minutes. During this time I try to don’t think about anything and just relax.
- Spend more time outside. Fresh air and sun are beneficial for brain and health. I find being outside whether it is a walk or just sitting in chair helpful to switch from running tasks to calm mode. For a long time I was living in a big city with crowds of people on the streets. So I used to go to the nearest park. Currently I live in a town and can simply walk around neighbourhood or spend time at backyard.
I slow down not to regain focus and recharge, but for state of mind. I’m looking for stressless life. So far I’m not there although I see it coming along my way.