Reducing The Noise

Over the past week or so my friend, Jeremy, has been saying that his New Year’s Resolution will be, “Less Email, More Creating.” To be honest, my mind has been contemplating all the ways that I can reduce various noise in my life. In September of this year, I was subscribed to or following countless blogs, was following over 250 people on Twitter, and read every email that came my way (including advertisements). Noise at its finest distracting me from what my clients were paying me to do – work.

“We are already the most overinformed, underreflective people in the history of civilization.”
– Robert Kegan & Lisa Lahey / Harvard-based psychologists

Beginning sometime in late October, I went through and cut out 80% of my favorite blogs and Tumblr follows. On top of that, I went through the 250 people I followed on Twitter and reduced it down to about 60 people. Because I didn’t want to completely lose connection to those I followed, I created a private list that I like to call “Unfollowed”. It’s a simple idea: Everyone of the almost 200 people I unfollowed, I added to that list so that I could “check in” whenever I wasn’t so busy. Of course people complained, but really, very few. Because I “checked in” every couple of days, I really didn’t miss much, and if there was something said that I wanted to respond to, easy – I just responded to it.

In late November, I still felt crowded. Too much noise. A problem I noticed in the beginning was that no single tweet or blog post or email had the ability to truly inspire me because there was simply too much going on at once.. So, I quit following more people and moved them to that “unfollowed” list. I got down to following about 35 people for a week or two. I am now down to following 39 people on Twitter.

Implementing this idea of “noise reduction” has definitely helped me get more work done and has honestly added value to the few things I check up on, whether it is Twitter, blogs, websites, etc. I would strongly encourage you to take the time to sit down and think about what “noise” you have in your own life and remove anything that’s not necessary to help you become a truly better individual.

Here are some practical steps that you can take to help you reduce your noise:

1. Figure out what noise does not benefit you or inspire you. Remember, noise can be people you follow on Twitter, books you are reading, and blogs or websites you’re following often.
2. Remove said noise. If you can’t quit cold turkey (which I would recommend), then create a list of items that you could at least check/read less often and move the noise to that list. Begin with not checking that list for 2-3 days. See if you don’t truly need it.
3. As you find new inspirations, new friends, whatever, don’t feel guilty following them. However, review #1 and figure out if there is noise that you are allowing into your life that you can remove.

Lastly, I want leave you with a video from my buddy, Grant. It’s a short video. 3 minutes. You can handle it. Have a great day.

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