How to manage the internet’s endless stream of information

With an infinite well of information at our fingertips, it can sometimes feel like we should be an expert in everything. From the inner workings of world politics, to the latest viral sensation. From today’s legacy corporation to tomorrow’s nimble startup. I find myself spending more time concerned about what I am not reading than what I am.

What can be done to bring clarity to this chaos?

You are likely aware of the slew of tools out there that promise to make sense of the daily onslaught of new information. I have personal experience with Feedly, Instapaper, Twitter, Google Alerts and endless email newsletters. While each of these solutions offer a great service that work for a lot of people, they just didn’t do it for me. They would always be one tap too far and before long I was browsing a meaningless Facebook feed and hating myself for it.

I needed to break this cycle. I needed a system that was easy and accessible, without handing over the controls to someone else. What I found is dead simple, super flexible and doesn’t require any third-party apps or services.

Step 1: Identify 5–7 areas that you want to improve your awareness around

When have you found yourself in an interesting conversation but had nothing to add? It’s good to build your bank of knowledge for any social situation. Sharing information is one of the best ways to build relationships, both professionally and personally.

Think about the areas where you feel your own awareness may be lacking and want to improve.

Here is what I wrote down.

• Consumer Technology
• Longform Journalism
• User Experience Design
• Graphic Design
• Digital Publishing
• UK News and Current Affairs
• Opinion and Perspectives

Step 2: Find 2–5 of the best web sources for each area

At the moment even one of these topics may seem like a daunting behemoth of information that require hourly updates to keep up to speed. How on earth are you going to keep track of seven?!

Well first it’s important to accept it is physcially impossible to read every single thing written about a topic. So instead hone in on the sources that matter to you, identify the opinons you care about. Write a list of 2–5 online sources that provide quality commentary on each of your chosen subjects. If you don’t know of any — have a look around! These aren’t going to be set in stone, so if it turns out not to rock then you can replace it later.

Making these choices now saves you the hassle of making them later, and opting for a mindless social feed instead.

Mine are:

Consumer Technology

• WIRED
• The Next Web
• TechCrunch
• Re/code

Longform

• Longform.org
• Longreads
• Aeon

User Experience

• A List Apart
• UX Booth
• Boxes and Arrows
• The Usability Post
• UX Movement

Graphic Design Inspiration

• Behance
• Dribbble
• Product Hunt

Digital Publishing

• Talking New Media
• What’s New In Publishing
• Digiday

News

• BBC News
• Guardian
• BuzzFeed

Opinion

• Medium (obvs)
• Telegraph | Opinon
• TIME | Opinion

Step 3: Use bookmarks and folders to sort these sources into days of the week

Assign each topic a day of the week, and then create folders on your home screen containing all of the bookmarks and apps you need to satisfy your craving for new information. Put them everywhere, on your phone, on your tablet, on your desktop browser favourites bar. Anywhere you find yourself having a spare moment and want to find something to read.

Here are my new home screens!

iPhone Home Screen

iPad Home Screen

Step 4: Get rid of your other distractions

This system is not going to work if it is still much easier to get your immediate dopamine fix via a social app than a news source. The ultimate solution is to delete the apps entirely, but if that’s simply unthinkable, Tristan Harris offers some excellent advice on how to avoid or minimise distractions. This includes hiding the offending apps deep within other folders on a second page, cutting down notifications to those that actually matter and launching commonly-used utilities through Control Center. Even M.G.Seigler is experimenting with setting aside a dedicated hour each day just for email rather than letting it permeate every digital activity

In The Life Changing Magic of Tidying, Marie Kondo recommends picking up every item you own and asking yourself ‘Does this bring me true joy?’. I find it works the same way for digital commitments as well. I halved the channels I am subscribed to on YouTube after realising I watch them more for mindless time killing than actual enjoyment.

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As the opportunity cost of reading anything on the internet is literally everything else, it has become increasingly difficult to know what deserves your attention. By honing in on what really matters to you and accepting that you can’t know everything, this will help you overcome the anxiety that comes with being handed the keys to unlimited knowledge.

I am Adam Blades, a third-year university undergraduate looking to move into user experience. I love working with digital interactive experiences.

You can view my online portfolio at www.adamblades.com.