8 Information Equity Lifehacks
📜 Economics of the lifehacker's information diet
One of the greatest misconceptions in our age of mind-blowing technology is that "information is free" or wants to be.
Information is actually one of the most expensive things in the world and no matter how much money you have you'll never be able to afford as much of it as you need.
If you haven't guessed already, the cost of information consumption is time and attention - our two most limited resources. Which are almost always better spent on the things that really matter in life; relationships, health, and fulfilling work. Most information consumption is an inefficient use of these resources considering the limited short-term memory we humans have, the vast majority of this information just gets absorbed into our subconscious, to reemerge blurred and convoluted by our emotions at the moment.Â
I would even go as far as to say that generations past had it better because information had more tangible costs; a $300 encyclopedia volume that took up an entire shelf in your living room, a 10-pound yellow pages directory, or hundreds of documents in a complicated filing system. The trouble of extracting knowledge from these forms of media meant that the seeker made sure it was going to be worth their while.
Let's get practical here...
As an entrepreneur and marketing consultant, I make about $125/hourly (more if I account for the continuity of my cryptocurrency investing and affiliate revenues). Since I'm fast, it takes me 15 minutes to skim a decent blog and watch a Youtube video on a subject (and remember the 80/20 principle, I probably need to skim more than this to learn what I need to).
This has a finite time cost to me of about $32.
I'm going to have to work overtime to cover the time spent consuming information so it's cost me another 15 minutes that should be spent enjoying the life I'm working so damn hard for.
Like you, I only have about 8-10 hours of productive mental energy a day. Active, applicable-information consumption takes at least twice the mental energy of doing work (and sometimes it's a much greater gap, depending upon what you do).
Those 15 minutes cost me 30 minutes of mental energy; 30 minutes stolen from the energy that could have been devoted to actual work.
Keep in mind this example is for just 15 minutes of information consumption, sometimes we spend hours a day!
If I'm going to treat my time as money and my knowledge as potential power it becomes clear that I need to be getting equity above and beyond the value of the knowledge I am getting to cover the high cost of acquiring it. Whenever I engage in information consumption I am putting myself in a position of information inequity. I need to be selective about what I pay attention to...
This why I don't watch popular TV shows.
I don't watch sports.
I turn movies off after 30-minutes if they aren't amazing.
We live in an interesting time where there is this massive disparity between the amount of information we can consume and the amount of time we have to do it. Our success, individually and culturally, over the next century will be decided not by the amount of knowledge we acquire but by our ability to leverage the value of it.
Anyways, enough philosophical mumbo jumbo (I hope you love it, you voracious consumer of information, you!)Â
Let’s now cover seven ways of increasing the equity and value you get from your information consumption, including task batching, mental segregation, and using memory triggers.
How to increase information equity
Task batching in combination with passive information consumption
Separate your work into two categories...
Creative/mental energy-consuming tasksÂ
Examples: blogging, negotiating, sales calls, designing, meetings, strategizing, planning, communicating with other people, etc
Monotonous or repetitive tasks which require little mental energyÂ
Examples: responding to emails, organizing paperwork, data entry, etc
Plan your monotonous tasks at the end of the day when your mental energy is low and batch the most similar, monotonous tasks one after another. While you are doing this consume information passively. Here are my top favorite forms of passive information consumption...
Listening to podcasts – Which you download free from Apple Podcasts or Castbox.fm - my favorite podcast app.
 Watching documentary films – About history, science, travel, conspiracy theories - whatever I'm curious about at the moment. Top Documentary Films has +3000 documentary films which you can watch for free.
 Youtube - I'll create an hour or two-long playlist about whatever subject interests me.Â
 Listening to audiobooks – If you don't want to pay for an Audible membership, the Castbox app has a huge library of public-domain audiobooks.
Memory triggers
When you consume a piece of particularly valuable information use a memory trigger to make sure that information is benefiting you at some point in the future. For example:
Sometime within the next month, you are going to be having a conversation with someone about blogging and you are going to use the phrase information equity (it’s going to make you seem really smart!) Here’s the memory trigger you are going to use...
Memory Trigger: the word blog
Association Stream: every time you hear the word blog think blah > Then imagine a person’s mouth making an ‘O’ shape as they say blah-blah-blah > Now imagine a fraction sign inside their mouth (which is making a zero shape) > That zero represents the amount of information equity their blogging creates.
Reinforce the mental association: Mentally say the word blog, then mentally yell at yourself BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! (while visualizing the mouth). Do this 3 times (should take about 30 seconds).
Initially forming these memory triggers will feel a little odd and will take some mental energy and creativity but as you do them more often it will become natural and automatic.
Application-based information consumption
I highly recommend a top-down approach to your information consumption. Start with the end in mind; clearly identify a problem or issue you are having. Determine first whether it’s a definitive solution problem or an ambiguous solution problem. Here are some examples to illustrate the difference...
Definitive Solution Problem: How do I set up a Facebook fan page?
Ambiguous Solution Problem: How do improve my online presence for my small business?
For an ambiguous solution problem, I would use a forum or consultant and describe your problem specifically so you can get answers tailored to your specific situation.
Quora - Quora is a forum-style website where you can post questions about a wide variety of topics. Often you'll get responses to your questions from very well-educated people with years of relevant experience. I prefer to use forums like this to let the information I need come to me as opposed to chasing it. This can save a lot of time over searching blogs for what you need. Follow me here on Quora.
Reddit - Is a hive of scum and villainy online but, there might be some decent subreddits devoted to the topic of your inquiry. Share your question in multiple subreddits that don't seem to be total "cults of the amateur." Do join the Limitless Mindset subreddit.
Forums - For nearly every topic under the sun there are internet forums. Forums can actually be pretty decent places to connect with and question people who know what they are talking about. My favorite is the antiaging forum Longecity.org connect with me there.
Mental segregation between infotainment and learningÂ
We spend an increasing amount of time consuming information for pleasure. It’s important to put up a mental wall between the times of the day and hours that are spent on productive activities and the time that’s spent enjoying the life you are working so damn hard for. Infotainment during work hours will distract you from getting things done. So make sure that information consumption during work hours is directly related to improving work.Â
Do It, Delegate It, Dump It
We all have dozens of activities on our mental to-do lists. It’s important to put these activities into three categories...
Do It – You should ideally have under five activities that you need to accomplish in a day. Schedule committed time to these activities.
Delegate It – Pass this activity off to someone who works for you or a colleague.Â
Dump It – What’s the worst that could happen if you don’t do this activity? If it’s not that bad, dump it.
Accountability
Find a partner who holds you accountable for following through on finishing the things you start. Let your accountability partner know you have invested your time in information consumption and commit to them that you will do whatever it takes to follow through.
Practice discipline and persistence!
You thought this blog was all about clever ways of hacking life? Nope! Whenever you consume knowledge make a mental commitment to yourself that you will put this knowledge to valuable use. Make sure you have a specific plan to do so and then follow through!
As an MP3 listener with good taste, you'll want to check out the Limitless Mindset podcast.Â
It's a little different than formulaic self-help podcasts that you've probably already listened to - I do deep-dive rigorous audio presentations on health, science, mindset, and philosophy that I think you'll find stimulating and provocative.
One of the very most effective ways to increase your mind power is to hit the gym or do cardio exercises consistently. Listening to the Limitless Mindset podcast while working out is an excellent idea for several reasons...
If you listen to the podcast while working at the office, commuting, or running errands that's better than not listening at all. However, while doing these tasks you are not going to be giving full attention to the content of the podcast.
While exercise should be physically stimulating, it usually is not very mentally stimulating. By listening to the Limitless Mindset podcast while working out you will be giving your brain a workout also.
The podcast is usually between 45-60 minutes so it's about the same length of time as you spend working out.
And check out this documentary I made about my high-leverage information diet...
Information-aholics, avail thyself of even more awesome learning lifehacks here...