Naiman Labs newsletter #40. It's time to become cleaner and healthier. Digitally.

We live in the world of information overload. Too easy to distract, too much information and more importantly too much low-quality fake information. And it is getting harder and harder to distinguish fakes from reality.

I am sure we all know this feeling. You are working on something and suddenly you receive a notification. You open it, click on a link. Before you know it you’re scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. You have already watched 10+ short videos, you have read one tragic headline after another. 15 min later, your brain is fogged and you don’t even remember what was that information you saw 10 min ago.

It is quite common. Several studies indicate that we spend over an hour each day scrolling aimlessly. This mindless scrolling directly contributes to increased stress levels, heightened anxiety, and decreased productivity.

We intentionally sabotage our productivity by spending several hours on some meaningless scrolling. And even more, this scrolling affects us by hurting our brain and health.

I am terrible at this. I get distracted quite easily and I can easily dive into scrolling. Not only doomscrolling with bad news, but also with endless stream of short videos, stories and other posts.

I want to fight with this bad habit. So here is my short-term plan.

My plan of action to improve my digital hygiene:

📵 No phone for 30 minutes before I am going to bed. This is my bad habit. Even though I know people have proven that not touching your phone before going to bed positively affects your mood and increases the quality of your sleep, I'm still doing this. I may easily find myself checking Instagram or reading some articles in bed. So, I am about to change this and want to create a 30-minute block of time before bed. I have already noticed that, whenever I replace phone with a book I feel much more relaxed in the evening, so it’s definitely worth it.

☀️ No phone for 30 minutes after waking up. More importantly, no social media for the first 30 minutes after waking up. I used to be the one who checked Instagram and Telegram right after I opened my eyes. I try not to do this anymore. I think it's okay to read an article in the morning, but not dive into the infinite pool of social media. Now I allow myself just to read an article that i previously saved in Reader, but no social media.

📚 Expert reading instead of social media. This has become dramatically more important for me over the recent weeks. There is too much fake and unreliable information online. Social media are full of fake news, which can affect judgment and easily increase stress levels. So, I decided to identify several experts and media sources I trust. I have been following and checking only those sources. There are great experts with YouTube channels, blogs, and newsletters. I believe it is much better, more productive, and healthier to follow them and trust their expertise instead of checking newsfeeds.

❌ This point is actually 3a. Cleaning the Feed. I unfollowed multiple accounts. I removed most of the accounts I considered a source of disturbance and anxiety. Not only the accounts but various chats as well. From time to time I just look at my feed and analyse if I enjoy this content, if I check this often, if I get something useful or positive. If not - unfollow. This feels great! Try this too. Replace them with ones that enrich and uplift you.

🌱 Digital detox. This is something I have wanted to try for quite a long time. I have some friends who do it regularly; they switch off their phones for a weekend. I will start small and I am gonna start with a "blocked" evening. Let's say no phone on Friday night.

📒 Capture what matters. We live overloaded with information, so it is important to capture and save the valuable or potentially valuable pieces of information rather than trying to remember it all or consume it all. I liked the approach described in the "Building a Second Brain" book. The author suggests highlighting 10% of the reading material, meaning this will be 10% of the most important, most valuable information. Summarize and underline another 10% of these highlights. In this way, we can capture and save the most important information and be less overloaded.

I believe it is just too noisy today. It's too easy to claim something, pretend to know something, present oneself as an expert, and share without considering the consequences. This creates a huge volume of low-quality information overload. Let's be kind to ourselves and take care of our digital hygiene.

I hope my plan of action inspires you to try it for yourself.

Let me know if it works for you or if you have more ideas or hacks to try.

🛠️ Try it out:

Just 2 quick hacks before you go:

• AI-or-Not: This service can identify if content is AI-generated or not. Try it out here. You can try this and check this newsletter 😉

• Bias-o-Meter: An extension that measures bias and propaganda in content. Get it here.

Have a great week everyone!