I bet you at some point in life worried about your diet, and what food you eat.
And that’s important, but let me ask you:
Have you ever worried about your ‘content diet’ and the information you consume on the internet?
It’s often overlooked these days, but extremely important.
In the same way you are what you eat , you become what you read.
Feed your brain junk content and you get thoughts and results.
Feed your brain quality content and you get quality thoughts and results.
Let’s roll:
1. Content Audit
The first step in building your ‘content diet’ system is what I call doing a Content Audit:
- What channels do you currently get your information from? Social media? TV? Youtube? TikTok? Newsletters? Podcasts? X?
- If you were to rate those channels from 1 to 10 in terms of quality (the actual value it add to your life besides just killing time) how’d you rate them?
- Is it educational, entertaining, or edutaining (a mix of both)?
Choosing to prioritize what type of content adds value to your life is something personal that only you can determine.
If you really enjoy watching some kind of entertaining content, and it adds value and joy to your life, maybe you shouldn’t stop consuming it.
What you should stop watching is all the content that you watch that doesn’t really add value to your life.
Long-form content (like this newsletter) tends to provide more value by its nature, so it’s something to consider prioritizing over short-form content like TikTok or YouTube Shorts.
The bottom line?
Consume content mindfully. Keep what is important. Remove what’s not.
Now that you have done your ‘content audit’, let’s move on:
2. Cultivating your diet
Here’s how I have cultivated my ‘content diet’ over the years:
Newsletters: Probably the medium I get the most value from (to the point that I decided to start one myself), I have found countless hidden gems and powerful ideas from newsletters. Here are some of my favorites if you are interested: SmartNonsense by Henry Belcaster and Dylan Jardon, System Sunday by Ben Meer, and Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday.
Podcasts: It’s probably the most natural way of content. It’s a conversation, just like you would have in real life. You get to hear from the most brilliant and fascinating in the world and their advice, and you can listen to it while driving or doing something else. Here are my picks for you: The Diary Of A CEO by Steven Bartlett, Modern Wisdom by Chris Williamson, and The Tim Ferriss Show by Tim Ferriss.
Books: Nothing is comparable to the insights you get by reading a book on any topic. All the people I admire read books, it isn’t a coincidence.
Some “hacks” I have found that have helped me:
I use Beeper (free) to merge all social media chats into one single app.
I used to spend too much time on YouTube. Turns out the reason was the sneaky lateral tab with “recommendations”. I fixed this by using this Chrome extension: Unhook. You can remove the home feed, and recommendation tab, and just keep the subscription feed, so you don’t get distracted into those 3 hour YouTube rabbit holes.
Pocket (free) or Reader it’s great for saving articles, threads, etc for later. So you can read them when you have the proper time and focused attention to them.
Also, I don’t usually read the news. If you really want to keep up with the news and at the same time avoid the clickbaity and useless news of journalists competing for clicks and shares, find a trusted and reputable source and batch the consumption on 1 day per week.
3. Content fasting
Fasting and intermittent fasting are becoming very popular these days. Mostly because of its wide range of health benefits.
Content fasting is not much different.
It’s simply setting a time in which you don’t don’t allow yourself to consume any content on the internet.
Why is it so useful?
Helps fight information overload.
It’s good for your mental health and sleep quality.
New ideas are created when we create space for our minds (shower thoughts). If we constantly consume new information, there is no space for developing insights & ideas or taking action on them.
It can be as simple as setting a set time in your day, ‘content fasting’ for a day, or even multiple days.
Bringing it home
Content Audit: What content do you consume that truly adds value to your life? Double down on that, avoid the rest.
Cultivating your diet: Newsletters, Podcasts, and Books are usually great sources of quality content.
Content fasting: Set a time in which you don’t consume online content — create space for your mind to process the information and develop insights & ideas.
Choose one insight from today and take action on it.
It’s always an honor to be in your inbox.
To your rapid personal growth,
— Idris Moura
Last week’s newsletter was about embracing the seasons of life and why you should stop expecting figs on winter
In case you missed it, here’s your chance to catch up → Embracing the seasons of life ☀️