This is a continuation of the post from Monday about a recent New York Times article entitled “5 Ways to Calm Your Anxious Brain“. The first post was about mindfulness. This post will be about journaling and information overload. One I’m pretty good at, and one not so much…

Given the fact that I am a lifelong writer, journaling has been a strong part of my life. You could say that many of the posts here at RJsCorner are journal entries, so these ideas are a perfect fit.

Here is a quote from the NYT article:

One method that has gained popularity in recent years is a practice created by the digital designer Ryder Carroll and outlined in his best-selling book, “The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future.”

The Bullet Journal is an organizational system but also an exercise in mindfulness — one that requires you to continually re-evaluate how you are investing your time and energy and then decide whether those things are worth it.

I must admit that I don’t have much control over what my mind thinks about, but I do know that some of the things that come in my mind, if I delved further into them, would be a total waste of my time and talents. Maybe I need something to help me with corralling my thoughts. To that end, the “The Bullet Journal”is now on my Kindle and I will be studying it during my coming North Carolina adventure trek.

It’s never too late to make yourself a better person.

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Let’s look at the second item of today’s post. The author starts out this topic with a discussion about the current relentless news cycle, all coming at us as breaking news.

Reduce information overload

I know this is a biggie for me. I used to be an avid news junkie, but I have managed to reduce my time on this topic to less than 20% of what it used to be. I am just sick and tired of seeing article after article talking about Trump-this, Trump-that.

Let’s look at a quote from the article.

“Now is the time to completely overhaul your news consumption,” said Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown University and the author of “Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World.”

Choose just one or two reliable sources and read them at a specific time each day, he advised. For example, you can listen to a news roundup podcast while commuting to work or read a newspaper at breakfast, Dr. Newport said.

I know that quality news takes time and talent, to find it, double-check the sources, and then to pen the words. To do that takes money. For that reason, my primary news source for the last few years has been the New York Times. I pay my subscription annually at around $4/week.

I do browse the Medium and Inkl for niche items such as Autism, Deafness, and Aspergers, but always keep in mind that these sources can be tainted. As the quote above suggests, my daily view is almost always within a few minutes of getting out of bed.