Navigating the digital cacophony
I’m an avid reader exploring a wide range of genres and authors, including personal development books … yes … including the ones that end up of ‘red flag’ lists. I live my life as a journey of experimentation and, as a result, what I like to do is take one thing from a book and incorporate into my routine. I found that trying to incorporate full ‘systems’ into my daily life is a an exercise in futility. I tend to fall off the proverbial wagon quite quickly when I do so.
Recently, I shared a thought on LinkedIn:
“Scrolling LinkedIn and the newsletters in my inbox, I fluctuate between 'I am not doing enough, I really should be sharing my wisdom and knowledge on my feeds' and 'I should actually just take my time and write essays and decide whether to share or not afterwards.'
Oh, and most times, I feel like I shouldn't bother because there is so much advice, opinion, etc out there.”
I do get the irony of this (LinkedIn and Substack post) adding to the cacophony that exists in the digital realm but hear me out. It feels like, with the advent of AI, this noise has been ramped up with everyone stumbling over each other to transform every moment (and non-moment) into a lesson of some sort.
I may be a little old school but, as a result, I am finding greater comfort and value in books (digital and physical) as opposed to online. There are people whose books I have read and whose newsletters I subscribe to. I end up deleting their posts without reading and then devouring the books they have written.
Also, as a friend commented, “The eternal struggle! I remember we generally didn't feel like that in the early blogging days; even though everyone and their mother had a blog, it never felt like we were drowning in it.”
It does feel a bit of a contradiction taking into consideration my issues with the scale of opinions online but I still believe there is place for blogging at least as a medium for me to share my random thoughts. However, I continue to struggle to find the time, space and energy to do so.
There was a time when I used to do irregular 30-day blogging challenges. Blogging regularly had a positive influence on how I saw the world and, by extension, how I lived my life. Taking Blogging Seriously. When I wrote my book, Listen To Your Footsteps, -which is 5 years old this year - I blocked off a minimum of an hour (to start the day, following my Morning Pages) a day to writing for that. I had tried to do that, at the beginning of the year, for a new book I am contemplating writing but ended up deleting the calendar blocking for it because I wasn’t doing it - and seeing it in my calendar every day was demoralising.
I recently came across Austin Kleon’s The one-hour studio post and looking to use that as inspiration for getting back into the ‘writing saddle.’ I also had an interesting conversation with Donovan Goliath on my podcast about creativity and creative practice. He was the second guest on the podcast when I started it so I took a different approach to this conversation (available on all podcasting platforms including YouTube.
I do envy those who drift through life at a distance from all that is online, tapping in and out erratically.
How do you navigate the cacophony?
I think the best way to navigate this cacophony (just learned this word, thanks) is by taking a break every once in a while. Amid all the noise we live in, we can't even know what we really want. To hear ourselves we must shut the source of this noise, to find who we are again and then return. And then repeat.
One way to navigate is to concentrate only posts that will help you.