My first exercise on Medium

I gave myself fifteen minutes and wrote about my media consumption habits… I’m excited about this platform.

When it comes to consuming media — particularly news — I’m learning that I’ve hit my own stride of efficiency by learning how to take it where and when I can get it. Basically tuning into what’s in front of me.

For instance: I’m in a cab and on my phone checking email and I know I’ve got three minutes before I arrive at my destination. I’ve caught up with the important stuff, and the Week’s Top Ten Things You Need To Know Today is there, unopened. I’m likely to stop and read that. Sounds obvious, but I’m saying that I do this instead of either seeking out that same email on my desktop later or using that three minutes to close my mail app and open the New York Times.

Similarly, I’m just sitting down with a record when the Yahoo! Evening Digest pops up on my iPad, chances are I’ll stop and take a look. If I’m out at dinner when it arrives, the likelihood I ever open it drops to about four percent. I’m sure I could probably program Yahoo!’s app to deliver their product (a pretty decent 12-hour snapshot of top news) at the ideal time/place/location., but I’ve realized that instead of taking such an active role I’ve just — almost subconsciously — changed my routine.

If I’m taking the train home later in the evening, I’ll take special care in selecting the hard copy newspaper that I’ll have ready in my bag. That’s because it’s typically less crowded and I’ll be able to spread out with the hard copy and appreciate the surprise of stumbling upon, say, some typically batshit op-ed in the Journal. If I know I’m in rush hour, I’ll prepare to squeeze in and prep my phone accordingly. But I’ve found myself doing more and more of this type of thing on autopilot, letting what’s most convenient and serendipitous unfold.

Of course, I already have my own tips and tricks for taking advantage of the myriad ways we can consume media. I use the time between when I hit the sack and fall to sleep to catch up on All Things Considered or a podcast. If I’m eating a late dinner I might tune in to this morning’s Scarborough on Apple TV. And when I’ve got those spare blocks of time to read, I do so pretty aggressively and strategically.

But I’m talking about managing and making the most of the 24/7 daily buzz. And I’m finding it less stressful adapting to this weird new place by simply ignoring the competition between the channels and sort of tuning into whatever’s in front of me when I’ve got the time and interest.

Granted, reflections on my own behavior don’t have much weight on their own. Maybe I’m the only one who gets breaking news notifications from at least a half dozen sources.

And this isn’t a new problem for publishers, who know that investing across a wider range of platforms makes more sense than, say, putting all your eggs into one channel.

But it all just suggests there’s still a lot of ground to cover before

<ten minutes up>