What I learned in 6 months of Intellectual Detox

I’ve been on an intellectual detox since the start of the year (2022), and I’m not craving content consumption like I used to.

In the age of information, we have all the information we need at our fingertips (and a lot of it is available for free.) Yet with access to all these resources, we face information overload, overwhelm, decision fatigue, and phenomenon like FOMO and FOBO. So when it comes to choosing what we want to learn, we’re lost in this sea of information and resources:

• We don’t know where to start from
• We don’t know how to choose what to focus on
• We get carried away and consume far more information than we need at the moment
• We feel anxiety from the lack of certainty, etc..

Christian Ehmen and I dove deep into this topic in the past few months. Then we did a series of workshop for the Lifebook community on how to set up your growth plan.

There’s so much I can share from this experience (Maybe in future posts). Here today, I’d like to share some of the frameworks I’ve been developing during this detox. Even though I’m still developing these and I’ll keep optimizing and perfecting them, I wanted to share them with you here.

Scenario one: procrasti-learning — learning before acting?

You’re about to start something new in life. Do you feel like you need to learn more about it before you start taking action? Is that you? That’s me for sure.

When Christian and I explored this use case, I realized I was a procrasti-learner. What’s that? That’s convincing yourself that you don’t know enough to start taking action, so you need to learn more. So you procrastinate by learning.

During my intellectual detox, I decided I will not consume anything unless I got blocked. So, I stopped myself from jumping online and getting lost in the see of information trying to find answers. I also stopped asking people for recommendations. Instead, I first started by asking myself these questions:

• Am I blocked from taking the next action? If no, I took action. If yes, I continued with the questions
• What is the block? is it because of a knowledge/skill gap? If it’s something else, I’ll address that issue (topic for another post). For the knowledge gap, I’ll continue with the questions
• How can I fill that gap?
• Where can I find the solution and what does it look like?
• What resources can I dedicate to fill this gap?

This helped me identify what I needed to learn to unblock myself from moving forward. Nothing more, nothing less.

In some instances this meant I may be able to find an answer in a YouTube video, an article, or a podcast. Or by asking someone about it.

In other cases, I knew I needed to learn and practice some skills and then I’d explore:

• How much I need to learn
• What I need to learn
• What resources (time, money, etc..) can I allocate for this project

Then, I would search for the book, the course, or the mentorship that will help me fill the gap within the timeframe and the budget I have.

In one case, I actually realized I could fill the gap by hiring someone with that skill. That was a huge aha moment for me. Who said I needed to learn and do everything by myself? I could delegate! Huge frog avoided!

Scenario two: FOMO — assessing recommended material

Did you already buy the book or the course? Or are you considering consuming a specific piece of content? That book recommendation that keeps popping up in your feed? Or that course you’re recommended on YouTube?

Fear Of Missing Out is one of the phenomenon that many companies use to “make us” buy their products or services. Techniques like urgency, importance, relevance, and so on make us feel like we MUST consume this material now or we’re losing big time!

During my detox, I decided I will not fear on missing out ever again. It was hard at first, but once I started using this framework of questioning, I started to see the truth of those ads. This gave me back control over my decision making.

Here’s my current approach: If I see a recommendation like this, I ask these questions:

• The why: Why do I need to consume this material? Is my why true or am I looking for a reason to justify myself?
• The Relevance: Is it relevant to a current situation/project? How will consuming this material improve my life now? Can it be something I might need in the future but not now?
• The Urgency: Does it feel like I “need to” watch it / read it / listen to it NOW!? What makes me think it is urgent? Is it true that it’s urgent and important?

In most cases, I found that even though most of these material might be important at some point in my life, I do not need to consume them all. For example, I don’t have a knowledge gap that blocks me in that area of my life at the moment. The most certain thing was that I for sure didn’t need to consume all these material now!

So, based on these answers, I would decide if I need to consume this material at all. Then, and only if the answer is yes, I will need to make these other decisions:

• When: Do I need to consume this material now? Or should it be part of a future project?
• Speed: Do I need to consume it fast or do I have more time to consume it?
• How: Do I need to practice any skills or do I know how I will use the material I’m learning?

Based on my findings:

• I’ll add the material into the relevant project/library
• I’ll schedule time on my calendar for consuming the material I need to consume now.
• I’ll decide the speed and time per learning session based on what and why I’m consuming it. For example, I’d binge consume concepts and repeat key points to learn then. But for skills training, I’d dedicate as much time as needed to understand and practice the skill.
• I’ll convert what I learn into actionable documentation and start using it as soon as I can.

When it comes to consuming information or learning a new skill, we are never short on material whether they’re free, cheap, or expensive. The key, for me was to decide on the what, the why, the how, the when before dedicating my time, energy, and money on consuming any material. In short, I started looking at the return of investment of my personal educational system.

What does your personal growth plan or educational system look like? Do you have one? What’s the return on investment of your education? Please, share, I’m curious to learn how each one learns and uses their learning in their day to day life.