I’m going on a crash diet.
Tim Ferriss has got to me. I mean really got to me. He’s given me a kick in the pants and I’m only halfway through his book The 4-Hour Workweek. Today I’m starting a one week information fast. Why?
‘cos my name is Wes…and I’m an information junkie.
I love information. Reading for me is not a chore, it’s a passion. When I did the test in the book Now, Discover Your Strengths, one of my top 5 themes was Input.
[People who are especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.]It was uncanny when I first read that because it fits me like a glove. I love collecting new info. I live for it. Finding out new stuff, figuring out what it means and where it fits in my map of reality. The thing is, my information acquiring habits are verging on a full-scale addiction. Tim’s book has come at just the right time to wake me up a bit (we need a wake-up call every now and then, don’t we?!) and so I’m going on a one-week crash diet. I need to stay far away from the info junk food.
I’m cutting out all newspapers and magazines (not that I read a lot of those), all TV (not too hard, I’ve never been a big TV watcher), all non-fiction books and audiobooks (apart from Tim’s), checking email only twice a day and NO WEB SURFING unless absolutely critical for fee-earning work. The “no books” and “web surfing” bit are going to be the toughest. I’m going to have to put notes everywhere to remind me!
What am I going to do to fill up the vacuum I’ve created? Well, LESS INPUT, MORE OUTPUT is my mantra for the week. I’m going to do a few things that I’ve been putting off like writing a few articles one of my sites and putting together a market research project for a new niche I want to get into. Naturally, I’m aiming to outsource as much of this as possible. And the rest of the time? Nothing. I’m going to go bed earlier, relax more and think more.
Should be an interesting experiment.
“If you are reading this then this warning is for you.
Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all who claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think everything you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told you should want?
Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned.”
-Tyler Durden in Fight Club
