Recently I felt like I haven't been able to think clearly and this is a terrifying feeling for me because if I can't think clearly
I can't tell the stories that I want to tell I can't convey the message that I want to convey
I can't be present in my experiences. This doesn't feel normal to me
And I think what I'm experiencing is the infamous brain fog that so many of us have encountered
There are many potential causes for brain fog. It's a very complex multi-layered topic that almost certainly touches
biology diet emotional well-being
Psychology lifestyle, I mean so many different things so I can't blame this on any single thing
But I feel very strongly that I've pinpointed where this is coming from and I'm calling it information
Fatigue, this is already a term that people are using in certain spaces and online and for me
I'm using it to just basically reference this feeling of
consuming way way too much input and
Being bogged down trying to process all of it
This almost always comes from my phone or my computer and some sort of auditory or visual
Form and I'm talking about really little things that seem harmless. So for example a comment
ok, there's nothing wrong with reading a comment but multiply that by
10,000 and
You are dealing with a totally different thing many of us read comments while we're watching videos or for example
Let's take the example of a video right watching a 5 minute or 10 minute video totally fine
There's no harm in that right, but what if it's 3 hours every day and three hours at two times speed
We just keep increasing the amount of information
We're trying to absorb so many platforms now so many different digital and physical spaces feel
Noisy, you know
There's a lot of noise the difficult thing about all this is that none of these individual things are bad in and of themselves
I think it's so incredible that we're able to access information like we are in this day and age
this was not possible before right and so
I'm not trying to say any of these things are evil. Right, but altogether all these little things constantly added up
It can be incredibly destructive. It feels like there's no more space to imagine and ponder and let ideas zap you out of nowhere
There's no more space to rest
Which is a four-letter word with colossal implications and is serially neglected in this day and age
I mean why is camping?
So awesome for me
Every time I've gone camping is because I've lost connection with the rest of the world that you're able to be in nature
hang out with
Important people in your life and it's this incredible experience. It's really just very simple. It's just cutting off that
Information flow for a little while. I'd like to point out that just working less does it mean you're resting more for example?
Many of us watch movies in our downtime, right and there's again absolutely nothing wrong with watching movies. They can be fun
They can be stimulating
But if you what you really need is rest
There are more intentional more effective ways to rest than to watch a movie
Like for example, just straight sleeping
Maybe that's what your body needs and that's often the case for me and I don't feel like I'm listening to myself all the time
why am I not giving myself what I need and I think it partly has to do with the fact that it doesn't feel very
Productive in that moment, right? It doesn't feel productive to sleep for an additional hour
But that might end up being the most productive use of your time. It's weird because it's these invisible things that
Capitalism doesn't really value. It's super important to take care of yourself for long-term
success long-term
Consistency right? I think anybody could say that and yet we're all doing all these different things to sabotage ourselves
All I'm really saying is that there's no replacement for rest
And there's no replacement for that space that I was describing earlier that we're constantly filling with external input
We're all chasing entertainment or motivation or inspiration
But none of us need any more of those things. We all already have
Way more than anybody ever did in the past and the people of pre-social media times did just fine maybe even better
I recently heard that Quentin Tarantino doesn't allow phones on set at any time and that's brilliant
it creates a space to be focused on the work that needs to be done there all the
Texts and calls and everything else can wait. I've heard of rich people going to
Hotels or resorts where there are blackout zones so they completely
Block off any sort of internet connection so that you can actually unplug people are actually paying now to be disconnected
I'm not trying to paint this sort of doomsday scenario. I'm actually I consider myself an optimist and I think this is
good news
the fact that I've
I've seen this very clearly now and I have a plan of attack because I
Firmly believe this is in all of our control were the ones distracting ourselves
We're the ones overloading ourselves and it doesn't have to be so difficult
lowering that amount that constant flood of
Info that's coming into our lives this December
I've been making a conscious effort to try and slow down and upload a little bit less often
I'm doing every other week instead of every single week the idea behind this was to try and
recuperate and reset and reflect and plan right, but this ended up turning into spending more time scrolling and
Watching stuff and worrying about what other people are doing, and that's not what I needed at all quick pause
I spend some more time thinking about what I just said there and why this happened to me
I think it's a result of
Making a change in my life freeing up some space and not having a plan for what to do with it
I think most of us will fill a space like that with whatever comes most naturally
The guidelines that I've created for myself with digital minimalism have been great
They've had a positive impact
But one thing I have to be careful of is not letting that new time and energy that are freed up
Be taken up by something else
equally as wasteful everybody loves to hate on social media these days but there are so many other ways to waste your time to
Online shopping the endless news cycle trying to keep up with whatever's trending online. It's not going to matter a month from now
I remember when everyone lost their minds over pokemon go not that long ago and
Now it feels like it might as well have happened in the Stone Age. Absolutely. Everybody has moved on it's weird it all feels so
immediate and important and
All-consuming in the moment, right every time I upload a video. It feels like that
it feels like it's so important how it's gonna be received and what are people gonna say and
You know a month later two months later. I look back and whatever
I mean it happened and I've moved on I can just be so short-sighted sometimes
Dude so be careful with the information that you're consuming because constantly upping the tempo mindlessly and fitting it into every
Nook and cranny of your life has its consequences and they're all invisible at first
It feels good to be present. And I think we need to give ourselves the space necessary to think literally
Thank you for watching and I'll see you soon