Note from Bruce: The following post is from guest blogger Lance Gallup. He really has some really good points here and I appreciate him sharing his de-cluttering principles with us. Note that Lance has recently started a new blog, dealing primarily with the theme of creativity. I think he is off to a great start with it.
“Reducing the clutter” has become a bit of a mantra for me. I discovered the principle for myself a few years ago and have since noticed several authors and speakers endorsing the same practice. (That phenomenon is called “The Red Mustang Effect” which Bruce mentions in another post).
I used to be a habitual consumer of online, radio, print and television news and current-event-type programming. I listened to talk radio for several hours a day, read the newspaper on a daily basis, watched the nightly TV news and checked online news sites several times throughout the day. One day when I caught myself yelling at a talk show host whose political views were in sharp disagreement with my own, I realized what I was doing. Not just yelling at a TV program (as if that wasn’t stupid enough) but intentionally ingesting programming that had little or no redeeming value and annoyed me besides.
It wasn’t like I didn’t have enough aggravation in my life already - did I really need to seek out more? I resolved to try a “news fast” for a week - no TV, radio, print or online news and no current-events-type shows. I decided that if I found that I missed the news after a week, I’d reconsider my fast. After the week was up, I found I actually felt better. My level of stress had been noticeably reduced. I wasn’t sure if it was coincidental, so I decided to try another week. Two weeks turned into a month, a month turned into a few more, and now it’s been several years. News had become a habit for me and I find I’m better off without it. Not only did it consume a significant amount of time every day, it was often a significant additional source of frustration, aggravation and mental and emotional clutter.
I can hear the objections already - “how do you keep up with current events in the world?” and so on. First, much of what you’re keeping current with probably has no real value to you and your life anyway. For example, how much does keeping current with the daily excesses of Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan contribute to your life? (No, I haven’t been cheating, but I don’t cover my ears and sing “la la la” at the top of my lungs when those around me discuss current events either.) If you take an honest look, most of what passes for news these days is celebrity gossip, editorial opinion and ordinary events marketed as “news” - democrats criticizing a republican president, a republican president blaming problems on a democrat congress, etc. How very unusual. Not.
Today’s suggestion: try a news fast for a short time. You may find you feel better without that subtle source of daily stress. Instead, try using the time to enrich your life. Spend more time with your family, friends or significant other. Take in a play or concert. Expand your musical horizons by listening to some unfamiliar artists or musical styles. Read something you’ve been meaning to read all these years. How about some ee cummings or Walden? Take your dog for a nightly walk or jog - you’ll both feel better and s/he will love you even more for it. You may also be surprised at how easy it is to keep up with the little news that is important - when something significant does happen, you’ll find everyone is talking about it anyway.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve long been an advocate of boycotting the news and most forms of media in my life. I haven’t watched the news in 5 or 6 years now. Most of the news as you say is celebrity gossip or things that aren’t really news that are being propagated as news. They don’t have any real value to your day to day living.
The other reason I don’t watch the news is because much of the news is tragedy after tragedy. If the news were realistic, it would only report local events on tragedy. But it seems like the news goes out of it’s way to find some kind of tragic event in the world to report on. We feed on this drama, this emotional poison, and most of us are not even conscious of it. Thanks for writing this article and helping others make a conscious choice about what they let into their lives, instead of an auto-pilot decision.
Thank you for the comment, Jonathan. I think you are right that we all too willing feed on the emotional poisons of the media, and getting away from it is enormously helpful.
By the way, I like your site. I have subscribed to it and look forward to reading more of your thoughts.