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Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket
To return to information overload: this means treating your "to read" pile like a river (a stream that flows past you, and from which you pluck a few choice items, here and there) instead of a bucket (which demands that you empty it). After all, you presumably don't feel overwhelmed by all the unread books in the British Library – and not because t... See more
oliverburkeman.com • Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket
The real trouble, according to the leading techno-optimist Clay Shirky, wasn't information overload, but "filter failure". We needed – and we'd eventually get – more sophisticated ways to filter the wheat from the online chaff. And then we'd no longer feel overwhelmed.
oliverburkeman.com • Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket
There's no point beating yourself up for failing to clear a backlog (of unread books, undone tasks, unrealized dreams) that it was always inherently unfeasible to clear in the first place. I like to think of it as the productivity technique to beat all productivity techniques: finally internalizing the implications of the fact that what's genuinely... See more
oliverburkeman.com • Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket
To return to information overload: this means treating your "to read" pile like a river (a stream that flows past you, and from which you pluck a few choice items, here and there) instead of a bucket (which demands that you empty it). After all, you presumably don't feel overwhelmed by all the unread books in the British Library – and not because t
... See moreoliverburkeman.com • Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket
To return to information overload: this means treating your "to read" pile like a river (a stream that flows past you, and from which you pluck a few choice items, here and there) instead of a bucket (which demands that you empty it). After all, you presumably don't feel overwhelmed by all the unread books in the British Library – and not because t... See more
Oliver Burkeman • Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket
It's amusing to reflect that at an earlier stage in the history of the web, information overload was widely held to be a temporary issue.
oliverburkeman.com • Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket
To return to information overload: this means treating your "to read" pile like a river (a stream that flows past you, and from which you pluck a few choice items, here and there) instead of a bucket (which demands that you empty it). After all, you presumably don't feel overwhelmed by all the unread books in the British Library – and not because t... See more
Oliver Burkeman • Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket
After all, you presumably don't feel overwhelmed by all the unread books in the British Library – and not because there aren't an overwhelming number of them, but because it never occurred to you that it might be your job to get through them all.
oliverburkeman.com • Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket
Yes, yes yes! Why is that we have to overburden ourselves with things to read later (be it books, articles, newsletters and stuff)? Is it all because of FOMO? Is it because we hope knowledge will save us - so the more we plan to absorb the better?
It's not a question of rearranging your to-do list so as to make space for all your "big rocks", but of accepting that there are simply too many rocks to fit in the jar. You have to take a stab at deciding what matters most, among your various creative passions/life goals/responsibilities – and then do that, while acknowledging that you'll inevitab... See more