Increase Your Productivity: Stop Reading the News

How Reading the News is the Biggest Time Waster in Your Day

“Did you see the news?” That is a common question that comes up in social circles. My response is always, “No, I did not.”

In 2008, my life was crazy busy. I was working full-time, attending graduate school, and Mom to my teenaged biological and foster children. My days were a blur. Family then work then family then school. Up until this point in my life, I had done fairly well managing my time. But at this point, I was looking for more practical ways to balance it all. That’s when I stumbled upon the New York Times best-selling book by a guy named Tim Ferriss (double “r” and double “s”). Reading the reviews of his book made me hopeful that I would find some usefulness in its pages. It did not disappoint.

Among other things, Tim recommended that you should stop watching the news. As a faithful CNN news consumer, I thought, “no way.” After all, how would I keep up with what was going on in the world?

Well, Tim goes on to make a point — why would you listen to problems you cannot solve? What was the point of being “informed” anyway? To say the least, I was not at all impressed by his advice. I think that I will pass.

Then, I started paying attention to how I felt after listening to the news. I started…