Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information overload?

Building lists for reading later is the same as having all the world's information at hand, which the internet makes very easy. And it is literally unfiltered, too. It's of no real value to collect for later, and sadly, consuming information without need (practical use) might be entertaining, but won't be remembered by your brain, aka waste of time.

A tendency to consume for distraction might indicate a burnout as well. In a certain age or after too much monotonic work this is a common auto-reaction, to keep us sane supposedly. Do something different.

While meditating can be calming, I suggest physical activity, helped me at least, it is amazing what a little running (every day) can do. And in general - ignore all the trash information, there is too much available these days - stick to what you need to achieve goals (provided you have set those already).

I do go on hikes but not anywhere near that length. Maybe that will be it. Thanks

coned88, I am pretty surprised with you situation. You have done a marvelous job on self diagnosing the trouble, but you don’t see the solution. In most cases understanding and describing the problem is by far the hardest part. So you are 90% ready to solve the issue.

Disclaimer: you are a smart person, so I will use a couple of thinking shortcuts. Just so you know. You don’t want to read a book, don’t you? (:
 First of all, lets handle this: >  One of which is directed to what I am actively doing and one below it which seems to process information in a never ending manner.

# Thought flies

„Buzzing” in your head, right? Those thoughts are like flies. They fly around, sometimes they sit quietly, sometimes they come back and sabotage everything. You can’t rest properly, you can’t work. It hurts us because of context and task switching costs.

This drains your „brain mana” and we have roughly 3-4 hours of highly productive brain activity per day. And there is only way to stop this leak: kill those flies. The best way to handle this is by dumping everything on paper. Even better, on a single page. A3, anyone? Reading books, articles, tasks, meetings with friends, everything. Directed graphs (a form of a mind map) IMO works best. 

And when you finish it, stuff suddenly becomes manageable. This will help you to get rid of the big issues. Small ones hurt also.

To get rid of the small ones, you have to have a Single Point of Truth. A place where you store stuff. Your head is not the right place for it. If you are doing some work or enjoying a movie and suddenly a fly-thought comes and distracts you from working or resting, just write it and forget about it.

# IRL techniques

There are some tools/techniques I use to handle 90% of thoughts, issues:

Home related tasks: Wunderlist. Tax documents, shopping lists goes there. If it is not there it doesn’t exit.

Work related tasks: Asana. If it is not there, it just doesn't exit. Simple as that.

Online articles: There 2 types. Might be useful later or must read it now. If I just want to store I use Evernote page save or Instapaper and archive. If I want to read it I simply read it or send to Instapaper. Then I just read them in bulk on Kindle.

Email: I use Gmail and Mailbox. First of all Gmail. I really use „Archive” a lot. If I have read what I have or replied I hit „Archive” and forget about it. With Mailbox it is even better. If I want to postpone messages I simply snooze them a day or week. Often, they get outdated quickly and then I just archive them. Empty mailbox —> empty head. I never a have a thought fly about email. I know that everything I need will be there when I open or want to open it.   For any thought fly there is a compartment. Sometimes you just put it on hold and place it on your corkboard and sometimes you just dump it into a giant, searchable archive.

So in a nutshell, you just have to clean your head and move stuff to another storage vehicle. Even the best mind memory is nothing compared to a pen and paper.

# Filtering

The second thing you should think about is filtering. I would recommend reading a small article about Theory of constraints or you can go wild and read (it is a one evening book) The Goal by M. Goldratt. Shrinking a whole book into your case: you can’t have more incoming stuff (articles, ideas) than you process. Otherwise, you will have a huge traffic jam in your head. And adding more items is the worst thing you can do.

So you can just cut off the supply of new and just process the old stuff. Or just get rid of that. We are all information hoarders. But there is a secret: a world will not break if we just purge some stuff. Less is more.

Good Luck!

I tend to have similar problems, compounded with the fact that I have been working on remote for the most part of the past five years or so. Here are, in no particular order, some of the things that have helped me.

Computer and desk are for work; leisure time should happen somewhere else, using something else. The more time you spend goofing off while in the exact same place where you work, the more likely you are to do it during work hours.

Staring for long hours at a screen can seriously mess up your sleep. If you want to read at night, do it on physical books, an e-book or a reading app with good night-mode (I like Instapaper as well).

When I need to focus and think about a problem, I like to leave the computer aside for a while, take pen and paper, and sketch possible solutions. Depending on your job, it could work for you as well.

Get out of the house. This depends on the person, but I have never really been able to focus when working at home: I always end up going to a cafe or library, as having other people around (even if they are strangers) helps me focus.

When I need to write a long letter or blog post, I often use my iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard. I lay back on a chair/couch, keyboard on my lap and iPad on a table in front of me, out of easy reach. The idea is to get in a comfortable position where the only thing I can do is type.

Finally, one has to accept the fact that it is simply not possible to keep up with the flow of new stuff. We need to prioritise, least we start forgetting the really important things because our minds are too full with cruft, too used to skimming through things without time for reflecting on them.

That is a big source. :)