Information Diet: Focus

While I am in the mood to reveal some of my weaknesses (see post on Dieting two days ago) let's talk about information overload.

I employ various tools and tricks to make sure I can focus on what is important to me and shut out distractions. I've written about them before. Two of my favorites are so-called self binding (sounds weird  but it's not) and a utility app called Concentrate.

A book just came out called "The Information Diet". In fact Clay Johnson's PR is so good that I know all about this book except I am not exactly sure if has actually been published yet. I feel like I've read it. Funny the launch of the book has the feeling of a political campaign. Hmm.

Anyway here's a post from his blog that I thought was worthwhile: How to start your information diet. Many of the tips here I am already following, but a simple one was a bit of a revelation for me, because it was so obvious but I hadn't thought about it this way:

"Turn off all desktop notifications on your computer. If you're an Outlook user, turn its desktop alerts off. If you're an OS X User, and have somehow ended up with Growl installed on your computer, turn off all notifications." (from How to start your information diet.)