There’s a lot of news about at the moment. It’s early in Trump’s second term so the media seems to be doing a running commentary on everything he says and does. Fair enough, he purposely says stuff to stir the pot - knowing it’s going to be headline news 5 minutes later.

It can be easy to get in to the habit of constantly doomscrolling, or at least checking in 30 times a day to hear the latest bit of craziness.

I was a sucker for this in his first term. In fact, I’ve been a news junkie ever since 9/11.

However, for a while now, I’ve been consciously trying to unplug.

I’ve realised I don’t need to feel informed about everything in the news. I’ve got no plans to appear on a TV quiz show, and being informed doesn’t add to happiness. In fact, it does the exact opposite. News is invariably bad news.

When it’s not bad news, it’s probably fake news.

In the case of Donald Trump, the constant stream of consciousness is a deliberate strategy to keep himself in the news and deliberately confound and confuse.

His former adviser Steve Bannon famously explained this as the Spray-Tan Sultan’s strategy:

“The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”

The fact is, 99% of the news is not going to affect your life in one little bit, unless you let it.

If it’s something big, like a war or recession, you’ll know about it soon enough anyway, even if you don’t follow the day to day noise.

I have this constant battle. The Ukraine war started and I was glued to every single development. It’s only recently that I’ve settled on a system that keeps me in touch with how Ukraine is doing, without being obsessed.

The same happened since Trump has been re-elected. It’s hard not to get sucked back in.

Here’s what I do now. I track my time and concentrate on productive activities. I purposely limit non-productive activities.

When it comes to this, I’m no guru. When my ongoing health problems are a factor I give myself a break. It’s still too early for me to return to work, and some days I don’t have the energy or motivation for anything productive. I used to feel guilty about this, like I was failing in my recovery somehow, or not trying hard enough.

Thankfully, I’m currently at the point when those days are fewer. I know I could have yet another setback so I’m making the most of the good days.

I have a major project that I’m working on with my wife. It consumes my time. It’s cerebral and it’s definitely productive. It may turn into nothing. Even if it does, every failed project is a learning experience.

The next thing is having a healthy balance between producing and consuming. It may feel like ticking off 5 items on your TV/Movie watchlist is an achievement. I suppose it can be, depending on what you watch, but when you look back on your life it’s probably not going to be a highlight.

My Letterboxd watchlist is constantly shouting at me. It’s an easy option but I now try and balance this by reading books for my non-productive time.

I read a lot of non-fiction so is this productive or non-productive time? I suppose it depends on what I do with that knowledge. Some books give me inspiration. Others just feel like an accomplishment in their own right. I generally don’t get this feeling from watching TV or spending an hour scrolling social media or playing a game.

I also don’t discount fiction. I don’t read as much fiction as I used to but it’s still time well spent, even if it’s not productive. Escaping in to fiction can have its own benefits. It stimulates the neurons and improves creativity. It has been shown to reduce stress and improve mental well-being. A well-written book can improve language and communications skills. Both fiction and non-fiction can be inspirational, leading you to make positive changes in your life. When I think of this I think back to the year I read ‘Yes Man’ by Danny Wallace. You can read my thoughts on this back in 2007 in a previous incarnation of this blog. The book was truly inspirational. I can’t say the same about the Jim Carrey film.

Some may argue that gaming is actually productive. I’ve read studies that suggest gaming can lower the risk of dementia in older age. Besides the odd Wordle or Sudoku, I don’t have the patience for gaming.

Some may also argue that social media can be productive. I certainly use it as a resource. The trick is to curate your feed to only include resourceful content. For instance, I’m currently interested in AI and constantly looking at ways I can apply AI to every-day tasks. A lot of what I’ve learnt has come from social media. The problem, of course, is that most platforms try and serve us ‘content you may like’, not just content from trusted sources you follow. It’s getting harder and harder to open an app without being distracted by some nonsense.

I definitely class writing as productive time. Take this blog for instance. It serves no purpose other than for the joy of producing something. I don’t care if nobody reads it. I haven’t turned on analytics. I haven’t even turned on comments. It’s just an outlet, not an asynchronous conversation. Those who do read it may think it’s mostly drivel. They’re probably right. I’m not a journalist. I have no plans to monetise it or post on a regular schedule to feed the beast.

Productivity in itself has long been an obsession. I dread to think how much time and money I’ve spent over the years switching from one productivity app to another. I could write a book on this stuff.

Fatigue and financial necessity now means I keep it simple.

I might write about my productivity ‘journey’ and what I’ve settled on at the moment.

For now, I’ll finish with this:

“It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?” – Henry David Thoreau