Personal Development Tips: Create More, Consume Less

One of my favourite personal development tips is about getting a good balance of “creating versus consuming”. Often I’d find myself going down a rabbit hole of consuming content, news, updates from family, coworkers and friends. It’s overwhelming and pushes our brain into filtering and processing overload.

This is why meditation has become more popular over the last decade.

Side note – my definition of meditation is that when you get lost in something and let go of negative and resistant thoughts, and just be. Most people would associate meditation with sitting and being quiet and focusing on your breathing and trying to clear your head. I find meditation when I’m focused on something and I’m thoroughly enjoying it and feel connected to a higher power through it. Writing, cooking, singing, listening to music, yoga, exercise, being with loved ones, gardening etc. The things I enjoy and do mindfully are my forms of meditation.

Questions to ask yourself

Anyway, back to creation versus consumption. Scrolling has become such a common daily habit, along with switching. Switching between apps, browser tabs, tasks, etc. That switching can really be counter-productive as many studies have shown multitasking does more harm than good.

Consider how your day went yesterday. Did you create anything?

What about consumption? How much information did your senses download over the day?

Did you take any time out to breathe and gain a moment of peace?

Try to create something today. Just whatever pops into your head first thing, do it.

You could write a little something, draw, make a sculpture out of your lunch – the possibilities are endless right? And so a valuable thought in that first action is born, about the limitless opportunities and variations and versions of things. All come from an idea in your head.

So for me, I’d estimate that I was about 80% consumption and 20% creation. My job as a marketer and passion as an entrepreneur means I need to create more as part of what I do. This is in the form of ideas, strategies, plans and content.

Personal development tip: take small steps to transform your habits

I’ve already taken actions towards improving the balance by

  1. Deleting all social media apps except for Facebook, with notifications turned off and no shortcut key on my phone screen
  2. No longer reading the news or limiting myself to a quick half-hour update once a week
  3. Constantly unsubscribing from email newsletters and curating my inbox more carefully
  4. Blogging more

I’m aiming to shift that balance to 50/50 by the end of the year by continuing these habits and creating more so that I have less time to consume.

The benefits of creating more and consuming less

In my experiment, I’ve been able to generate more ideas and elaborate on them, without all the noise around me. I’ve been able to utilise and strengthen my connection with my inner voice, my gut instinct – all those things that help you to survive and thrive. That’s one of my key personal development tips. That’s the best form of growth I’ve experienced through this reconnection with my self.

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