Low Information Diet and Creativity, Part 2

It has now been a full week since I started the low information diet, and so far I have only cheated a little bit.

My first piece of advice to any sports fan who wants to go on a low information diet is: Do not do it during the playoffs.  As it turns out, I’ve stuck to my vow not to watch any television, other than in social settings, but checking playoff scores has been the one area where I have fallen off the wagon.

In all other areas, however, I’ve stuck to the plan I set out.  I have not checked my RSS reader or any other news sites.  The only times I’ve logged in to a social network has been to respond to a direct message.  I’ve checked personal e-mail only once per day.  I have not read anything new since the beginning of the diet.

And what has the result been so far?

A lot of extra time.  I always knew that I spent a significant amount of time consuming information, but I never realized just how much otherwise productive time that actually represented. 

So, that must mean that I’ve been super-productive since this started, right?  Well, not quite.  I do believe that I’ve managed to write a bit more, but the increase in productivity has not been proportional to the increase in free time.  I have a theory that people only have a certain number of productive hours in them per day, and no matter how much free time they are given, they can not exceed that number.  That certainly has seemed to be the case for me.  Despite having more time, I have simply found new ways to procrastinate.  For example, I never knew how easy it was to waste time staring out one’s window.

My other theory is that perhaps one can increase the number of productive hours in a day through practice, like marathon training.  I suppose this is what the remainder of the experiment will focus on.

In terms of creativity, I have not noticed an impact
since I stopped consuming other creative works.  Perhaps it is too early. However, what I have found is that while creativity is often inspired by other works, inspiration can also be drawn from my own work.  If, for instance, I am working on a story, I can immerse myself in that story and draw on the setting of the story I have laid out to move it forward without drawing on outside sources.  Obviously, outside sources influence the direction, but the direct inspiration is the world that I have already created.  Partly for this reason, the lack of other materials has not negatively impacted my creativity.

Also, there is a side effect to a low information diet that I had not realized going in.  When one is consuming less information, one has to make up for this loss by consuming inspiration from other sources.  Without the fiction of other writers to fall back on, I have needed to find inspiration in everyday life. This does seem to make perfect sense because when you can not simply revert to old crutches for either gaining inspiration or getting information, you need to be far more present in all other interactions.  Because of a fear that the inspiration well will run out, I find myself looking for inspiration in every conversation, interaction and event.  This can only be a good thing, because these catalysts are unique to me and can not be said to be drawn from another author or artist.

Next week, I will report back on whether my productivity has increased any further, as well as any additional unexpected benefits or setbacks.