Kembo @Kembo_1367

Content Minimalism

In recent years, I have found myself surrounded by an endless Medium.com reading list, an endless “watch later” Youtube list, books waiting to be read, Instagram posts saved and never seen again, and endless podcast content.

In fact, this bothers me incredibly. The stress of endless lists leads to a constant fear of FOMO (fearing of missing out).

Honestly, I don’t know if there is a real solution to this?

From time to time, I get on my medium list and unwillingly, leave content that I haven’t read in weeks.

I go to Youtube “watch later” list, delete videos that have been waiting for me for years but have not been opened even once. Because, if I don’t do this, the number of videos waiting to be watched is approaching 200.

If that’s not enough, I visit google podcast. I remove podcasts that I listen to many times but can’t finish.

Worst of all, it’s constantly throwing loads of new content at us from that huge ocean that produces it every week. That’s why the damn lists are endless.

I think it should be in the Homo Deus book, Harrari says something like this. “In ancient times, having power meant having access to data. Today, power means knowing what to ignore.”

This is really important!

Maybe we don’t need to see everything. There is a columnist and speaker that I love very much, Serdar Kuzuloğlu. I was watching a speech of his yesterday. In summary, he said:

“The hardest thing in this period is to stay focused and alone. Because we get a lot of notifications. They say, “How do you read and follow so many things?” I follow thousands of content and topics. There are a lot of things that I don’t really care about as much as I do. Let’s not forget that life is a series of choices.”

So, how do we choose the right one among the endless options that have gone so far? This makes me creazy.

All of you have experienced this situation, you are looking for something to open your Netflix account and watch for hours. You browse through the movies, but you close the account without watching anything.

Even if you watch the movie, you will not be satisfied. Because one question will remain in your mind; “Definitely the other movie was better. I wish I had seen it!”

Alright! What to do?

Actually, believe me, I am confused as to what to do.

The lists go on and on and we need to realize that.

What do I want to do? What do I want to watch? What do I want to read?

I’m not going to rant about consuming the most useful content here and not wasting your time on useless things.

Just realize this. Your time is limited and you cannot consume all of this endless content.

So first stop saving Instagram posts that you’re not really going to look back on.

Do not create Netflix lists that you will never watch.

Do not add every video that comes your way on Youtube to the list.

So actually decide what is important to you, and create a filter for yourself.

Filter the content you want to consume.

Believe me, not a single video will change your life! Great things will not happen in your life just because you read only one book.

Be Minimalist in Content Consumption

Try to consume less, less but concisely.

Just as you do not want to burden your stomach with everything like garbage. Treat your brain as well. Do not fill it like a garbage dump. A historian I follow has this to say:

Everyone is ignorant of something.

Accept that you can’t master everything.

Focus on improving yourself in the area you love and deal with those topics by being selective.

Don’t Blame Yourself For Not Watching That Video, Not Reading That Book

This is one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made. Blaming myself for not reading some books or skipping a video. I haven’t watched Oscar movies yet!