Want to stay informed without the news making you depressed? Here's how to build an information diet

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1:41Grace Beverley: What is up? I'm Grace Beverley and welcome back to Working Hard, the podcast shared guidebook on how to improve your own life and achieve what you actually dreamed of doing. Because life's too short for boring podcasts and bad advice.

1:55Grace Beverley: What is up and welcome back to Working Hard. this episode has been brewing for a while and it's something I've been having a lot of internal debates about and talking to my friends about a lot. So the question is, how do I stay informed about the world without feeling constantly overwhelmed, anxious, or like everything is about to fall apart? Because on the one hand, I don't want to catastrophize all the time. I don't want to wake up and immediately absorb 20 terrible headlines before I've even had a sip of water. I want to be able to live my life, do my job, enjoy my relationships, and not feel like my nervous system is permanently braced for impact.

2:27Grace Beverley: But at the same time, I really don't want to be ignorant. And I think it's a huge privilege, especially living in a Western developed country, to be able to look away from things that are genuinely devastating for other people, happening like right in front of your eyes. And I personally don't necessarily want to like opt out of awareness completely just because it's uncomfortable. So this episode is about finding that balance and learning how to structure an information diet that actually leaves you informed and capable of action rather than frozen by overwhelm and catastrophizing the whole time.

3:03Grace Beverley: Before we get into it though, please follow us on whatever podcast app you're listening to this on right now. It means more to us than you know. It makes a huge difference to us as a podcast and in return you get an episode ready for you every Monday morning to help you improve your life.

3:20Grace Beverley: so let's start with the context as always I feel like I don't even need to tell you that we have never had more access to information than we do right now and yet so many of us as a result actually feel less informed and more confused and definitely more emotionally exhausted than ever and really most of us aren't sitting down and intentionally reading the news anymore we are absorbing it accidentally in between voice notes, like while waiting for the kettle to boil when we're meant to be replying to a text or when we're lying in bed trying to switch off or first thing in the morning when you're actually trying to wake up.

3:51Grace Beverley: The problem isn't that we don't care, obviously. It's that our brains are actually being exposed to constant urgency without any structure, context or time to process what we're seeing. And when everything feels like breaking news all the time, nothing actually gets digested properly. And I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm in fight or flight 99 % of the time. When I was planning this episode, it reminded me of an episode from 2024 with Dr. Rong and Chatterjee, where we spoke about exactly this. Let me just quickly insert a clip in here for you. I don't know if what I'm going to say is going to sound controversial to you or not.

4:28We need to know what's going on in the world and what to care about. I've really been thinking about this over the last 12 months. So I don't watch the news. I haven't watch the news in about five years now. Apart from yesterday when I was at my mum's and the news was on, I was like, oh my God, this is so negative, right? That doesn't mean I don't know what's going on in the world. I pick it up, but I don't actively watch the news. If you think about how we've evolved as humans, we haven't evolved to know what's going on 3 ,000 miles away in another tribe across an ocean somewhere, right? So the question we have to ask ourselves is, what is our responsibility in the modern world?

5:02You know, how much do we need to be informed about one of the phrases I live by is attributed to Gandhi, which is be the change you want to see in the world. I live my life by this because I honestly believe the way to change the world is to be what you want the world to be. So I'm not pushing back on what you're saying. I'm just trying to explore that as an idea. How much do we need to be informed about?

5:23Grace Beverley: No, I do think that is a fair point. I think that there's two different aspects to it because I do think that we are enormously privileged certain people obviously more than others you know we haven't evolved to deal with this 24-hour news cycle we were never designed to be that way and now even more so than that 24-hour news cycle is this 24-hour news cycle about every single person we both know and don't know and kind of semi know through a parasocial relationship and like all of these different elements that it is it is very complex and there has to be some given that there There has to be some element of, okay, it is better if I know what's going on in this, this, in this place so that I can care for it, so that I can advocate for change, so that I can write to my MP, whatever it might be.

6:06Grace Beverley: For sure. But I do agree that there is a certain aspect of it whereby, you know, usually the people who spend more of the time reading the news are also more inclined to care more about what those various things might be and therefore just gets into this cycle of kind of negative mental space. Yeah, I think you raised some really, really great points. And I think, again, I think it all comes back to self-awareness.

6:35Grace Beverley: I feel like somehow this feels scary to talk about. Like, as soon as we talk about limiting news consumption, you open yourself up to feeling or being called tone deaf. So this year, one of my goals actually was to consume more intentionally. And instead of asking, how do I stay informed? I think a better question is, how do I structure the way information enters my life? So it actually makes me more thoughtful and more able to take action or more able to care or deep dive into some interesting things you found out rather than just feeling overwhelmed and like your nervous system is at battle all the time.

7:09Grace Beverley: So this episode is built around a few rules that I'm trying to follow this year. These aren't rigid rules. I've wanted to make them guiding principles that help me feel informed without frying my nervous system. Rule one is that we stop consuming information accidentally. Obviously where possible because accidentally means it's kind of accidentally but I do believe this is possible in this day and age. The biggest shift for me has been realizing how much information I was consuming by accident rather than my choice. So I wasn't sitting down and deciding to read about global events or deciding to inform myself on something.

7:40Grace Beverley: I was opening Instagram to reply to a friend and suddenly seeing something distressing without any warning or emotional preparation multiple times a day. And over time that adds up. So the first rule of my information diet, like any diet, is intentionality. If I'm going to consume news or serious content, I want it to be a conscious decision. And I do want that to be a conscious decision that I do integrate into my life because I am someone who wants to stay informed. I care about staying informed. I do not believe in being apolitical just because I have the privilege of politics not affecting my day-to-day life.

8:13Grace Beverley: I believe in staying informed. And so I want to make that a conscious decision, not necessarily an accidental decision that makes my nervous system constantly feel on edge. What this really means is being honest about when I'm actually in a place to process information and when I'm not, or when it's just not the right time. Like if I'm about to go into a full day of work or I've literally just opened my eyes in the morning, is it the right thing to completely fry my nervous system exposing myself to this? Like it's not meant to be self-flagellating. It's not meant to be kind of attacking yourself in order that you feel pain that other people in the world feel, that's not actually helpful to anyone.

8:46Grace Beverley: You need to give yourself permission to separate awareness from constant exposure. So rule two leads directly on from this and that is to create containers for news. This has been one of the most practical changes I've made. So I try not to let news bleed into every part of my day anymore. Instead I try to create specific containers. So a specific time, maybe once a week or a few times a week where I can properly sit down and properly catch up on what's going on. That might be through a trusted news source, that might be through a long-form article or a podcast that gives me like context rather than some panic and I'll pop some of my favourite places for finding these long reads in the Working Hard newsletter and on our Instagram this week.

9:25Grace Beverley: But I find that when information has a container it stops feeling like an endless stream and starts feeling manageable and this also makes space for critical thinking because if there's something we've talked about on this podcast recently it is the fact that everyone is lacking critical thinking and critical thinking is like flying out of our brain so quickly because of the way we're consuming media at the moment and by having these containers it means that I'm not just reacting emotionally in the moment to everything I'm actually engaging with things and I'm able to look at what I'm reading I'm able to form my own opinions without it being like something I look at for 20 seconds then immediately go to the comments then immediately get angry and all of a sudden I've gone through a full spectrum of emotions within like two minutes like that is not healthy for our nervous systems and of course it's going to happen like I've seen stuff today that has made me angry and has informed me and it wasn't in my specific container and it wasn't at my specific time like that is going to happen but it should be the exception rather than the rule one of the ways I actually love doing this at the moment is getting like it can be a newspaper I love like a vanity fair I love the news plus app on my phone other forms of media are available across all of these like those are just my personal preferences but for example like I'll buy a vanity fair and when I'm working from home in particular or even at the office it's quite a nice escape or like when I'm having my breakfast I will read a full long form article and I feel like I take in so much more and the reason I started doing this is because when I'm on holiday my favorite part of the day on holiday is sitting at a buffet breakfast and reading on my like whatever it's like Apple News or News Plus whatever it is I have the subscription to that and I go through and I save interesting articles and then when I'm on holiday, I just like scroll through.

11:01Grace Beverley: I'm reading the news. I'm not scrolling social media and you read such interesting things about many different people's experience and it's not just thrown at you on a for you page where you're seeing 30 seconds of someone's life and then 30 seconds of someone else's life and it has nuance and it has interest and it has intrigue and it's well written. Like good journalism is so, I'm not going to say fun to read. I personally think it is fun to read but I don't want to like bore you and make you think that you're never going to do that because try some good long form articles. There are really good ones in Wired as well.

11:32Grace Beverley: They're like, I save them across many different things. Wired, The Cut are some of my favourite ones on such interesting things and you're able to get actually in depth on certain topics and it reads like fiction a lot of the time. I honestly highly recommend that and I only got into long form articles quite late in life. She says it at the ripe age of 28. I think I only started reading long form articles like in my mid-20s and honestly life-changing. And if you get into long form and you want to find more interesting long form the book I can recommend the most and I don't go back and read non-fiction books ever like I skim through non-fiction books most of the time unless they're like a memoir or something Trick Mirror by Gia Tolentino is some of the best long form writing I have ever but I didn't know that writing could be like that it is funny it is engaging it is about the real world honestly if you haven't read Trick Mirror it's like in these little essays and I hate to say the word essays because you're automatically gonna I think it's boring.

12:26Grace Beverley: It is not boring. It is so interesting. It is so engaging. And as I said, it's about the world. Anyway, it's obviously not current affairs, but it is very interesting and it can really get you into long form. And I would really, really recommend doing that when you can. Guardian Long Reads is great as well. And on that subject, rule three is that we prioritize depth over volume. I feel like last year I really realized that being informed is not about knowing absolutely everything. It is about understanding something properly. And I think there are so many pop culture trends and micro news stories all the time at the moment that I feel like I've failed if I'm not on top of something or know the latest development of absolutely everything when realistically that's not even possible if you're a full-time journalist let alone someone with a full-time other job like for example I love celeb news I'm just gonna put it out there I'm interested in it I will consume it from time to time and I will find it interesting and I will send it to a friend but I also need to be able to deeply understand a few key issues that matter to me than just to like skim headlines about 20 different stories and feel overwhelmed without clarity and just like have all of this information about other people that doesn't actually affect my life.

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14:59Grace Beverley: So this year, I'm trying to read things that help me understand systems, history, and context rather than just reacting to surface-level outrage, which is, spoiler alert, mostly what comes across on social media because that's what gets clicks. So that's what you're going to see on your feed, particularly if it's unsolicited and it's appeared on your feed without you following something. But my next question was how do I actually structure this when I had to go on Instagram for work or like a little scroll? Because I like a little scroll. I should be able to have a little scroll from time to time.

15:28Grace Beverley: And that brought me to rule four. So we structure our phones so that they stop hijacking us. And this is where Shea Omenijo's advice really changed the way I think about my phone. She talked about splitting your phone by function and keeping certain apps off your phone and just going onto it on desktop. So for example, if you were really brave, you could delete the Instagram app and just go onto it on desktop and then you could always download it to upload if you really wanted. And I feel like once she talked about that, I couldn't unsee how easy we make it for ourselves to get distracted and overwhelmed when we go to the same device for literally everything we do, like messaging, news, social media, work, entertainment.

16:03Grace Beverley: That constant context switching is exhausting. It means your nervous system is always on edge because you never know what emotional experience you're about to stumble into. So I've started separating things much more intentionally using do not disturb. Messaging lives in one place. News apps don't have alerts. I've not tried the brick app blocker everyone is talking about, but I have heard really good things. And I think when you separate those functions, your brain gets to have a break and you get to regain a sense of control over when and how you engage with the world. Like it's not about not engaging.

16:34Grace Beverley: It's not about not being aware of things. It's just about it not like attacking you when you're least expecting it, which means that that is why your body is always in fight or flight. Which is why rule number five is that we respect our nervous systems. One of the biggest mindset shifts for me has been accepting that being constantly overwhelmed does not make me more compassionate, more informed or more helpful or better at my job. I used to consider myself someone who was very happy and able to be constantly informed about everything all the time and like constantly responsive and all that. I still am to a certain extent but now when I take in information I try to ask myself one question.

17:12Grace Beverley: Is there a meaningful action I can take here? If the answer is yes then I can focus on that. Whether that is like donating or sharing accurate information or supporting organizations or having informed conversations. That is far more rewarding than doom scrolling and feeling useless whenever you read any piece of news. So as always I like to speak to an expert on these episodes so I actually asked Shay back to answer the question of how she believes we should structure our information diets.

17:43So I think the most important thing is to make sure that you are evaluating the sources of your information. Right now with AI and proliferation of AI tools where anyone can create a breaking news story, whether it's true or not, it's important to make sure that you are going to trusted sources and that could be legacy sources. So reading, you know, publications that's been around like The Economist or Vanity Fair or wherever, you know, you prefer to have what I like to call the OG original share form content. So magazines where you could just flip through either digitally or analog and make sure that the information you're getting is actually high quality and verified, which is super important.

18:28The second thing I would say is it's important to carve out time in your day to actually consume information. Because if you're consuming it on a consistent basis, you're oftentimes going through context switching in your brain. So for example, when I'm working on my dissertation, or I'm working on my company, I have to make sure I have isolated time to work on just that one thing. So if I'm constantly getting notifications, you know, new sub stack, just drop. I love sub stack. I love new sub stack. Of course, I wouldn't read that. I don't want to read it right now. This is dissertation time. This is company time.

18:59This is whatever time that you have, your work time, your hobby time, whatever it is. Just make sure you're protecting that time and that you're not, you know, accidentally context switching, which can be very exhaustive for your brain and your attention. And the last thing I would say is when you're thinking about the type of information that you're consuming, think about the mindset you're in. So, you know, when I'm working on really heavy academic research, I'm in one, you know, sort of mindset when I'm, you know, working on social media stuff or working on company stuff. I'm in one, you know, specific mindset.

19:34So that oftentimes impacts how you're receiving and consuming information. So just be cognizant of that, because sometimes it doesn't always have to be news. It can be a book. It could be, you know, some form of pop culture. Like, you know, your brain is automatically thinking about the last thing that you just did or read. I like to think of your intellectual diet in terms of three main categories. So you have reading or consuming information for pleasure, things that are good for your brain, things that you agree with, things that you really enjoy reading. So it doesn't matter the category or the genre or even the lunch.

20:11That doesn't really matter. The second type of things that you should be having in your intellectual diet is reading for information, reading for growth, reading for personal development, reading to learn something new. Like when I first started doing AI research, I was consuming so much information because I wanted to read every textbook and learn everything, which is really good because then you're stretching your brain and making sure that you're constantly growing in all areas of your life. And then the final is what I like to call the necessary vegetables. You have to make sure that you're reading information that is difficult or that you disagree with or is outside of what you normally reach.

20:53And this is really important because you want to make sure that you are also refining your own positions, your ideas, what you believe, you know, arguments that you're used to giving or having. Right. Just want to make sure that you have a full intellectual place and you can continue thinking critically and being your smart, most amazing self.

21:19Grace Beverley: I love Shay and if you haven't listened to our full episode with her you absolutely need to like it was one of the most interesting conversations I've had for a very very long time my brain felt tingly it felt stimulated in a good way so that is my take on going on an information diet without becoming ignorant that is what I have been in a rabbit hole in for the past few weeks and I hope you can see from this that it's not about like switching off and pretending the world is absolutely fine and you're fine so you can just stay in your little tower. It's about structuring the way that information enters your life so that it informs you and you can act on it if you want to rather than overwhelms you.

21:51Grace Beverley: You are allowed to care deeply and still live your life and I think that's hard but it's the reality. Like it has to be the reality now. We have so much access to so much information all the time. Like you have to still be able to live to some extent and you are allowed to stay informed and still be able to protect your peace, not least because you're probably going to be more useful to whatever cause you care about if you do protect your peace. If this episode resonated, send it to a friend who's also feeling a little bit fried and I'll link some further reads in the Working Hard newsletter this week if you want to go deeper on this topic.

22:21Grace Beverley: Actually, it's worth saying that we made the Working Hard newsletter originally for people who want to change their information diet. So we link long read articles, long form videos that do deep dives on things like generally really interesting things that aren't always just snippets. We often go further on the episodes themselves, but it's a lot of the time just completely unrelated stuff that was really interesting. So if you don't know where to find good articles on different things that you should care about or things that I found interesting, then definitely follow that newsletter. And we also share them on Instagram at workinghardpod too.

22:50Grace Beverley: Anyway, thank you so much for listening and I will see you next week.

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