Get ready for the 5-day “Infomagical” challenge.
Author Name:
Manoush Zomorodi
Activity Objective:
To answer these questions, get ready for the 5-day “Infomagical” challenge.* Search “WNYC Infomagical” for a project overview and links to instructions for each day of the challenge. Begin with Note to Self’s “The Case for Infomagical” podcast to understand how to participate. Then pick a concrete goal for the week. Do you want to be more:
Beginning on Monday, follow the basic instructions and links below. Every page on the Infomagical website contains helpful information and a worthwhile 7–14 minute podcast.
*NOTE: The project on the WNYC website is no longer interactive, so you don’t have to sign up and “Join Infomagical.”
Let’s get started! Click the forward and backward arrows to navigate through the slides. You may also click the above outline button to skip to certain slides.
The first challenge is about multitasking. Your instructions are to only do one thing at a time, because studies have shown us that our brains actually can’t process more than one task simultaneously. We are, in fact, far more productive when we singletask. Yet most of us are so prone to multitasking that we don’t even think twice about it.
Here are the basic Monday instructions from Note to Self: All day long, do just one thing at a time. If you catch yourself doing two things, switch your focus back to one. Don’t read an article and Tweet about it—read it, then Tweet. Write an email until you’ve finished it and hit “send.” Perhaps even take a moment to just drink your coffee. Use your Infomagical week goal to prioritize which thing to do when.
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The second challenge is about decluttering. Many of the apps on our phones are no longer useful to us, or maybe they no longer spark joy when we use them. Organizing our apps by concentrating on what to keep (rather than what to throw away) is a mindful exercise toward making our devices more task oriented. Think about this: will uncluttering our apps, as Zomorodi suggests we do, also unclutter our brains?
Here are the basic Tuesday Instructions from Note to Self: Today, you will rearrange the apps on your phone. You do not necessarily need to delete anything. You just need to weigh the value of each one, delete the ones that (a) you do not use or (b) do not bring you joy. Pull all of your remaining apps into folders—ideally, just one folder. When you've finished, set your phone's background wallpaper to an image that reminds you of your Infomagical week goal.
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The third challenge is about avoiding the emotional labor of keeping up with everything. Because information overload is both draining and stimulating, the goal here is to focus on only those things that actually matter to you. And in return for concentrating on your info choices, Zomorodi states, “you are going to reveal your brain’s hidden capabilities.”
Here are the basic Wednesday instructions from Note to Self: Today, you will avoid clicking on something “everyone is talking about” unless it contributes to your information goal. This might be a trending topic or a “must read” or whichever article or video or .GIF everyone in your world is sharing. You’ve got a strict rule in place: “If this does not make me [insert your Infomagical week goal here], I won’t click.”
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The fourth challenge is about having meaningful conversations and trying out the seven-minute rule. According to social psychologist Sherry Turkle, we can only decide if a face-to-face conversation is “interesting” after we engage in it for seven minutes (or more). But today we are so impatient with—and afraid of—conversation lulls, or any kind of awkwardness (inevitable with face-to-face talk, right?), that we avoid these discussions altogether! Students even avoid visiting their professors during office hours because it just seems easier to send an email. But then we are missing out on the meaningful bits. Today, your goal is to skip the texting and email and make at least one magical face-to-face connection.
Here are the basic Thursday instructions from Note to Self: Do something with all that wonderful goal-oriented information you’ve been consuming. Discuss something you’ve heard/read/watched with someone by phone or in person for at least seven minutes.
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The fifth challenge is about making technology serve you, instead of the other way around.
Here are the basic Friday instructions from Note to Self: Apply whatever you learned or observed about yourself and think about how to apply this magical feeling going forward. How can you use the idea of creating a priority, a goal, to create a magical life?
How was it? What did you learn? As Note to Self’s Zomorodi suggests, try to come up with a broader goal for tackling information overload that can even be a sort of mantra. Put it on a sticky note and affix it to your laptop. Here is her example: spend 45 minutes of each hour online working or doing homework and reserve the other 15 minutes for fun; or think more about what you read. Or, perhaps you may want to give face-to-face conversations more of a try; or your mantra could be: “read more [____], text less,” and talk, face-to-face, about your newfound ideas with your friends. Whatever you decide to do personally, bring your collective experiences to the entire class and have a good class-wide discussion about digital technology and making information overload a thing of the past.
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