We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom. The average person now consumes the equivalent of 174 newspapers worth of information every dayâfive times more than in 1986. We check our phones 96 times daily. We're exposed to 5,000 advertising messages. We process 34 gigabytes of data.
And yet, we can't remember what we read yesterday. We feel scattered, overwhelmed, perpetually behind. Our attention span has shrunk to eight secondsâless than a goldfish. We mistake information consumption for learning, scrolling for living, and constant input for growth.
The solution isn't better time management or faster reading techniques. It's the radical practice of information fastingâdeliberately limiting your exposure to unnecessary information to create space for genuine presence, deep thinking, and actual wisdom.
Let's explore how consuming less can help you experience more.
The Information Obesity Epidemic
Just as we've developed an obesity crisis from consuming too many empty calories, we've created an attention crisis from consuming too much empty information.
The Cost of Constant Input
Cognitive overload: Your brain has limited processing capacity. Every piece of informationâemail, notification, headline, social media postâconsumes cognitive resources. When overloaded, your brain shifts to shallow processing. You take in information but don't understand it deeply. You become a passive consumer rather than an active thinker.
Decision fatigue: Every choiceâwhat to read, watch, click, respond toâdepletes your willpower. By noon, you've often made hundreds of micro-decisions about information consumption, leaving you depleted for decisions that actually matter.
Continuous partial attention: Coined by Linda Stone, this describes being constantly alert to multiple information streams but never fully present to any of them. You're always "on" but never truly engaged.
The anxiety loop: Consuming negative news, social media comparison, and urgent notifications triggers cortisol release. Your body stays in low-level fight-or-flight mode. Peace becomes impossible.
Lost contemplation: When every quiet moment is filled with information input, you lose the mental space necessary for insight, creativity, integration, and wisdom.
Mindfulness insight: True presence requires emptinessâmental space to experience what's actually here, now, rather than being lost in endless streams of elsewhere.
What Is Information Fasting?
Information fasting is the deliberate practice of abstaining from unnecessary information consumption to create space for presence, reflection, and genuine experience.
It's not about becoming uninformed or disconnected. It's about being selectively informedâconsuming only information that serves your values, supports your goals, or genuinely enriches your life.
The Principles
1. Intentionality over Default
Don't consume information automatically. Choose consciously what deserves your attention.
2. Quality over Quantity
One deeply read book teaches more than a hundred skimmed articles.
3. Primary over Secondary
Experience life directly rather than consuming others' experiences of life.
4. Creation over Consumption
Shift from passive consumption to active creation and reflection.
5. Depth over Breadth
Master a few things rather than superficially touching many.
Identifying Unnecessary Information
Not all information is created equal. Here's how to distinguish necessary from unnecessary:
Necessary Information
Information that:
- Helps you make specific decisions you need to make
- Supports work or learning you're actively engaged in
- Deepens relationships that matter to you
- Aligns with your values and life direction
- Brings genuine joy without negative aftermath
- Teaches skills you're actually applying
Unnecessary Information
Information that:
- Triggers anxiety without enabling action
- Feeds curiosity about things irrelevant to your life
- Serves primarily as distraction or procrastination
- Promotes comparison and inadequacy
- You consume out of FOMO (fear of missing out)
- You immediately forget
- Interrupts deep work or presence
- Replaces genuine experience
Mindfulness practice: For one day, notice every piece of information you consume. Ask: "Does this serve my life, or am I serving it?"
The Categories of Information Fasting
1. News Fasting
The problem: Most news is:
- Negative (bad news sells)
- Irrelevant to your actual life
- Beyond your control
- Repetitive (same stories, different days)
- Designed to trigger emotional reactions
The practice:
- Beginner: Eliminate breaking news and notifications. Check news once daily.
- Intermediate: Read news once weekly from a single quality source.
- Advanced: Go news-free for 30+ days. (Important information will still reach you.)
What to do instead: Read books on history, systems thinking, and deep context. This provides wisdom rather than reactivity.
Mindfulness practice: Notice the anxiety of not knowing "what's happening." Observe how little most news actually affects your daily life. Feel the peace of not being constantly alarmed.
2. Social Media Fasting
The problem: Social media is engineered for addiction:
- Infinite scroll keeps you engaged
- Variable rewards (sometimes good content) create compulsion
- Social comparison triggers inadequacy
- Curated highlight reels distort reality
- Time disappears into the feed
The practice:
- Beginner: Delete apps from phone. Access only via browser with strict time limits.
- Intermediate: One platform maximum, specific times only (not first/last thing daily).
- Advanced: Delete all accounts. Reclaim hundreds of hours annually.
Alternative: Use social media as a creator, not consumer. Post intentionally, then leave. Don't scroll feeds.
Mindfulness practice: Notice the urge to check. Feel the physical restlessness. Observe the stories your mind tells ("I'm missing out," "I need to stay connected"). Return to direct experience of the present moment.
3. Email Fasting
The problem: Email creates false urgency:
- Inbox becomes others' agenda for your time
- Constant checking fragments attention
- Immediate response becomes expected
- Email becomes procrastination disguised as productivity
The practice:
- Beginner: Check email only 3 times daily at scheduled times.
- Intermediate: Check once daily, batch process all responses.
- Advanced: Check email weekly. Auto-responder explains your schedule.
Strategies:
- Unsubscribe ruthlessly (use unroll.me or similar)
- Filter aggressively (most email doesn't need your attention)
- Use "delay send" for responses (breaks the instant-response expectation)
- Implement "inbox zero" philosophy
Mindfulness practice: Notice the compulsion to check email. Feel the anxiety of "not knowing." Discover that most email isn't urgent despite feeling urgent.
4. Entertainment Media Fasting
The problem: Passive entertainment consumption:
- Replaces active engagement with life
- Becomes default for any quiet moment
- Provides empty pleasure without genuine satisfaction
- Consumes hours that could be spent creating or connecting
The practice:
- Beginner: No screens for first/last hour of day. Limit streaming to specific shows you choose (no browsing).
- Intermediate: One movie per week. No TV series (they're designed for binge consumption).
- Advanced: 30-day entertainment fast. Notice what fills the space.
What to do instead: Read, create, converse, walk, play music, engage hobbies, be bored.
Mindfulness practice: Observe how you use entertainment to avoid discomfort, boredom, or difficult emotions. Practice being with emptiness rather than filling it automatically.
5. Podcast/Audiobook Fasting
The problem: While often educational, constant audio input:
- Prevents mental silence and contemplation
- Becomes background noise rather than engaged learning
- Fills every moment, preventing boredom (where creativity emerges)
- Gives illusion of productivity while walking/commuting
The practice:
- Beginner: Silent walks/drives at least 3x weekly.
- Intermediate: Podcasts/audiobooks only when actively taking notes.
- Advanced: Periods of complete audio input fasting.
Mindfulness practice: Walk in silence. Notice sounds of the world. Let thoughts arise and settle naturally. Discover what your mind offers when given space.
6. Opinion/Commentary Fasting
The problem: Others' opinions about everything:
- Replace your own thinking
- Trigger reactive emotions
- Polarize your worldview
- Waste mental energy on things beyond your control
The practice: Eliminate:
- Opinion columns and editorials
- Hot takes on Twitter/social media
- Comment sections (never read them)
- Outrage content (designed to provoke)
What to do instead: Form your own opinions through direct experience, primary sources, and contemplation.
Mindfulness practice: Notice how consuming others' outrage makes you outraged. Feel how your mind becomes colonized by others' thinking. Reclaim your mental sovereignty.
The Practice: How to Fast from Information
Start with a Baseline Assessment
Week 1: Track without changing
- Log every information source you consume for one week
- Note time spent and emotional impact
- Identify patterns, triggers, and habitual consumption
Questions to ask:
- What do I consume out of genuine interest vs. habit/compulsion?
- What information enriches my life vs. drains my energy?
- What could I eliminate without any real loss?
- When do I use information consumption to avoid something?
Design Your Information Diet
Just as you'd plan healthy eating, design intentional information consumption:
Daily allowances:
- Email: 2-3 check-ins, 30 minutes total
- News: 15 minutes from one quality source (or zero)
- Social media: 20 minutes creator mode, zero consumption mode
- Entertainment: 1 hour maximum
- Educational content: 1 hour with notes/application
Weekly allowances:
- Long-form reading: 5+ hours
- Podcast/audiobook: 3 hours actively learning
- Social media: Consider zero
- News: One deep read of weekly magazine/newsletter
Monthly allowances:
- Books: 2-4 completed (quality over quantity)
- Courses/deep learning: One area of focus
- Films: 2-4 intentionally chosen
Implement Progressive Fasting
Don't go cold turkey on everything. Build gradually:
Week 1-2: Foundation
- Delete social media apps from phone
- Turn off all non-essential notifications
- Set specific email check times
- Create phone-free zones (bedroom, meals, first hour of day)
Week 3-4: Deepening
- Eliminate news notifications and breaking news
- Unsubscribe from 50% of newsletters/emails
- Implement one screen-free day weekly
- Begin journaling instead of consuming content
Week 5-6: Transformation
- Reduce social media to weekly or eliminate entirely
- Move to weekly news consumption or eliminate
- Create daily silent time (no inputs at all)
- Replace consumption with creation
Week 7-8: Integration
- Establish sustainable information diet
- Notice changed relationship with attention
- Recognize triggers for compulsive consumption
- Celebrate reclaimed time and presence
The Mindfulness Benefits
1. Restored Attention Span
Without constant interruption, your capacity for sustained focus returns. Deep work becomes possible. You can read for hours, have long conversations, pursue complex projects.
Practice: After 2-4 weeks of fasting, try reading a challenging book for an hour. Notice improved concentration.
2. Emotional Regulation
News and social media are emotional manipulation machines. Without constant trigger exposure:
- Baseline anxiety decreases
- Mood stabilizes
- Emotional reactivity reduces
- Inner peace becomes accessible
Practice: Notice your emotional baseline before and after fasting periods.
3. Enhanced Presence
When you're not constantly pulled into digital elsewhere:
- You notice your actual surroundings
- Conversations become fully engaging
- Boredom transforms into contemplation
- Simple pleasures satisfy
Practice: Have a meal without any information input. Just taste, smell, feel, see. Experience the richness of pure presence.
4. Recovered Time
The average person spends 7+ hours daily consuming media. Even cutting this in half reclaims 3.5 hoursâ1,277 hours annually. That's:
- 63 full days of waking hours
- 10+ books read deeply
- A new skill mastered
- Hundreds of hours for relationships
- Time for that creative project you've postponed
Practice: Track time saved from fasting. Allocate it intentionally.
5. Clearer Thinking
Information overload creates mental fog. With space to process:
- Ideas connect in new ways
- Insights emerge spontaneously
- Decision-making clarifies
- Creativity flourishes
Practice: Keep a journal for insights that arise during information fasts.
6. Genuine Learning
Skimming hundreds of articles creates illusion of learning. Deep engagement with fewer sources creates actual understanding.
Practice: Choose one book. Read slowly, take notes, apply ideas. Compare learning depth to a month of article-skimming.
Creating Information Boundaries
Physical Boundaries
The sacred spaces:
- Bedroom: No screens (including phones)
- Dining table: Conversation only
- Bathroom: Private time without digital intrusion
- Car: Music or silence, not constant podcasts
The phone garage: Designate a charging spot away from bedroom. Phone "parks" there evenings and nights.
Temporal Boundaries
The protection windows:
- First hour of day: No information input. Morning pages, meditation, movement, breakfast.
- Last hour before bed: Wind-down routine without screens.
- Meals: Food and conversation only.
- Walks: Silent contemplation or genuine conversation.
The sabbath: One full day weekly completely screen-free and information-free.
Digital Boundaries
Device settings:
- Grayscale mode (removes dopamine triggers of colorful apps)
- All notifications off except calls from favorites
- App time limits with no override option
- Browser extensions blocking social media/news sites
Account boundaries:
- Delete accounts you don't need
- Unfollow everyone who doesn't add genuine value
- Unsubscribe from all non-essential emails
- Use RSS readers to control when/how you consume (instead of algorithms)
The Withdrawal Period
Like any fast, you'll experience withdrawal. Expect:
Days 1-3: Acute discomfort
- Strong urges to check devices
- Anxiety about missing out
- Boredom (this is where growth happens)
- Restlessness and irritability
Days 4-7: Adjustment
- Urges decrease in intensity
- Boredom transforms into contemplation
- Novel experiences of quiet mind
- Surprising insights emerge
Week 2-3: Opening
- Attention span noticeably improves
- Emotional baseline calms
- Real interests and desires surface
- Time expands
Week 4+: Transformation
- New relationship with information
- Conscious choice replaces compulsion
- Deeper satisfaction from selective consumption
- Genuine presence becomes accessible
Mindfulness practice: Observe the withdrawal without judging it. Notice urges arise and pass. Feel discomfort without needing to fix it. This is the practice.
What to Do With the Space
The point isn't just to consume lessâit's to live more. Here's what to do with reclaimed attention:
Contemplative Practices
- Meditation (now easier with quieter mind)
- Journaling and reflection
- Nature walks
- Simply sitting and being
Creative Pursuits
- Writing, painting, music
- Cooking, gardening, crafting
- Building, designing, making
Deep Learning
- Read books deeply (not for information but transformation)
- Master skills through deliberate practice
- Study subjects that genuinely fascinate you
Genuine Connection
- Long conversations without phones
- Quality time with loved ones
- Community involvement
- Meaningful correspondence
Physical Presence
- Exercise and movement
- Sensing your body
- Experiencing your environment
- Noticing what's actually here
Selective Re-Introduction
After an initial fast (30-90 days recommended), selectively reintroduce information:
The discernment questions:
- Do I miss this source? (Genuinely, not habitually)
- Does it align with my values and goals?
- Can I consume it consciously rather than compulsively?
- Does it add more than it takes?
- Is there a better alternative?
Reintroduce only what passes all five questions.
The one-in-one-out rule: For every new information source, eliminate an old one.
Seasonal fasting: Even sustainable sources benefit from periodic fasting. Consider quarterly 30-day digital detoxes.
Common Challenges
"I Need to Stay Informed"
Reality check: What percentage of news you consumed last year was both true, important, and actionable? Probably under 1%.
Alternative: Choose one high-quality weekly source (The Economist, New Yorker, etc.). This provides actual context instead of reactive coverage.
"My Job Requires Email/Social Media"
Boundaries within requirements:
- Batch process instead of constant checking
- Set clear work hours for digital communication
- Separate work and personal accounts/devices
- Use focus time blocking
"I'll Be Bored"
Reframe: Boredom is the birthplace of creativity, contemplation, and genuine rest. Our inability to tolerate boredom indicates addiction to stimulation.
Practice: Embrace boredom as meditation. Sit with empty time. Notice what emerges.
"I'll Miss Important Information"
Test it: Do a 30-day fast. Note what "important" information you missed. Almost always: nothing that actually affected your life.
Truth: Important information has a way of reaching you. Unimportant information, however, drowns out the important.
Conclusion: Less is More
In a world screaming for your attention, mindfulness is choosing where your attention goes. In an age of information abundance, wisdom is knowing what to ignore.
Information fasting isn't deprivationâit's liberation. You're not missing out; you're opting in to:
- Your own thoughts instead of others'
- Direct experience instead of mediated reality
- Deep understanding instead of shallow awareness
- Presence instead of distraction
- Living instead of observing others live
The practice is simple: Consume less information. The transformation is profound: Experience more life.
Start today. Choose one category to fast from for one week. Notice what happens when you stop filling every moment with input. Feel the space. Discover what emerges in the emptiness.
Your attention is your life. Where it goes, you go. Choose wisely. Choose less. Live more.
What will you fast from first?
