Intentional Consumption

The world today is designed such that consumption is significantly easier than production*. It is the path of least resistance. One ought to be aware when they’re engaging in one vs the other.

People are likely to associate consumption with pleasurable activities like eating, and production with arduous activities like working. This dichotomy is misleading. All things in life have a consumptive facet and a productive one.

Consumption acts consume our mental headspace and reward us immediately with happy chemicals (or numbing). Consumption is when you reach for your phone when you wake up. Consumption is playing that podcast as soon as you hop on the bus. Consumption is mindlessly spending time with your partner on the couch.

Acts of production take as input willpower and mental energy. The reward is progress. They force us to be present. You know you’re about to engage in a productive act when you feel a little friction in the beginning. A production act is having a deep conversation with your partner. It is also attempting to answer that ambiguous problem at work, instead of tending to small bugs or features.

Consumption per se is not harmful. However, one ought to be aware of three harmful acts of consumption: 1. unintentional consumption. 2. excessive consumption. 3. consumption disguised as production. The latter can be particularly dangerous because it gives us the illusion of progress.

The first step to Intentional Consumption is to identify consumptive acts. Below are a few examples from my life:

1. My phone usage was almost entirely consumptive and brought little joy to my life. The notification on Sunday reminding me that I spent three hours per day on Youtube, Reddit and ChatGPT was enough to convince me of this. I will share in a later post how I managed to reduce my phone usage to a couple of minutes per day at most.

2. Playing music/podcasts when working out, walking or driving. I used to put on my Airpods as soon as I leave the house. After probing this act, I realized that most of the times, I wasn’t even listening to what’s playing. Removing it helped me focus on my workout and be more present with my surrounding.**

3. When I am struggling with some mental dilemma, I tend to gravitate towards reading testimonials on personal blogs or Reddit which results in these aha moments that last a few hours or days at best, only for the problem to creep back up. Production, in this case, is delving inwards until one can fully articulate their feelings, then maybe move to the solution stage.

Without self-awareness or accountability, consumption can fully “consume” our life and mental bandwidth.

Choose Intentional Consumption.

* My guess is that consumption goods and services are competing for our attention, and hence were designed with the least friction possible.
** I must emphasize that I didn’t stop playing music/podcasts entirely. However, when I do, it is intentional (e.g. I must have a song in mind that I want to listen to).