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You need space to ponder when reading on Medium
Decided to read my article, ay?
Since you’re here, I won’t repeat my above warning.
In fact, this article will be so short and to-the-point, that you may walk away pondering my words for quite a while, at least I did.
When reading Deep Work by Cal Newport today, he shared an experience he had during studies that helped him keep his deep focus.
But before I share that experience, think,
have you recently felt a bit overwhelmed when reading Medium stories?
After all, like any social media, in order to gain visibility on your stories, you have to read other stories. The main difference between other social media’s though, is that Medium has many more words to read in a story than the usual 10-worded tweets (at least before long-forms).
Not only are there more words, but there’s more to think about!
Reading several tweets in a minute and feeling overwhelmed by the clear-cut hype and news titles are one thing, but it’s another to spend minutes reading story upon story on Medium.
Often, more thinking means feeling more overwhelmed.
Sadly, when having to read many articles in a day, it can take away from the author’s experiences that are worth learning about because it’s harder to slow down and ponder them.
While this may always be a struggle, the following strategy may help.
Productive Meditation
With the “intent on staying fit”, Cal Newport would jog, walk, and do other activities to help him make “progress on many knotty problems” in his academic research.
“The goal of productive meditation is to take a period in which you’re occupied physically but not mentally… and focus your attention on a single well-defined professional problem.” — Deep Work, Cal Newport.
Of course, this problem can be anything, even simply thinking over a life lesson you learned in a Medium article that you want to apply in your personal life.
By stimulating your thoughts with good exercise, it makes finding those takeaways in stories easier. After all, we don’t want to stay “seated… doubled up, stooped, [and] shriveled in on itself,” (Extended Mind, pg. viii).
We need to allow our thoughts to extend outside our room and be cleared by the outdoor air!
Image by Gaspar Zaldo from Pexels
Now, this certainly doesn’t just apply for walking in nature, you could just walk around your house, prepare coffee, or do light cleaning. Anything that helps you get up and think.
Takeaway
Even with the pressure to read as many stories as possible, we want our time on Medium to be a productive experience.
So after every article you read; trying getting up, giving a quick tidy-up to your desk, and ponder over that life lesson shared.
Not only will you feel better, but you’ll gain more in the long-term.