Your attention diet
What you consume is what you create. A deep dive into the idea that your input dictates your output, and how to curate a media and information diet that fuels original thought.
Gary Bloomer | SHAKING THE TREE # 254
In terms of the food we eat, we understand intuitively that a high fat, high sugar and salt diet of junk food and crap leads to a body that is overweight, sluggish, inflamed, and unwell and to a mind that’s a little less than plugged in.
We smoke too many cigarettes, we drink too much alcohol, and we pay way too little attention to the rubbish we watch on TV.
And then, as all of the above wasn’t bad enough, we fritter away hours of valuable time, doom scrolling on social media and on our phones.
We scroll through endless digital content buffets, consuming whatever nonsense is placed in front of us, oblivious to the mental and creative consequences of the virtual lard dancing before us.
And yet, while we’re eating up all of this crap, we, as content creators, miss one important point: that it is not possible to create quality content while we’re consuming a diet of nonsense.
So it’s time for a paradigm shift. A reset if you will: a changing of gears and a retooling of the way we look at and envision what we’re seeing online and what we’re putting out there.
Instead of seeing your attention as an infinite commodity to be spent, begin seeing it as a finite resources, as a precious fuel to be invested. And whether you like it or not, the input—your Attention Diet—dictates everything you produce in terms of your output. What you consume is, quite literally, what you will create.
Mental garbage In, garbage out
Think of your mind as a finely tuned, highly sophisticated information processing unit shaped and melded into its current form by hundreds of thousands of years of constant, selective improvement and biological refinement.
When you feed it thought provoking notions, idea generating combinations, fact-based considerations, and informed and logically phrased reasoning, you plant the seeds for new ways of approaching a whole host of issues, situations, questions, and problems.
Sadly, the opposite is also true.
When you feed your mind a constant stream of clueless grifter opinions, mind-numbing hot takes, wild-assed speculation, algorithmically-driven faux outrage, and the polished highlight reels of other people’s over privileged lives, your mind creates a toxic sludge of trivia-laden, outrage-driven and socially shallow envy and over-reaction.
This slew of pointlessly derivative content anchored in over reactive thinking and needless anxiety creates a scrambled sense of what’s important, true, relevant, and accurate.
Essentially, your brain has two jobs. The first job is to keep you alive, safe, healthy, fed, rested, and connected to what’s going on around you. To accomplish all this, your brain’s other job is to serve as pattern-matching machine.
Parts of the pattern need to connect to your values and desires. While other parts of the patter, the bits that don’t fit with who you are and what you’re about, THOSE parts need to be tossed to one side, discarded as being useless or of no value.
Your brain takes the information you feed it or that it’s exposed to and it mixes those data points into a neural stew of raw material.
In turn, that stew acts as the base recipe for your thoughts, ideas, dreams, and beliefs, and for your values, aspirations, hopes, prejudices, biases, and ultimately, for your your emotional, physical, and psychological state.
If your input mental diet consists of only ever digesting someone else’s curated thoughts, opinions, values, and beliefs—no matter who odd or questionable and points that you take for granted without ever once thinking to question or counter—you will be forever doomed to repeat, reassemble, and regurgitate those pre-conceived, pre-owned ideas into a pale imitation of originality thought.
In essence, instead of being your own person and having your own voice, you become an echo chamber for someone else’s points of view. In a case like this you might not know it but you might just be part of a cult.
This is the silent plague of the modern creator, leader, and thinker: we are all drowning in a sea of mindless, thought-limiting content, we’re parroting opinions we absorbed unconsciously, and mistaking the spirit of the age for our own genuine insight.
Curating your information plate
So, how do we shift from a diet of mental fast food to one of slow, nourishing sustenance? It requires the same discipline as any healthy lifestyle change: intention, curation, and consistency.
1. Conduct a ruthless audit.
For one week, track your attention. Where does it go each day? The mindless scroll through social media? The 24/7 news cycle that peddles panic? The podcast that makes you angry for entertainment? Write it down. You can’t change what you don’t measure. Be honest and don’t judge—just observe. The results will be your wake-up call.
2. Go whole-grain, not sugar-coated.
Replace processed information with primary sources. Instead of reading a hot-take article about a new scientific study, try to find the study itself (or at least the abstract). Instead of watching commentary on a historical event, read a book by a respected historian. Consume content that requires active engagement, not passive consumption. This is the whole-grain information that fuels deep thought.
3. Fast from the feed.
Intentionally schedule periods of “attention fasting.” This isn’t just about digital detox; it’s about creating space for your own thoughts to germinate. A walk without headphones. A coffee break without a phone. Staring out a window. In the silence you create, your mind stops processing other people’s ideas and starts connecting its own. This is the fertile ground of originality.
4. Diversify your intellectual cuisine.
If you only consume content from your industry, you will only have ideas for your industry. Break out of your intellectual silo. Read poetry if you’re a programmer. Study architecture if you’re a marketer. Listen to classical music if you’re a rocker. Cross-pollination of disparate ideas is the engine of true innovation. A unique perspective is born from a unique combination of influences.
5. Be the Chef, not the diner.
Shift your relationship with media from a passive diner to an active chef. When you read or watch something, do so with a purpose. Ask critical questions: “What is the core argument here?” “How does this connect to something else I know?” “Does this resonate with my experience, or challenge it?” This active engagement transforms consumption into a creative act itself.
The output of a nourished mind
When you consciously curate your Attention Diet, the change in your creative and intellectual output is profound.
The noise recedes and your own signal becomes clearer. Your work becomes more insightful because it’s built on a foundation of diverse, deep knowledge, not the shaky scaffolding of the latest trend.
You solve problems more creatively because your brain has a richer, more varied database from which to draw connections.
You stop creating content and start contributing ideas.
Your attention is the soil from which everything you create will grow. Stop polluting it with junk. Nourish it with intention, and you will be astonished by the originality, clarity, and vitality of what blossoms.
Your mind is your most valuable asset. Feed it accordingly.
As always, thanks for reading.
—Gary
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P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.
Next time on Shaking the Tree: From failure to fertile ground
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.