The Magic of "Projects" in PARA: Using Output to Combat Information Anxiety - Minority#
#Omnivore
Highlights#
Adjust your information release ratio ⤴️ ^c80e33fb
No matter what you are building, the focus is on the act of creating it, releasing the knowledge in your brain through it. ⤴️ ^9b4580c8
In simple terms, it means applying what you learn; it needs to be truly utilized.
Let your release ratio be greater than 0, no matter how small that number is. ⤴️ ^113303a4
Let your release ratio be greater than 0, no matter how small that number is. ⤴️ ^c48098b5
As long as the numerator is not 0, it has meaning.
Truly utilize the knowledge you possess, and the "fuel" in your brain will flow towards this specific project, giving your knowledge a clear goal. ⤴️ ^8f0fb575
It’s really about the usefulness of knowledge; it needs an outlet to create.
All of this dissipated the moment I officially started recording the first episode. Once action began, magical things happened. Everything I heard, saw, and discussed with people, even some information completely unrelated to knowledge management, became my material. During that time, it felt like I had a pair of searchlights in my eyes, always able to discover valuable information. ⤴️ ^deef0c35
I had the same experience; extreme anxiety before starting, but once I began, everything seemed to serve me, and various examples came easily.
In Google's most mysterious department, Google X, there is a project called "Moonshot Factory," and they have a motto: "Monkey First." It means, if you want a monkey to recite Shakespeare on a pedestal, you should train the monkey first, not build the pedestal. ⤴️ ^3542e007
This emphasizes prioritizing important tasks and not doing less important things just because they are easier.
Let projects be a long-term driving force ⤴️ ^4911ec9a
This aligns perfectly with what I do; the idea is the same—project-driven. However, I believe there should be goals above projects; goals drive projects, and projects drive other things.
Moreover, once you delve into a field, you will find that useful information is not too abundant but rather scarce. Most knowledge will gradually become garbage to you, and you will look forward to certain authors releasing new works to nourish you. ⤴️ ^a17707ad
Absolutely right; this is my selection of information sources.
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We encounter many sources of information daily, and our brains are exposed to a vast amount of new information every day. Every word you hear or see helps you understand the world a little better—at least, that's what we believe.
This feeling is great, but sometimes our brains can feel overwhelmed by information, leading to anxiety.
Upon reflection, this is a strange contradiction. On one hand, we crave new information and enjoy the process of it flooding into our brains; on the other hand, we feel lost due to the sheer volume of information.
From an evolutionary perspective, there is a reasonable explanation for this. Evolution rewards those who are interested in new information, whether it's about where the prey is, which tribe member has better hunting skills, or which fruits are edible or poisonous. These individuals have a higher chance of survival and thus pass on their genes.
However, our ancestors were exposed to far less information. The amount of information a primitive person encountered in their lifetime is likely less than what we encounter in a week today, but our genes haven't had time to adjust. We still crave the "new" information, desiring the freshness and excitement it brings.
Anxiety from Information Accumulation#
Some articles you only skimmed through or even just glanced at the title. When you didn't have time to read them carefully, you saved them to your bookmarks or note-taking app, and if you've done this, that article will likely never be opened again. At least, its reading priority will be lower than that of new information.
Even if your rational mind knows that the articles you've saved are unread, and you understand that since they can be saved, their value is likely higher than a random new article, your saving behavior has deceived your brain: I understand this knowledge; I know where to find it when I need it; it has become "old knowledge" to me.
In this cycle of information addiction and self-deception, we continuously consume new knowledge, while our brains face an awkward situation: it seems to have absorbed a lot, yet remembers nothing, and there is still a plethora of fresh, unexplored knowledge waiting for you.
Thus, we begin to feel anxious, even a bit nauseous.
If you keep inputting information without appropriately releasing it—meaning you haven't effectively processed and applied this information—this unease, anxiety, and nausea will only intensify.
So, you start to deceive yourself into believing that as long as information and knowledge are properly categorized and stored, you can achieve so-called "cognitive enhancement." Consequently, constantly organizing various notes becomes your ultimate goal.
After a while, you realize that the knowledge you've accumulated hasn't contributed to cognitive enhancement; you can't see any actual changes in yourself, leading you to question whether your knowledge management methods are flawed or if the software you're using isn't advanced enough.
You browse through the shares of experts, with features like bi-directional linking, knowledge graphs, and daily reviews, all of which excite you, confirming that your methods are indeed problematic! So, you switch to new software, study its new features, and figure out how to migrate old notes without loss. Oh, and those articles you saved but never read? It would be best if they could be transferred too.
Thus, you embark on a new journey, filled with confidence for your future self, believing that this time, you will manage knowledge well.
Then, you continue consuming new information, accumulating anxiety bit by bit, until one day, everything repeats itself.
I've been talking about you, but in reality, I'm referring to my past self.
Later, I made a slight change in the entire process, which triggered a structural change in my knowledge absorption system. Compared to it, all other methods became less important.
Information Release Ratio#
Lawrence Yeo wrote an article summarizing this change as: adjust your information release ratio (Release Ratio).
In simple terms, to make the information we acquire valuable, you need to utilize it to create or build something. This could be a specific product or service, a change in personal habits, cultural output, etc. Their common characteristic is: they are all process-driven endeavors.
No matter what you are building, the focus is on the act of creating it, releasing the knowledge in your brain through it.
Lawrence says that everyone has a release valve in their brain. When you open it, it releases some knowledge into the world.
To describe it with a simple formula: Information Release Ratio = Content Created Using Information ➗ Information Consumed.
This is somewhat like cooking with firewood; the higher the information release ratio, the more fuel is processed and released.
Most people have a default release valve setting of 0 because the numerator is 0.
People tend to spend a lot of time consuming various information rather than creating something. We always tend to avoid action. As the denominator increases, meaning the backlog of fuel grows, but what we create remains at 0, we will feel increasingly anxious.
Image source: "The Release Ratio: How to Make Use of Everything You Know"
The Starting Point for Change#
What is the solution? Take the first step: let your release ratio be greater than 0, no matter how small that number is.
Whether it's 0.1 or 0.001, it doesn't matter. You can find something that only takes five minutes a day or five minutes every three days.
The word "create" may sound daunting, but in reality, anyone can do it.
For example, try recording a simple voice note after reading some content; or jot down a sudden thought that comes to mind, quickly sketch a draft; it could be a social media post, creating a WeChat group to share knowledge with a few friends, or even posting on Xiaohongshu.
The form doesn't matter; what matters is that your information release ratio is greater than 0.
Image source: "The Release Ratio: How to Make Use of Everything You Know"
The three most obvious benefits are:
First: Once the valve is opened, utilize the fuel in your brain.
Consuming some information and transforming it into creations will provide your brain with more breathing space, significantly reducing your information anxiety. Vague, chaotic information creates a lot of "to be processed" content in the brain; releasing it allows you to stop thinking about it and start thinking about new things.
Second: Find the direction you need to focus on among countless new pieces of information.
People often ask me how to find their projects (Project) and areas (Area) in the PARA classification method.
The answer is quite simple: when you take action, projects will naturally emerge, whether it's developing a small product, continuously writing something, or passing an exam. Those pointing towards action naturally belong to projects, and the "areas" that support the projects will gradually emerge.
Without action, information will never focus. When you start planning an action, you will naturally know which information is important.
Third: The burning process will continue.
Comparing the act of consuming information to create content to burning fuel is very apt because once a small action ignites the spark, the fuel won't extinguish quickly. You will receive some positive feedback (or possibly negative feedback) from a little action, and based on this feedback, you will purposefully gather information. Once you cross a threshold, the burning reaction will continue.
Many things are often the hardest part at the beginning; what you need to do is let the release ratio be greater than zero. This is key; once you achieve this, you are ready to take the next step.
When your projects emerge, the next step is to gradually increase the time invested in "burning firewood." As you accumulate simple notes, your short writings may turn into longer articles, and your small ideas may become tangible products.
At this stage, you will start to truly utilize the knowledge you possess, and the "fuel" in your brain will flow towards this specific project, giving your knowledge a clear goal.
Image source: "The Release Ratio: How to Make Use of Everything You Know"
The Difficulty of Action#
Recently, I recorded a personal knowledge management sharing video for my group friends, and I have a very deep understanding of this. Before taking action, I would have some thoughts about my knowledge management and be very interested in such articles and videos, but they all just stayed in my brain, at most sharing some sporadic points of methodology with those around me.
When I prepared for this work, I found it seemed like I would never finish preparing. From initially planning just one chapter to later six major chapters and dozens of episodes, during that time, my mind was filled with various difficulties: What if I can't record? What if I'm not professional enough? What if some content becomes outdated after a while? What if there's information I haven't collected?
All of this dissipated the moment I officially started recording the first episode. Once action began, magical things happened. Everything I heard, saw, and discussed with people, even some information completely unrelated to knowledge management, became my material. During that time, it felt like I had a pair of searchlights in my eyes, always able to discover valuable information.
Later, the structure of this output changed significantly, with many unexpected gains that were fundamentally different from the initial plan. The difficulties I worried about early on never materialized. The structural changes largely grew out of this process. By the time I recorded the 60th episode, I clearly knew that this matter had come full circle; I had completed it.
This seems like a profound change in my life, but it is not. This was already my 19th time recording a long video, and the article you are reading is one of the hundreds of articles I have publicly published in my life. I clearly know the process of this mindset shift, yet I still spend a lot of time worrying about the failure of actions before each new endeavor.
In Google's most mysterious department, Google X, there is a project called "Moonshot Factory," and they have a motto: "Monkey First." It means, if you want a monkey to recite Shakespeare on a pedestal, you should train the monkey first, not build the pedestal.
Imagine you are trying to teach a monkey to recite Shakespeare on a pedestal. How should you allocate time and money between training the monkey and building the pedestal? The correct answer is, of course, not to spend time thinking about how to build the pedestal, but to think about how to train the monkey to speak; that is the truly important thing.
Image source: monkeyfirst.com
However, many people spend a lot of time building a fancy pedestal and appear very busy. This way, they can avoid the real "project" and comfort themselves that they haven't wasted their youth.
Knowing is easy; doing is hard.
Let Projects Become a Long-term Driving Force#
Nevertheless, my life experience tells me that finding a clear goal to start acting, that is, "having a project," has such a magical effect.
It allows you to view the world from the perspective of the project. At this point, you will naturally increase the time spent from just a few minutes a day to several hours, even paying attention to related information during non-working hours. The burning speed of fuel in your brain increases, and as a project concludes, the fuel is emptied, giving your brain more space for new ideas and information, rather than allowing old information to keep piling up.
The starting point for all of this is to let the information release ratio be greater than 0.
So, is the upper limit of this release ratio 1? Not at all.
A release ratio less than 1 means that the content consumed is always greater than the content created. Spending two hours reading every day and then one hour creating, without considering losses, would give a release ratio of about 0.5.
As the act of creation increases, the knowledge you absorb may not supply the output at some point. For example, if you spend 5 hours creating daily, you are unlikely to spend 10 hours reading.
It is not uncommon for the content created to exceed the content consumed. Writers, artists, and entrepreneurs often experience this.
You can push the information release ratio above 1 in a short time, even up to 10, but such moments are overdrawn from past cognition. One day, you will feel "uninspired" or "out of ideas," and the reason behind this is a lack of fuel.
Image source: "The Release Ratio: How to Make Use of Everything You Know"
Moreover, once you delve into a field, you will find that useful information is not too abundant but rather scarce. Most knowledge will gradually become garbage to you, and you will look forward to certain authors releasing new works to nourish you.
This is why writers, artists, and entrepreneurs spend time in seclusion reading and thinking. Because, except for a few geniuses, most people find it difficult to continuously create things they haven't heard of or added to.
However, if you haven't started yet, it's best not to worry about this, because by that time, even though you may still feel anxious, it will be different from the aimless anxiety you felt before starting. You will know what you lack, and if the information you release to the world is valuable enough, many people will come to help you—such as encouragement from readers, payments from users, or even the possibility of having your own assistants and employees.
The information we encounter has always been a one-way input. The best way to break this one-way cycle is to try to create something.
If you haven't set off yet, start with something small: a Weibo post, a note, a carefully arranged social media post, a diary, or a product demo. Keep your release ratio greater than 0.
For someone like me, opening a document and writing down words is always the best project.
Nathan Barry, the founder of ConvertKit, shared a little secret behind their annual revenue of over $40 million: he made a public commitment in 2012 to write 1,000 words every day for 600 days.
He also specifically used Commit software (similar to various check-in apps in China) to track this progress. First for 20 days, then for 30 days. Soon, no matter what happened, he had to write 1,000 words every day.
Image source: The commitment that changed my career + my next project.
In the following years, he published three books and a large number of blog posts, and writing also introduced him to more outstanding people, broadening his business. He said: writing 1,000 words every day was the catalyst for all the wonderful things in my career.
Writing 1,000 words daily is roughly the length of several WeChat messages, which isn't particularly difficult; the challenge lies in finding your field and project and writing continuously. Influenced by Nathan, YouTuber Ali Abdaal also shared:
Writing 1,000 words every day will absolutely change the game. The more I write, the more I can share. Because writing is not just a mechanism for output; it is also a mechanism for thinking. The more I write, the more mature these ideas become, allowing me to put better content into books, videos, podcasts, and other things I do.
Although writing has become my habit over the years, seeing the shares from these two has led me to establish a new "project": writing 1,000 words every day. I also installed a check-in app, not planning or pondering over difficulties, but rather continuing for a while and then observing my changes.
Related Reading:
- Lawrence's article “The Release Ratio: How to Make Use of Everything You Know”
- Nathan's article “The commitment that changed my career + my next project”
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