Podcasts about infomagical

You send us a lot of questions about managing tech-life. This week, Manoush has the answers.   Is there a secret to managing the overload of information coming at us every day? What about all those random accounts you’ve signed up for over the years - can we EVER make them go away? And how do we stay plugged in with friends and family if we decide to break up with social media? It’s the first-ever Note to Self advice show.   WE HAVE LINKS While researching this show we compiled a list of tools to help you manage information overload and your digital privacy, and ditch FOMO for JOMO. Setting an information goal. Manoush has some tips for resetting how you read, post, and browse online. No need to feel icky about Instagram. But when discipline and diligence don’t work out, it’s okay to seek help. Our favorites: airplane mode (sorry), Moment for iOS, Freedom, and Self Control. Also, try some DIY adjustments to your app permissions - turn off your cellular data for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can’t browse when you’re out and about. Oh, also check out Infomagical - a week’s worth of challenges, with Manoush’s moral support, to help you manage infomania. Bonus: Manoush recommends some of her favorite newsletters in the show. What makes it past her info-management threshold? The Ann Friedman Weekly, Axios, Quartzy, REDEF, and Dave Pell’s Next Draft. Reclaiming your digital self. Digital privacy matters - even if you don’t have something to hide. That’s why we dedicated a whole project to it last year: The Privacy Paradox. Good for first timers, and even worth a refresher. Other things the team loves: from the EFF, a tool to help you track what’s tracking you online Deseat.me, to delete the random accounts you’ve accumulated over the years DeleteMe, a service you can pay to opt you out of data brokers Julia Angwin’s DIY guide/report on opting out of over 200 data brokers and JustDelete.me, to find the cancellation pages for the services you’ve signed up for. Bonuses: our friend Mike Rogers, the developer we mention in the show, made a Chrome extension for JustDelete.me, and it’s open source. We also found this page, where Facebook lists the data brokers it buys from and provides their opt-out pages. Pretty helpful.     Also, we mention the quest for a perfect oatmeal cookie recipe in this episode, and how opening your phone for that can send you down a rabbit hole. So, to save you that one hunt, here.  

You send us a lot of questions about managing tech-life. This week, Manoush has the answers.   Is there a secret to managing the overload of information coming at us every day? What about all those random accounts you’ve signed up for over the years - can we EVER make them go away? And how do we stay plugged in with friends and family if we decide to break up with social media? It’s the first-ever Note to Self advice show.   WE HAVE LINKS While researching this show we compiled a list of tools to help you manage information overload and your digital privacy, and ditch FOMO for JOMO. Setting an information goal. Manoush has some tips for resetting how you read, post, and browse online. No need to feel icky about Instagram. But when discipline and diligence don’t work out, it’s okay to seek help. Our favorites: airplane mode (sorry), Moment for iOS, Freedom, and Self Control. Also, try some DIY adjustments to your app permissions - turn off your cellular data for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can’t browse when you’re out and about. Oh, also check out Infomagical - a week’s worth of challenges, with Manoush’s moral support, to help you manage infomania. Bonus: Manoush recommends some of her favorite newsletters in the show. What makes it past her info-management threshold? The Ann Friedman Weekly, Axios, Quartzy, REDEF, and Dave Pell’s Next Draft. Reclaiming your digital self. Digital privacy matters - even if you don’t have something to hide. That’s why we dedicated a whole project to it last year: The Privacy Paradox. Good for first timers, and even worth a refresher. Other things the team loves: from the EFF, a tool to help you track what’s tracking you online Deseat.me, to delete the random accounts you’ve accumulated over the years DeleteMe, a service you can pay to opt you out of data brokers Julia Angwin’s DIY guide/report on opting out of over 200 data brokers and JustDelete.me, to find the cancellation pages for the services you’ve signed up for. Bonuses: our friend Mike Rogers, the developer we mention in the show, made a Chrome extension for JustDelete.me, and it’s open source. We also found this page, where Facebook lists the data brokers it buys from and provides their opt-out pages. Pretty helpful.     Also, we mention the quest for a perfect oatmeal cookie recipe in this episode, and how opening your phone for that can send you down a rabbit hole. So, to save you that one hunt, here.  

You send us a lot of questions about managing tech-life. This week, Manoush has the answers.   Is there a secret to managing the overload of information coming at us every day? What about all those random accounts you’ve signed up for over the years - can we EVER make them go away? And how do we stay plugged in with friends and family if we decide to break up with social media? It’s the first-ever Note to Self advice show.   WE HAVE LINKS While researching this show we compiled a list of tools to help you manage information overload and your digital privacy, and ditch FOMO for JOMO. Setting an information goal. Manoush has some tips for resetting how you read, post, and browse online. No need to feel icky about Instagram. But when discipline and diligence don’t work out, it’s okay to seek help. Our favorites: airplane mode (sorry), Moment for iOS, Freedom, and Self Control. Also, try some DIY adjustments to your app permissions - turn off your cellular data for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can’t browse when you’re out and about. Oh, also check out Infomagical - a week’s worth of challenges, with Manoush’s moral support, to help you manage infomania. Bonus: Manoush recommends some of her favorite newsletters in the show. What makes it past her info-management threshold? The Ann Friedman Weekly, Axios, Quartzy, REDEF, and Dave Pell’s Next Draft. Reclaiming your digital self. Digital privacy matters - even if you don’t have something to hide. That’s why we dedicated a whole project to it last year: The Privacy Paradox. Good for first timers, and even worth a refresher. Other things the team loves: from the EFF, a tool to help you track what’s tracking you online Deseat.me, to delete the random accounts you’ve accumulated over the years DeleteMe, a service you can pay to opt you out of data brokers Julia Angwin’s DIY guide/report on opting out of over 200 data brokers and JustDelete.me, to find the cancellation pages for the services you’ve signed up for. Bonuses: our friend Mike Rogers, the developer we mention in the show, made a Chrome extension for JustDelete.me, and it’s open source. We also found this page, where Facebook lists the data brokers it buys from and provides their opt-out pages. Pretty helpful.     Also, we mention the quest for a perfect oatmeal cookie recipe in this episode, and how opening your phone for that can send you down a rabbit hole. So, to save you that one hunt, here.  

You send us a lot of questions about managing tech-life. This week, Manoush has the answers.   Is there a secret to managing the overload of information coming at us every day? What about all those random accounts you’ve signed up for over the years - can we EVER make them go away? And how do we stay plugged in with friends and family if we decide to break up with social media? It’s the first-ever Note to Self advice show.   WE HAVE LINKS While researching this show we compiled a list of tools to help you manage information overload and your digital privacy, and ditch FOMO for JOMO. Setting an information goal. Manoush has some tips for resetting how you read, post, and browse online. No need to feel icky about Instagram. But when discipline and diligence don’t work out, it’s okay to seek help. Our favorites: airplane mode (sorry), Moment for iOS, Freedom, and Self Control. Also, try some DIY adjustments to your app permissions - turn off your cellular data for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can’t browse when you’re out and about. Oh, also check out Infomagical - a week’s worth of challenges, with Manoush’s moral support, to help you manage infomania. Bonus: Manoush recommends some of her favorite newsletters in the show. What makes it past her info-management threshold? The Ann Friedman Weekly, Axios, Quartzy, REDEF, and Dave Pell’s Next Draft. Reclaiming your digital self. Digital privacy matters - even if you don’t have something to hide. That’s why we dedicated a whole project to it last year: The Privacy Paradox. Good for first timers, and even worth a refresher. Other things the team loves: from the EFF, a tool to help you track what’s tracking you online Deseat.me, to delete the random accounts you’ve accumulated over the years DeleteMe, a service you can pay to opt you out of data brokers Julia Angwin’s DIY guide/report on opting out of over 200 data brokers and JustDelete.me, to find the cancellation pages for the services you’ve signed up for. Bonuses: our friend Mike Rogers, the developer we mention in the show, made a Chrome extension for JustDelete.me, and it’s open source. We also found this page, where Facebook lists the data brokers it buys from and provides their opt-out pages. Pretty helpful.     Also, we mention the quest for a perfect oatmeal cookie recipe in this episode, and how opening your phone for that can send you down a rabbit hole. So, to save you that one hunt, here.  

You send us a lot of questions about managing tech-life. This week, Manoush has the answers.   Is there a secret to managing the overload of information coming at us every day? What about all those random accounts you’ve signed up for over the years - can we EVER make them go away? And how do we stay plugged in with friends and family if we decide to break up with social media? It’s the first-ever Note to Self advice show.   WE HAVE LINKS While researching this show we compiled a list of tools to help you manage information overload and your digital privacy, and ditch FOMO for JOMO. Setting an information goal. Manoush has some tips for resetting how you read, post, and browse online. No need to feel icky about Instagram. But when discipline and diligence don’t work out, it’s okay to seek help. Our favorites: airplane mode (sorry), Moment for iOS, Freedom, and Self Control. Also, try some DIY adjustments to your app permissions - turn off your cellular data for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can’t browse when you’re out and about. Oh, also check out Infomagical - a week’s worth of challenges, with Manoush’s moral support, to help you manage infomania. Bonus: Manoush recommends some of her favorite newsletters in the show. What makes it past her info-management threshold? The Ann Friedman Weekly, Axios, Quartzy, REDEF, and Dave Pell’s Next Draft. Reclaiming your digital self. Digital privacy matters - even if you don’t have something to hide. That’s why we dedicated a whole project to it last year: The Privacy Paradox. Good for first timers, and even worth a refresher. Other things the team loves: from the EFF, a tool to help you track what’s tracking you online Deseat.me, to delete the random accounts you’ve accumulated over the years DeleteMe, a service you can pay to opt you out of data brokers Julia Angwin’s DIY guide/report on opting out of over 200 data brokers and JustDelete.me, to find the cancellation pages for the services you’ve signed up for. Bonuses: our friend Mike Rogers, the developer we mention in the show, made a Chrome extension for JustDelete.me, and it’s open source. We also found this page, where Facebook lists the data brokers it buys from and provides their opt-out pages. Pretty helpful.     Also, we mention the quest for a perfect oatmeal cookie recipe in this episode, and how opening your phone for that can send you down a rabbit hole. So, to save you that one hunt, here.  

There is a lot to take in in our world right now. And there are a lot of ways to do it. You can read articles posted by your Facebook friends, or by the journalists you follow on Twitter. You can watch cable news with your morning oatmeal. Which makes it all too easy to succumb to information overload. That buzzy, anxious feeling of there’s just too much out there to consume - but I need to know all of it, right? That feeling isn’t new. It’s just especially turned up in 2017. So this week, an episode worth repeating. We’re proposing one tweak - a challenge of sorts - to change your day. To help you think deeper and consume information meaningfully. Think spring cleaning for your neurons. With neuron experts Dr Daniel Levitin and Gloria Mark, Professor of Informatics. And if you like this episode, you’ll love listening to the entire Infomagical series. You’ll find some calm and some focus. Maybe even magic. If you did the project, it might be time for a refresher! Support Note to Self by becoming a member today at NotetoSelfRadio.org/donate.   

There is a lot to take in in our world right now. And there are a lot of ways to do it. You can read articles posted by your Facebook friends, or by the journalists you follow on Twitter. You can watch cable news with your morning oatmeal. Which makes it all too easy to succumb to information overload. That buzzy, anxious feeling of there’s just too much out there to consume - but I need to know all of it, right? That feeling isn’t new. It’s just especially turned up in 2017. So this week, an episode worth repeating. We’re proposing one tweak - a challenge of sorts - to change your day. To help you think deeper and consume information meaningfully. Think spring cleaning for your neurons. With neuron experts Dr Daniel Levitin and Gloria Mark, Professor of Informatics. And if you like this episode, you’ll love listening to the entire Infomagical series. You’ll find some calm and some focus. Maybe even magic. If you did the project, it might be time for a refresher! Support Note to Self by becoming a member today at NotetoSelfRadio.org/donate.   

There is a lot to take in in our world right now. And there are a lot of ways to do it. You can read articles posted by your Facebook friends, or by the journalists you follow on Twitter. You can watch cable news with your morning oatmeal. Which makes it all too easy to succumb to information overload. That buzzy, anxious feeling of there’s just too much out there to consume - but I need to know all of it, right? That feeling isn’t new. It’s just especially turned up in 2017. So this week, an episode worth repeating. We’re proposing one tweak - a challenge of sorts - to change your day. To help you think deeper and consume information meaningfully. Think spring cleaning for your neurons. With neuron experts Dr Daniel Levitin and Gloria Mark, Professor of Informatics. And if you like this episode, you’ll love listening to the entire Infomagical series. You’ll find some calm and some focus. Maybe even magic. If you did the project, it might be time for a refresher! Support Note to Self by becoming a member today at NotetoSelfRadio.org/donate.   

There is a lot to take in in our world right now. And there are a lot of ways to do it. You can read articles posted by your Facebook friends, or by the journalists you follow on Twitter. You can watch cable news with your morning oatmeal. Which makes it all too easy to succumb to information overload. That buzzy, anxious feeling of there’s just too much out there to consume - but I need to know all of it, right? That feeling isn’t new. It’s just especially turned up in 2017. So this week, an episode worth repeating. We’re proposing one tweak - a challenge of sorts - to change your day. To help you think deeper and consume information meaningfully. Think spring cleaning for your neurons. With neuron experts Dr Daniel Levitin and Gloria Mark, Professor of Informatics. And if you like this episode, you’ll love listening to the entire Infomagical series. You’ll find some calm and some focus. Maybe even magic. If you did the project, it might be time for a refresher! Support Note to Self by becoming a member today at NotetoSelfRadio.org/donate.   

There is a lot to take in in our world right now. And there are a lot of ways to do it. You can read articles posted by your Facebook friends, or by the journalists you follow on Twitter. You can watch cable news with your morning oatmeal. Which makes it all too easy to succumb to information overload. That buzzy, anxious feeling of there’s just too much out there to consume - but I need to know all of it, right? That feeling isn’t new. It’s just especially turned up in 2017. So this week, an episode worth repeating. We’re proposing one tweak - a challenge of sorts - to change your day. To help you think deeper and consume information meaningfully. Think spring cleaning for your neurons. With neuron experts Dr Daniel Levitin and Gloria Mark, Professor of Informatics. And if you like this episode, you’ll love listening to the entire Infomagical series. You’ll find some calm and some focus. Maybe even magic. If you did the project, it might be time for a refresher! Support Note to Self by becoming a member today at NotetoSelfRadio.org/donate.   

Using audio, voicemails and texts, Infomagical is a five-day experiment that crowdsources data and stories about how people consume information online

Think about where you go to find news. Podcasts? WNYC? The New York Times? Facebook? Twitter? Newsletters? Do you want us to stop asking questions? Welcome to the Attention Economy. There is fierce competition for your eyes and ears — (thank you for choosing correctly). Media companies know that a good way to find an audience is to write and speak like the people they're trying to reach. It's the reason Buzzfeed, Vice, Mashable and so many others are popular with Snake People. Identity Media is a big part of why theSkimm — a newsletter that targets Millennial women by rounding up the day's news from Kanye West to Ban Ki-moon — has over 3.5 million subscribers. You might be one of them. This week we talked to theSkimm co-founders Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg about how they go about presenting the news. Identity Media is more than just a business model, it's changing how we consume the news. To try and sort out why this "Skimm" approach to serious stories made her feel a little queasy, Manoush talked to John Herrman. He reports on the media for the New York Times. Together, Manoush and John embark on a mission to answer that age-old question: Do Justin Bieber and Hiroshima belong in the same sentence? Here's a rundown of links to supplement this week's episode: The Skimm issue that mentions President Obama's trip to Japan The New York Times article about the same trip How the Japan Times covered the same trip How Buzzfeed covered it, and then went in a different direction The Politico playbook A silly guide to generation gaps In a way, this whole conversation ties into — you guessed it — our Infomagical project. (Did you catch last week's boot camp?) How we consume media and our goals for reading the news can influence our ability to think and communicate. If you want to get in on the project, it's still around for a limited time. For more Note to Self, subscribe to Note to Self on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, I Heart Radio,Overcast, Pocket Casts, or anywhere else using our RSS feed.

Good morning, pleasant Saturday, and Happy Valentine’s Day. We’ve got a lovely podcast for you that aligns with the, “Thank you, #infomagical,” post from Wednesday. As you may know, I discovered the podcast, “Note to Self,” in the midst of their #infomagical challenge week.  I did it, and it was exceptionally helpful for me from several perspectives including mindfulness, relationships, anxiety, and worry.  Specifically, and respectively: more, better, minimal, and negligible. So, Jen and sat with beer.  She with Fat Head’s Head Hunter IPA (ABV: 7.5/IBU: 87), which likely sits upon the Mt. Rushmore of American IPAs…even with all of the wonderfulness from the west coast; and I with a gifted Dogfish Head Higher Math (ABV: 17/ IBU: 35) which is literally like drinking 3-4 regular beers.  Notably, this is the first time I’ve had a huge beer and actually enjoyed it from first to final sip…so Huzzah! to the brewers in Delaware. And, we discussed our experiences with Infomagical. At the very end, there’s a lovely little musical foundation what will excite many of my several (…is that possible?…) 40+ year old listeners. I present to you, “Note to Drink: #infomagical.”   She brought all my dreams alive. (For me.)

You haven't watched Lemonade all the way through yet, have you?  Oh, you didn't notice the extra twist of the knife in Sunday's Game of Thrones? Yes, Hillary just became the presumptive nominee. Yes, we know you haven't been paying that much attention. National Doughnut Day was last week. But you? You're eating one today, aren't you? In sum: There's a million things you haven't done – but just you wait! Just you wait!  It's time for Infomagical BOOTCAMP. Earlier this year, 30,000 of you participated in our Infomagical project, five days of challenges designed to fight information overload – that buzzy, anxious feeling of, there's way too much out there to consume, I am not getting anything done all the way through, and I still have no idea what people are talking about. This week, we've made an extra special, super-charged challenge that only lasts one day. A very, very, very productive day. Perhaps you participated in the first round, you've been very focused ever since and now you want to get something 100 percent DONE before you leave for a well-deserved summer vacation. Perhaps you participated, and you've fallen off the wagon. Perhaps you did not participate because you were overwhelmed by the idea of a week-long commitment. Perhaps you did not participate because you did not know about it. This is your chance. ATTENTION!  Listen to this week's Note to Self wherever you listen to your podcasts for your challenge and instructions. And if you want to do a full Infomagical week – or if you know anyone who could benefit from one – you can still sign up here for a few more weeks. If you're doing it? Or if you have big ideas for our next big project? Let us know @NoteToSelf (#infomagical) or Note to Self on Facebook.

Let's start with a quick recap: More than 25,000 people signed up for Infomagical, our project designed to make information overload disappear. Using either email or text messages, we issued five challenges to participants over five days – single-tasking, tidying our phones, avoiding meaningless memes, delving deeper into conversations, and setting a larger "rule" or "mantra" for information consumption. Texters got reminders through the day and check-ins at night. (Note To Self) Emailers took a follow-up survey each morning.  This week, we're taking a look at how well this experiment actually worked. Here is a quick look at some of the crazy – yes, let's go ahead and call them crazy – stats: We sent 300,000 messages via text. We received over 1,100 voice messages. Taken all together, that's over 15 hours of recorded audio. We saw at least 300 Kondo'd phones. We heard from people in all 50 American states and at least 10 different countries. On this week's show, we've invited Professors Gloria Mark of the University of California-Irvine (you might remember her from the first day of challenges and the infamous 23 minutes + 15 seconds to refocus rule) and Calvin Newport (author of "Deep Work")  to help us put your Infomagical responses into a larger context of academic and industry studies. We've also asked WNYC's Data News wizards to help us explain the key takeaways about what happened over the course of the week in the podcast and below: The first thing we asked people to do when they signed up was pick an “information goal” – one of 5 – to keep them on track all week. The number one goal (31 percent of participants) was: "be more in tune with yourself." "Be more up to date on news and current events" came in a solid last. (Alan Palazzolo/WNYC) Every day, we asked participants to rate how well they stuck to their goal on a scale of one to five, with five as "awesome." Over the course of the week, people's responses indicated that they were in fact sticking more closely to their chosen goal. For the participants who did the project by text message, we'd then follow up with "and how overwhelmed do you feel now?" According to senior editor John Keefe, scores went up steadily among the people who responded. "Early on in the week, about 40 percent of the people said that they felt less overloaded, less overwhelmed with information [at the end of the evening]. Which is pretty good, but it's still less than half. By the time we got to Day 5 on Friday, 71 percent of the folks who responded said that they felt less overloaded. So we went from 40 percent on Monday to 71 percent on Friday." Of the five goals, those who chose "be more in tune with self" felt the most significant effects from the project. (Alan Palazzolo/WNYC) There are definitely caveats here – it's hard to keep a 25,000-volunteer sample group consistent, and we can only work with the data from people who responded. That said, our response rate stayed relatively high (around 50 percent) through all five challenges. To that end, we also paid special attention to the reams of qualitative data participants sent our way. We've got a huge range of voices in the podcast this week. Some honestly made us choke up a little. (Note To Self) We also asked people to choose an emoji most representative of their 7-minute conversation. Talk about data: We're really hoping the "heart eyes" emoji mean someone fell in love. We will totally come if you invite us to an Infomagical-inspired wedding. (Alan Palazzolo/WNYC) A few more emoji response favorites: [1:04 🍃 this may turn over a new leaf 🏊 it went swimmingly 🔩  I screwed up and forgot to converse by mouth If you want to try the project by text or email, sign up for the series starting next Monday at wnyc.org/infomagical. In the meantime... you can always turn off all of your devices, stop, and just take a few minutes listen to the original musical scoring from our colleague Hannis Brown. Subscribe to Note to Self on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, I Heart Radio, or anywhere else using our RSS feed.

This is Challenge Four of Note to Self's Infomagical project. To learn more and sign up, visit wnyc.org/infomagical. If you want to hear how it's going for the thousands of other people participating, our hashtag is #infomagical. Yes, we do see the irony.  Here's a link to our custom emoji. Longtime listeners know Sherry Turkle – the social psychologist who studies what technology does to our relationships. If you heard our interview from a few months back, you'll also be familiar with the seven minute conversation theory she discovered in the course of her most recent research. It goes like this: in a real, verbal, human conversation, it takes at least seven minutes to see whether or not a conversation will be interesting or not.  Today, we're going to test this theory. Your instructions: Do something with all that wonderful goal-oriented information you've been consuming. Discuss something you've heard/read/watched with someone by phone or in person for at least seven minutes.   Need some more ideas to start your conversation? We've asked the team behind the scenes here – a diverse group of artists, developers, editors, audio wizards, and more – to put together a collection of prompts they think can sustain seven minutes. We've included their Twitter handles in case you'd like to report back! Fix Something "What are three products that you use? If you had to add one feature to them, what would it be and why?"  – Marine Boudeau, Director of Design, @marineboudeau Fix Something Edible "Have you ever made something (or wanted to) you first tried at a restaurant? I just spent three, count ‘em, three! days recreating chef David Chang's kimchi stew. It was a really fun experience that took a lot of focus and creativity. (I couldn't find chicken backs so I had to get creative!) Many of my capable friends have recreated cocktails from favorite bars, and I've had a few fabulous versions of the Neiman Marcus cookies from talented home bakers." –   Mandy Naglich, Manager of Marketing and Audience Development, @MandyKN Elephant Tears "We read novels, watch movies and TV, gossip with friends, and follow politics all with the help of an assumed understanding of other people's inner lives. Do you ever think about the inner lives of animals? What is their inner monologue? This is a clip from a longer documentary. You can hear Solomon articulate his feelings about Shirley. What might the animals be thinking/feeling/experiencing?" –   Amy Pearl, Senior Producer, @sugarpond The Demands of On Demand   "What effect will on-demand content (Netflix, podcasts, etc.) have on the future of traditional broadcast media?"  –   Joe Plourde, Sound Designer A Conversation About Conversation "Say someone you know travels somewhere interesting. What's a better question to ask than 'How was it?'"  –   John Asante, Associate Producer, WNYC Newsroom, @jkbasante When Was the Last Time You Discussed a Poem? A poem from the collection "Here". (Wisława Anna Szymborska, Translated by Clare Cavanagh & Stanislaw Baranczak) –  Jen Poyant, Executive Producer of Note to Self, @jpoyant A Short Story "Short Stories: Are they as satisfying to read as novels are?"  –  Paula Szuchman, Vice President of On Demand Content, @Paula Szuchman Salute the Superbowl Queen "Ahead of Coldplay's Superbowl half-time show this Sunday, reflect on the best: Beyoncé's 2013 performance is 14 minutes long, so exactly double the length of a seven minute conversation. Beyond the clear value of talking Beyoncé, this feels like a sign."  – David Cotrone, Publicist, @DavidCotrone Be Honest "What was the last article you read to completion and thought about after the fact? Explain it to each other, and discuss!" – Miranda Katz, former Note to Self intern-turned-Gothamist-writer-extraordinaire, @MirandaKatz Be Critical "Star Wars Episode VII: Plot too much like the original, or did it need to be nostalgic? And who is Rey's father??? Oh, and are you on team R2D2 or BB8 on the cuteness factor?" Additional reading: "The Nostalgia Debate Around The Force Awakens" – Valentina Powers, Director of Digital Operations, @valentinapowers Yes/No/Why "Remember Lisa Frank?" A recent post to the Lisa Frank Facebook page. (Lisa Frank)  – inspired by Sahar Baharloo, graphic designer, @saharloo Once you've had your conversation, we would love to know what you talked about. Tell us how it went on Facebook or Twitter? 

This is Challenge Three of Note to Self's Infomagical project. To learn more and sign up, visit wnyc.org/infomagical. If you want to hear how it's going for the thousands of other people participating, our hashtag is #infomagical. Yes, we do see the irony.  Here's a link to our custom emoji. No, you didn't read it. No, you haven't seen it. No, you somehow managed to miss that one.Let's practice: "I was spending my time doing something else." Your instructions: Today, you will avoid clicking on something "everyone is talking about" unless it contributes to your information goal. This might be trending topic or a "must read" or whichever article or video or .GIF everyone in your world is sharing. You've got a strict rule in place: "If this does not make me [insert your Infomagical week goal here], I won't click." Even the woman who discovered the most memorable meme of all time (argue the point, we dare you) knows that she needs to take a break sometimes.   (Just in case you'd found a really comfortable rock to hide under.)  BuzzFeed "I definitely feel information overload," says Cates Holderness, BuzzFeed's Tumblr editor. "It's both emotionally draining and psychologically stimulating in a really unsettling combination." However, today's challenge extends beyond memes. It's also an excuse to purge your reading list, rewatch a classic instead of an Oscar nominee, and just skip opening all of those tabs. You don't need to read every think piece, or follow every Trump hashtag, or share every Bernie factoid – if your information goal isn't "be 100 percent up to date on the election," maybe you can be content with knowing the results and brushing up on the issues that matter to you. If it starts to feel itchy, remember: Endless information does not make you better informed. According to historian Ann Blair, author of "Too Much To Know: Managing Scholarly Information Before the Modern Age," this is a lesson literate people have struggled to learn since the advent of the printed word. Blair says our ambivalence would sound familiar to scholars in the thirteenth century. People felt both grateful for the new wealth of information at their fingertips, and so overwhelmed that they started creating cheat-sheets, "best of lists," and signing their letters "in haste."  The settled-upon solution hundreds of years ago was to exercise a faculty called "judgment." Back then, it meant the best Latin scholars didn't copy everything out of Aristotle, they only chose the bits that meant the most for what they were working on. Today, Blair thinks the trick might be exactly the same: decide what you're doing, commit to it, and make choices. Listen above for more. And judge away! Adapted from Ammi Philips' Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog. (Note to Self/Wikimedia Commons)   May the force be with you. (Note to Self/Memeful.com) Really. (Note To Self)    P.S. The Lenny Letter Manoush mentions about endometriosis is divided up into articles here. Open only if reading 9,000 words about an under-diagnosed women's health issue fits into your goal for the week. OK, back to judging! For more Note to Self, subscribe to Note to Self on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, I Heart Radio,Overcast, Pocket Casts, or anywhere else using our RSS feed.

This is Challenge Two of Note to Self's Infomagical project. To learn more, sign up, or catch up on Challenge One, visit wnyc.org/infomagical. If you want to hear how it's going for the tens of thousands of people participating, our hashtag is #infomagical. No, the irony does not escape us.  Apple has said that the average iPhone user has somewhere around 80 apps per device. Today, we are going to arrange them into a joyful, tidy, information overload crushing bulldozer.  Your instructions: Today, you will rearrange the apps on your phone. You do not necessarily need to delete anything. You just need to weigh the value of each one, delete the ones that you a) do not use or b) do not bring you joy. Pull all of your remaining apps into folders – ideally, just one folder. When you've finished, set your phone's background wallpaper to an image that reminds you of your Infomagical week goal. Pick something meaningful to you. Or, allow us to suggest one of these (click to download): For anyone feeling even more ambitious today, tackle your desktop browser too. Or de-clutter your photos. Or, you know, your actual house.  If this "brings you joy" language sounds suspiciously like "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" to you... well, that's because author and organizational guru Marie Kondo herself is on this episode issuing your challenge instructions. She's joined by Wall Street Journal columnist Christopher Mims, whose article "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up – Digitally" inspired this exercise.  "By putting all of [your] apps into folders, you can search for them by name. What happens is your device becomes task-oriented, instead of the place [where] you go to be like, 'OK, what do I need to do next?'" Here's what his phone looks like: Christopher Mims' Kondo'd phone. (Manoush Zomorodi/Note to Self) And here's how you can do it to yours (we're modeling on an iPhone but this should work on almost any smartphone): 1) Hold down one of your apps until they all start to jiggle. If the app doesn't bring you joy (however you define it), delete it. If it does, choose one and drag it over another app to create a folder.  via GIPHY 2)  Do this with all of the apps on your phone. Put them all in folders. Ideally, put them all in one folder. via GIPHY 3) Turn off notification badges – the little red dots with numbers inside of them. Go to "Settings" ---> "Notifications." and flip "Allow notifications" to the off position. via GIPHY 4) To find your apps, open the spotlight search feature (touch and swipe down anywhere in the center of your phone or use your OK Google search field). Every time you want to use an app, search for it. via GIPHY We'd love to see yours when it's done. Tweet or Instagram with the hashtag #Infomagical or post to our Facebook page here. The whole Note to Self team wishes you a magical day. Jen thinks this challenge is the greatest thing to ever happen to her phone. (Jen Poyant/Note to Self)   Manoush – a folder person – decided this was far enough, thank you very much. (Manoush Zomorodi/Note to Self)  Ariana doesn't really know how to explain this bird gourd to anyone outside of her family, but she hopes it brings you joy. (Ariana Tobin/Note to Self)   For more Note to Self, subscribe to Note to Self on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, I Heart Radio,Overcast, Pocket Casts, or anywhere else using our RSS feed.

This is challenge one of Note to Self's Infomagical project. To learn more and sign up, visit wnyc.org/infomagical. If you want to hear how it's going for the thousands of other people participating, our hashtag is #infomagical. Yes, we do see the irony.  Here's a link to our custom emoji. Today we are focusing on our ability... to focus. Because we are nothing if not meta. Mind blown yet? OK, let's go:  Your instructions: All day long, do just one thing at a time. If you catch yourself doing two things, switch your focus back to one. Don't read an article and Tweet about it – read it, then Tweet. Write an email until you've finished it and hit "send." Perhaps even take a moment to just drink your coffee. Use your Infomagical week goal to prioritize which thing to do when.  Why is this challenge number one? Because humans are incapable of doing multiple things at the same time. Study after study has shown that "multi-tasking" is a myth. Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin explains that when we think we're multi-tasking, we're really only fooling ourselves. "You're not actually doing four or five things at once, because the brain doesn't work that way. Instead, you're rapidly shifting from one thing to the next, depleting neural resources as you go." Rapid switching back and forth comes at a cost: it eats away at your glucose levels. Which, in turn, might make you want candy. Or... Candy Crush. Low glucose levels = sluggishness, possible candy cravings, and more frequent self-interruptions. (Note to Self/Memeful.com) Gloria Mark, Professor of Informatics at the University of California-Irvine, says that this rapid switching isn't a new affliction, but it is an intensifying one. "About ten years ago, we found that people shifted their attention between online and offline activities about every three minutes on average. But now we're looking at more recent data, and we're finding that people are shifting every 45 seconds when they work online." Her lab has found a pretty clear relationship: The more that people switch their attention, the higher their stress level. That is especially concerning, she says, because the modern workplace feeds on interruptions. She calls the group of workers most affected "information workers." "'Information workers'... have to respond to the demands of the workplace.They might have every intention of doing monochronic work, but if their boss sends them an email or they feel social pressure to keep up with their emails, they have to keep responding to their emails and being interrupted," Mark said. "I think that if people were given the ability to signal to colleagues or just even to signal online 'Hey I'm working on this task, don't bother me, I'll let you know when I'm ready to be interrupted.'” We can't change your boss, but we can make a suggestion. Tell your colleagues you are doing the Infomagical challenge. Post on Facebook or Slack or wherever to signal that you are trying to single-task all day. Ask people to schedule conversations with you. You can even use your custom emoji for a visual cue.  Here's the thing, however: You can't blame your coworkers or your children or your gchat buddy for everything. Because the person who actually interrupts you the most? Yourself. Mark's lab has a term for this – the “pattern of self-interruption." "From an observer's perspective you're watching a person [and] they're typing in a word document. And then, for no apparent reason, they suddenly stop what they're doing and they shift and look at email or check Facebook. These kinds of self-interruptions happen almost as frequently as people are interrupted from external sources," Mark said. "So we find that when external interruptions are pretty high in any particular hour, then even if the level of external interruptions wane [in the next hour], then people self-interrupt." In other words, if you've had a hectic morning dealing with lots of email and people stopping by your desk, you are more likely to start interrupting yourself. Interruptions are self-perpetuating. That's why the most important signals are really the personal ones – remind yourself of your goal.  If you signed up for Infomagical via text, we'll be checking in with you today. If you are doing Infomagical by email, check your inbox! You'll get another one tomorrow morning. That's all for now. Single task, friends. Close this tab, decide what you are doing next, and THEN DO IT UNTIL IT'S DONE. The whole Note to Self team wishes you a magical day. For more Note to Self, subscribe to Note to Self on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, I Heart Radio,Overcast, Pocket Casts, or anywhere else using our RSS feed.

    This week we talk to Manoush Zomorodi about remaining human in a digital age This interview was recorded live in the WNYC studios in New York city, home of other popular podcasts like RadioLab, The New Yorker Radio Hour and Freakonomics. Manoush Zomorodi is the host and managing editor of Note to Self, “the tech show about being human,” from WNYC Studios. Every week on her podcast, Manoush searches for answers to life’s digital quandaries, through experiments and conversations with listeners and experts. Topics include information overload, digital clutter, sexting “scandals," and the eavesdropping capabilities of our gadgets. Manoush’s goal, as the New York Times wrote, is to “embrace the ridiculousness” of modern life, even when that means downloading dozens of apps to fight the feeling of digital overload.  She often speaks on creativity in the digital age, kids and technology, and non-fiction storytelling. Manoush has won numerous awards including 4 from the New York Press Club. In 2014, the Alliance for Women in Media named her Outstanding Host. Prior to New York Public Radio, Manoush reported and produced around the world for BBC News and Thomson Reuters. In 2012, she published Camera Ready, a guide to multimedia journalism. The Note to Self podcast is starting a new challenge called Infomagical to help cope with information overload.. You will hear more about during the episode. If you want to sign up to participate at go to  wnyc.org/infomagical. Challenge week starts February 1 and runs through February 5.  Our Sponsor this Week is MeetMindful Visit MeetMindful and get a free trial   In This Interview, Manoush and I Discuss: The One You Feed parable How the good and bad wolf help each other to find the middle ground Which "technology" wolf are you feeding? Keeping our humanity in a digital age Trying to understand the effects our technologies have on us Having to make too many small decisions all day long Information overload How the average American takes in over 12 hours of information per day The Note to Self Infomagical challenge The consumption to creation ratio Taking in too much information but not remembering or applying any of it How a theme is important for memory and learning The myth of multi-tasking How not being perfect is the point of being human The new digital literacy Information filter failure Asking "What's the Point" when consuming digital content Eric's Three Questions: What am I doing? Why am I doing? Is it what I should be doing? Pulsing- working in small bursts Getting everything out of your mind and written down somewhere and then prioritize it See more show notes on our website 

Here at Note to Self, we endorse using technology mindfully, thoughtfully, and not necessarily all the time. That said, we're more concerned with another sentiment you probably know all too well: the "yeah, putting down my phone is nice and all, but I have a life to live. A job to do. A conversation to hold. A cat video to send to my mother."  With that in mind, today is the day we launch Infomagical, a collective FOMO course correction. This time it's not about your gadgets per se, it's about all the stuff on them, and all the stuff coming out of them. Our plan is to turn all of your information portals into overload-fighting machines. Starting with this introductory episode (listen above), we're going to make your devices more useful through a big follow-up to Bored and Brilliant – our 2015 project inviting people to rethink their relationships with their phone and become more creative in the process. Why? Because you've told us how much you need this. In a survey of nearly 2,000 Note to Self listeners: 60 percent said they feel like the amount of effort they must exert to stay up-to-date on a daily basis is "taxing." Another 15 percent said it's downright "impossible." 4 out of 5 said information overload affects their ability to learn. 1 out of 3 said information overload was affecting their close relationships. We've talked with neuroscientists, social psychologists, business professors, anthropologists, software designers, and many, many listeners as we've designed this project. We're going to give you the tools you'll need to do this right.  Including custom emoji! (Right click to "save as image" on desktop; tap and hold on mobile). (Kevin McCauley) (Kevin McCauley) (Kevin McCauley) (Kevin McCauley) (Kevin McCauley) Each emoji correlates with one of the five "goals" you can choose at sign up. Why? To cut to the root of information overload, scientists say it is important to set one priority (also called a “schema,” “theme,” or “filter”) that you use to gauge how much something really matters to you. For example, if your goal is to learn more about the upcoming election, does that panda video really help you achieve it? No, but if your goal is to be “more connected with friends and family,” perhaps it does. These goals are meant to remind you of what you really want for the week. You can put the emoji (or any other kind of note to self) up wherever you consume information. We've got bigger badge versions on Facebook, Flickr, and below. To get you as pumped for Infomagical as we are, we lay out all of the research behind what we're doing here in the episode above. Manoush even got her brain scanned in the process. In this episode: Daphna Shohamy, Professor and Principal Investigator, Columbia University's Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute Raphael Gerraty, PhD candidate, Columbia University  Gloria Mark, Professor, the University of California-Irvine's Department of Informatics Dimitrios Tsivrikos, Consumer and Business Psychologist, the University College of London Genevieve Bell, Intel's in-house anthropologist Note to Self listeners Mark Malizia, Kristian Gendron, and Kelsey Lekowske (Emoji designed by Kevin McCauley.) Posted by Note to Self Radio on Sunday, January 24, 2016 Sign up to participate at wnyc.org/infomagical. Challenge week starts February 1 and runs through February 5. Want to tell us why you're taking part in Infomagical? Talk to us here. Got more questions? See if we've answered yours here. For more Note to Self, subscribe to Note to Self on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, I Heart Radio, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or anywhere else using our RSS feed.