We’re being force fed information on the web. Emails, tweets, shares, pins, IMs, phone calls, etc. It’s equal parts awesome and overwhelming. I like to read and like to be an early adopter so I have this nagging need to constantly refresh my Twitter stream and email inbox during my free time.

Reading, watching and listening to stuff online has taught me so much. I wouldn’t have a job right now if I didn’t absorb information from the Internet on a regular basis for most of my life.

The perpetual need to feed information into my brain comes with a few problems though. With so much content noise, it’s easy to fall into the trap of consumption instead of creation and of reading about things instead of doing them.

I fall into this trap often:

– I’ll read dozens of articles about new affiliate marketing tactics and not try a single one
– I’ll watch workout videos on YouTube for a couple of hours instead of going to the gym

Consumption is an important part of learning but it’s void of any value without experience. Others may think I’m more productive and more in tune to what’s going on in the world when I’m active on email and social media but the opposite is true. I’m most productive and engaged when I’m doing things in real life.