5 Steps to Consume Less Content and Plan Your Content Consumption

Hey Friend!

Are content creation and time management a struggle for you? Have you considered that maybe it’s because you are consuming too much outside content (or maybe the wrong content)? Here are 5 easy tips to optimize your content consumption and still manage your time well.

2 Types of Information Consumption & Stef’s Personal Consumption Breakdown Revealed

Type 1: Casual Personal Development (CPD)

This type of personal development is best done ‘in addition to’! Finally, permission to multi-task! This personal development can be done while driving, doing laundry, or doing dishes. It is usually unplanned and doesn’t take much ‘brain space’. Examples are podcasts and audible books.

Type 2: Intentional Personal Development (IPD)

This type of personal development is intentional. It is planned into your work blocks. These usually take lots of focus and need your full attention. Examples of this include a course you are taking, meeting with a coach, dietitian, doing a mastermind, or bible study.

Here are some Simple Tips for More Production and Less Consumption as a Work From Home Mom

1. Zero wasted tv time
2. Zero social media scrolling
3. Got rid of news
4. No notifications

5 Steps to Optimizing Your Personal Consumption based on the 80/20 Rule.

80% production and creation and 20% IPD. This is based on Stef’s example revealed inside today’s episode!

1. Inventory your CPD and IPD.
2. What do you want this to look like?
3. Schedule it in
4. Live it out
5. Revise

I pray this episode blesses you!

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00):
What’s up, friend? It is a quick tip Tuesday. I am so pumped about today’s question. This is so good. Wait till you hear the full question, but in a nutshell, we are gonna be digging into how much consumption is normal.

Are you spending all your time listening to podcasts and learning and taking online courses and how much is too much?

(00:21):
I’m actually gonna be breaking down for you, guys, my consumption, which I’ve broken into two categories. I can’t wait to reveal these to you along with my personal week breakdown in case you’re curious, how much time do I spend consuming?

(00:34):
And maybe you can take some of these tips and work them into your schedule so that you make sure that you’re focusing on production and intentional information consumption.

(00:46):
Before we dig into the question for a quick tip Tuesday, I wanted you guys to hear from our spotlight student of the month, Courtney. Hi! This is Courtney Kountz and I am the student spotlight winner for the month of April. And my podcast is Confused to College Ready.

It is looking at unlocking the secrets during a person’s college search, working with families and students. My big win for the month of April was absolutely amazing. I started my podcast in November.

Found Stef and started with her CYC and PPU courses in January and my podcast in the month of April increased by over 1.7 times the number I had between January and March and I ranked for the first time in the top 230 for my category, I received my first 11 ratings.

I have had consistency with social media, with Pinterest. I was able to be a guest on a podcast and all of this is because of what I learned in Stef’s course. It has truly been amazing.

(03:18):
Hi, Stef! This is Kirsten from the Rejoicing and Motherhood podcast. I would love to know how much time you spend in a week consuming information, both business-wise with either courses, books, podcasts, et cetera, and even personally with reading for fun or podcasts you listen to just for your own enjoyment.

How does this fit into your week or does it? I feel like in different seasons of my life, it can be a challenge to find a balance between creating and consuming. So I would love to hear how you approach this. Thank you so much!

(03:56):
What’s up, Kirsten! Thank you for this question. I’m so here for this question, cuz you guys have heard me talk often about putting your head down. If you have been in any Stef Gass course for five minutes, you know, I’m constantly saying, keep your head down, keep your head down.

Don’t look up, don’t look up, don’t look up. And it’s because when we get super into consumption mode, we actually stop creating and producing.

(04:17):
However, I do think that there’s a healthy consumption. And I also think that we have to kind of realize what works best for us. And also based on the season that we are in. Are we in a learning season? Are we in a sprint or are we in a full-out production mode?

(04:31):
So, I’m gonna go through for you guys today, two types of information consumption. And then at the end, I’m gonna give you my personal weekly consumption breakdown revealed like the actual hour by hour play of where I am consuming based on the types of consumption that I am doing.

(04:48):
So let’s begin with type number one, you guys are gonna definitely need a notebook and pen for this one is casual personal development slash growth consumption.

So when you’re consuming and guys I’m assuming none of this is wasted consumption. This does not include Netflix. This does not include social media scrolling. This is truly like I’m here to grow in my business.

(05:09):
Now, the first type of growth in your business is casual personal development/growth consumption. This is always in addition to something. These are ones you guys can do without planning.

It’s something like listening to a podcast while you’re doing laundry, driving in the car while you’re listening to an audible book or maybe you’re listening to some type of personal development speaker, whatever, but you can do it in addition to something else.

And it’s something that is unplanned. This is called casual personal development.

(05:41):
Now the second type of consumption is intentional personal development slash growth consumption.

So both of these help you grow, both of these stretch you, encourage you, motivate you, cultivate you, and help you be better in your business, but one is casual and one is intentional. So what does intentional personal development mean?

(06:01):
This means it’s blocked into my work or personal time. I’ve gotta plan it in because it’s something that I’m gonna be a hundred percent focused on. I cannot do it in addition to something else.

Examples of this are online courses, coaching, one-on-one coaching, coaching that I’m doing with my own coaches and mentors, and coaching that you’re doing with your coaches and mentors. You can’t do laundry and show up for your coaching session.

This is mastermind time if you’re meeting with a peer-led mastermind or a paid mastermind, you should not be multitasking. You should be fully present.

(06:34):
This is also Bible study, spiritual growth, any time of personal development in your life. Maybe you’re taking a meal-prepping course. In my opinion, that’s personal development. Maybe you’re working on your food freedom. I have a food freedom coach and I have a health coach.

It’s this intentional personal development versus oh, I’m doing laundry. I’m gonna throw on some SEO podcast and learn something right now. Okay.

So that’s, first of all, I wanted to differentiate this for you because then what we’re gonna do now is we’re gonna actually go through my personal breakdown based on this, these two types of information consumption.

And then we’re gonna talk about how you can figure out the best method for information consumption for you.

(07:21):
Now, let’s begin. Well, let me go ahead and take you through the mind and I’m gonna bring you, bring you full circle with some questions that you’re gonna write down on your paper and some adjustments that I’m gonna have you make in your schedule.

So I went off of an average week for me, the way that this looks, you guys, is I have on average 26 to 29 hours of work time. I’m gonna go with the 26 hours of work time. So how do I do this? I put it in all the thing, I have my Asana task management system.

I know what I’m doing every week, all the pieces. Then it goes into my planner. My planner work blocks are color-coded in green. And I can calculate how many hours I have every single week to work.

(08:05):
So now I have to figure out what am I gonna do inside of those hours? So what I did is I took an average week and I actually went into my planner and figured it out. Two of my 26 hours were spent in IPD or intentional personal development.

I am taking a course right now in my own business. So two hours I was watching and implementing from that course. Now on average, typically I usually spend about five hours in IPD intentional personal development.

I have two coaches I’m personally working with and I’m in a peer-led mastermind and I’m taking a course right now. I’m pretty much always taking some type of course, meeting with a coach.

Guys, coaches have coaches. You wanna grow past the lid in your business, you gotta grow past yourself. You have to understand that you are the lid.

(08:52):
Always. You can only grow as high as what you’re willing to learn. You can only grow as big as you’re willing to stretch. And the only way we grow and learn is we go and we work with people that have been there.

When I pray over this and I ask God for answers, He always leads me to the right person or program. Now, of course, he also leads me to the right book and the CPD casual personal development. But if you really wanna grow, you have to invest.

In my opinion, there’s just no bigger growth catalyst for me than investing in IPD. So usually on average, it’s about five hours a week. So of this particular example for you, guys, I spent 21 hours on average producing, actually creating podcasting.

(09:41):
Yes, you can hear my kids. Sorry, love me, guys. This is life. This is why we podcast, they’re playing right outside. I’m so here for it. So 21 hours producing means income-producing, impact-producing, project-producing, producing, creation mode, being the CEO of growth in my business, 21 of 26 hours.

The other five hours, I was doing on average I P D intentional personal development courses, coaching with my personal coaches, mastermind time, et cetera. Then we go on. So 11 hours I have in my week for personal time. I wake up an hour before everyone else.

And I do my morning routine, my Bible studies, I typically schedule an afternoon on Fridays just for whatever, but typically those are spent on work projects. And then I have about 30 minutes before bed.

(10:40):
So here is where I’m gonna also look at I P D intentional personal development. And I spent five of those hours on Bible study, prayer, and God-focused time. And then two hours, I spent reading personal development and this isn’t just business.

As I mentioned, I read personal development in parenting right now. I’m reading Five conversations you should have with your son. Thank you, Jaclyn Castro, for sending that to me, love you. I read marriage books. I read personal development books, spiritual growth books, the Bible, food, freedom, fitness health, I’ve been working on weightlifting lately.

And so I’ve really been into looking up fitness and weightlifting stuff. So, personal development is making your life better. That’s okay, in my opinion, to work on that, it doesn’t always have to be business.

(11:34):
So that was two hours of reading and devos. So 11 hours of personal time, 7 of those hours were spent on intentional personal development, reading, Bible study, and God time, but it’s intentional. Not just like reading for fun, but intentional reading for growth. Next, I had five hours of kid drop off and pick up.

So three of those hours, I spent doing CPD casual personal development, just listening to audible, just finishing up the book by Brene Brown right now Dare to Lead. So good. Please do it. And podcasts, just listening to, I have a few favorite podcasts that I listen to as well. So I had 26 hours of work time.

Of those 26 hours, I spent five of them inside of my I P D specifically inside my courses, my coaching, and my mastermind time.

(12:35):
I had 11 hours of personal time, which I spent five of it on I P D, Bible study, and then two hours on my devos and intentional reading. I had five hours of kid drop off and pick up, which is where I said, when you do casual, personal development or CPD, you can do it in addition to.

So I was multitasking, listening to my book on audible and podcasts while driving. And what I like to do is listen, while I go pick up the boys, and then on my way home, I’m spending that focus time with the kids like you guys have heard me mention in the episode that I did with Miles.

We’re talking about his day and scripture and Bible studies and I use that time to my advantage. Cuz how often do you have your child strapped in and forced to listen to you? What an opportunity! Cannot be wasted.

(13:23):

So let’s just go through and talk about the reality here, guys. I wasted zero time on TV. You wanna know, what does it really take to be a high performer, a high achiever? It takes this, it takes knowing what you’re doing every single day in every pocket and being ridiculous about not wasting time. I didn’t waste time.

I don’t watch TV. I’m sorry, maybe twice, two or three times a week with my husband for an hour in the evening. Cuz it’s really important to him. I do not watch reality TV during the day.

I could be doing laundry and watching reality TV. Used to do it five years ago. Absolutely not. I have got goals, right? God’s got goals for me at this point.

(14:04):
I am doing things. So I am done wasting my precious brain space and my precious CPD time on TV. So that’s gone. I’ve got rid of social media completely off of my phone. So there’s zero social media scrolling.

If I’m gonna get into my Facebook group, which is the only place I actually intentionally get into, it’s scheduled in. Seriously, I have in my Asana card for what I’m working on today, 15 minutes for Facebook group. Done.

And all I’m really doing in there is going in and popping through and making sure comments are being attended to by the team and all those pieces. Got rid of the news.

Guys, after I got rid of social media and Instagram, I had just moved my phone addiction straight on over to the news. Cuz there was all the crazy new stuff that was going on in the past six months.

(14:49):
And so I just got rid of it. I only have these hours. I only have the 26 hours of work time and the 11 hours of personal time and the five hours of kid drop off and pick up and you probably have even less than this if you’re not a full-time entrepreneur, we can’t waste it. It cannot be wasted.

We are only going to be as successful as we are intentional. Period. End of story. Go ahead and write that quote. Tie that baby up with a bow and pin it everywhere because that’s the reality. You wanna have a big thriving, successful, fruitful, provision-filled business? Get rid of the stuff that is a time suck and a tool of the enemy.

(15:33):
Ridiculous TV shows, social media scrolling, I’m sorry, but even the news. You can and if you need to, okay, fine. Give yourself 5 or 10 minutes, plug it into your work block and then be done with it. Move on.

And then the last one is I have no notifications. I know that notifications are just a brain drug that go ping, ping, look at me. No, I’m not doing that.

My goal, I’m not there yet and I don’t know if we’ll ever be there in the society that we live in, in the technology that we live in, but my goal is to be 100% in charge of my life, which means I don’t want to be a slave to my phone and to notifications and to these algorithms, I wanna lead my life.

(16:16):
I want God to lead my life and God said no social media. And He said, get rid of this stuff and stop watching those shows and get rid of notifications. I’m so here for it. Obedience is not for the faint of heart but is for those of us that are going places, we are being trained to rain.

And it is time that we put on our little crown and we straighten it out and we say, I’m going, God, I’m here to be, I am here for such a time as this, show me what I need to lay down and show me how to be so intentional with my schedule so that I can stop over-consuming, but still learn, grow and be stretched. So that is my personal week breakdown.

(16:54):
Let’s talk about you. Here are five steps to optimizing your personal consumption. My goal is to have us off of here in 23 minutes or less. Let’s see if we can do it, cuz this is supposed to be a quick tip Tuesday. Five steps to optimizing your personal consumption based on your CPD and your IPD.

Number one, inventory your casual personal development CPD, which is what? It’s your books, your podcast consumption. It is just super casual stuff, audible books, regular books that aren’t intentional PD.

Then you’re gonna also inventory your IPD intentional personal development. Are you part of a course right now? How many hours does it take? Are you meeting with a coach? How often are you meeting with a food person? Are you going to the gym and meeting with a food coach?

(17:46):
What does that look like? I wanna see hours in here. Inventory and you’re also, the second part of inventorying is to inventory how many work hours you had that same week. So it’s Tuesday today, so go ahead and inventory last week if you can, if you’re a schedule person.

If not, you’re gonna start right now today and you’re gonna guesstimate on yesterday, which was Monday and you’re gonna finish it out for the rest of the week. You’re gonna inventory your CPD and your IPD.

Then you’re gonna find out and you’re gonna calculate the percentage of time you spent in your work hours during the time you should be working on CPD. That should be 0%. You should be doing casual, personal development in other pockets of your life, in my opinion. So, and of course, it’s just my opinion.

(18:33):
But if you’re doing laundry, if you’re doing dishes, if you’re driving, that’s where CPD goes. So check. Was it 0%? If not, let’s fix that. Now, your IPD you’re intentional. When are you scheduling that in? Are you doing your mastermind program? Meeting with your coach? Are you taking your course?

What are you doing here? And then I want you to take a percentage breakdown. If you notice, in my example, I had 26 hours of work time. On average, I spend five hours in IPD. That means that I spend 20% of my work time consuming, but it’s intentional consumption.

So for me, but I’m a full-time entrepreneur, my goal is 80/20, 80% creation and production, 20% learning and consumption. I think that’s a really great place to live.

(19:22):
So if you only have, let’s say you have 10 hours a week, I would recommend that you spend eight of those hours creating and producing and two hours consuming. So really think about that 80/20 rule.

(19:35):
So that’s what number two is, is to build your schedule based on the 80/20 rule, where are your IPD’s gonna go in next week? So actually plugging it in, scheduling it in. What do you want this to look like? So visualize that first.

(19:53):
Then step three is to schedule it in, go ahead and take pen to paper and schedule it in. I know when I look at my planner, which I do on Sunday nights, where my IPD is going.

I know I’m meeting my mastermind Tuesdays at one, I know that I’m taking my courses Wednesday during project time, Fridays during project time I’m gonna be doing blah, blah, blah. I’m gonna be meeting with my coach on Wednesday at this time.

(20:15):
It’s very obvious it’s scheduled and that I’m making sure that I’m not overcommitting myself to IPD because then my business takes a hit. I can’t just always be growing. I have to be taking massive action. More action. Look how much more 80% action. 20% stretch.

(20:35):
Number four is, live it out. So go into your week next week and live out your plan, live it out. And then step five is revise. Cause some of it’s gonna work for you. Some of it’s not gonna work for you.

What I actually notice about myself is I tend to sometimes shift towards a hundred percent action and 0%, if you look at my life three, four years ago, I had zero. And so I really have to be intentional about making sure that I’m hitting my 20% IPD intentional personal growth every week.

(21:08):
But you may be opposite, I’m over consuming. Gosh, my inventory said that I’m spending 80% consuming and only 20% even, or worse, 10% or 0% actually taking action. You’ve gotta flip that. So go ahead and revise as necessary.

And you may find, oh my gosh, Stef, those numbers are ridiculous. I can’t get there. It’s okay. Start with 50-50. Do whatever you need to do, but let’s revise in the right direction.

(21:37):
So let’s do a super quick recap. I hope that you were able to gather all of this. I think you’re gonna need to listen again to this episode and grab that notebook and pen again.

And I want you to go back through it because this is so important. I had no idea what a great exercise that today was and I’m so here for it. And I’m excited to keep talking about this stuff with you, guys.

(21:57):
So thank you for that question! But let’s do a quick recap. The two types of information consumption and personal development specific to your life, your business, growing, getting better, and stretching are number one, CPD casual personal development.

This is unplanned, it’s in addition to something else, go ahead and multitask. That’s where this goes. Listening to podcasts, and audible books.

(22:22):
Number two. The second type is IPD intentional personal development. This is planned. It’s blocked in and often it’s actually an investment. Not always, I have a Bible study in here.

That’s not an investment, but courses, coaching, masterminds, Bible studies, nutritionists, what are you doing to grow and stretch? And you have to actually show up for it with a lot of intention.

(22:50):
So five steps to optimizing your personal consumption is number one, you’re gonna inventory your CPD and then you’re gonna inventory your IPD for a full week. You’re also gonna inventory how many hours you have to work, and then you’re gonna calculate and see what that percentage breakdown is.

How do you do that? You divide your personal development consumption by your work hours, and it’s gonna give you a percentage. I would like to see 0% CPD during your work time. Go ahead and multitask that in other places. Your IPD, you wanna pop that into the work block time cuz it’s work.

You’re showing up for yourself. Number two is to visualize what do you really want this to look like? Do we have a problem? I am spending 90% time-consuming. What do you want it to look like? Go ahead and visualize. Sit with that for a minute. Pray. Be quiet. Be still, ask God, and journal.

(23:48):
Number three, schedule it in for next week the way you want this to go. Ideally, in my opinion, it’s 80/20. 80% production, 20% consumption. Number four is live it out. Go test it, try it for a week and see how it goes. And the number five is revise. Remember that this isn’t perfect.

And some weeks are gonna be really weird, other weeks you’re gonna be like, oh man, I’m stretching. I’m in this crazy mastermind. I’m in Podcast to Profit, Stef. What are you talking about? 80/20. I get it. Stretch seasons are totally real. They’re great.

They’re so good for you, but you can’t live there forever. So once you’re out of your stretch season, do this again and really make sure you get back to that 80/20. I hope this blessed you, guys.

(24:35):
I’d love to hear from you. Did you like this episode? Leave me a review for the show. Tell me if you loved it. Tell me what more you wanna hear on the podcast. Come join our free community, stefgasscommunity.com.

I would love to meet you and chat with you over there. And then last but not least. If you want to dig into the courses and the Stefanie Gass school, step one, getting clarity on your calling, clarifyyourcallingcourse.com.

Step two, starting a podcast with success, launching, knowing every piece from creation of your idea, to recording, to editing, to monetizing, to promoting, to actually getting it on Apple iTunes, all the little pieces and tacticals of starting a successful podcast that’s going to be monetized, it’s going to become your business driver, podcastprouniversity.com.

And lastly, you wanna monetize your podcast, your existing podcast. You want to make money from it using coaching or courses, join my 90 day immersion mastermind program for podcasters kicking off in August, podcasttoprofitmastermind.com. Love you, guys. God bless you. I’ll meet you back here on Thursday. Have a great day. Bye.

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