Undigested information. Clogged thoughts. Bloated brain. You can see it in the eyes exposed to too many words, images, memes, videos: distant, distressed, and drained. You just went to the all-you-can-eat giga shop known as the World Wide Web or drank mightily of the social media fountain. There is too much. And I confess: I don't know what I should be reading or listening to anymore.

There is so much good stuff and not enough time to read it all. There is so much horrific stuff and not enough time to avoid it all. I needed to stop and ask myself the most basic of questions: what should I be reading?  How do I avoid just being a consumer of information and instead remain an active learner and student?

I needed some answers which began with understanding the problem:

A 2009 University of California at San Diego report suggests the average American consumes 34 gigabytes of content and 100,000 words of information in a single day. (Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” is only 460,000 words long.) This doesn’t mean we read 100,000 words a day — it means that 100,000 words cross our eyes and ears in a single 24-hour period.

Some of this may be unavoidable and is the "new normal" for those for whom wireless is the new water: a critical utility one cannot live without. But there is discretion. We can exercise choice.

I needed help so came up with a simple framework. I share it here in hopes it helps others:

For "reading" you can substitute "listening" or "watching" since we get information through multiple senses these days.

However you get information and ideas, I suggest the following four areas to help you focus and the rest you should actively avoid and ignore.

• Bull's Eye: list your top personal and professional responsibilities and ask yourself what you need to learn to be your best? Reading 1 - 4 books in your professional field per month is a good goal and will make you an expert in your field. Add in some reading about parenting teens or toddlers, cultivating a great marriage, managing finances, and whatever relates to your personal responsibilities. I am reading What the Best College Teachers Do (since that is one of my main roles) and Authentic Manhood via a church-based program that focuses on my role as husband and father.
• Boundary: ecologists tell us about the "edge effect", the abundance of diversity and activity where two habitats come together (think of a forest and a meadow). Similarly, creativity is abundant when we draw outside the lines and actively learn from other professions, industries, fields and disciplines. This is where you expose yourself to everything from graphic novels to history to the latest best-selling works of fiction. Reading 1 - 3 books in the boundary per year is appropriate. I am reading JR McNeil's Environmental History of the 20th Century as history is a field that holds a unique perspective on my usual business-centric view.
• Basics: beyond the intense activity and demands of the "bull's eye" are the perhaps less obvious subjects. If the topics in the Bull's Eye scream for attention, the Basics may only whisper. But ignore them at your peril! I think of two categories of basic, foundational areas for constant study: spiritual and pragmatic. Spiritual includes the big questions of why you are here, what you are supposed to do, your core values, your moral compass. For me, the primary resource here is the Bible. Pragmatic includes personal effectiveness basics like time/task management, goal-setting, emotional intelligence, communication skills, and physical wellness (what was the last book you read on nutrition or exercise?). I am listening again to Jim Rohn's 7 Strategies for Wealth and Happiness and reading through the Bible again this year.
• Blind Spot: this is the most intriguing, mysterious and elusive of the bunch. It begs the question: what perspectives am I not considering--or even avoiding? Actively seek to read or listen to perspectives unlike your own. I am watching both Fox News, Al Jazeera and intentionally reading articles and watching talks by people of other cultural/racial backgrounds than my own.

Finally, I am reminded the point is to learn, not just to consume. Sure, reading and watching for entertainment and enjoyment is fine and I encourage it. But beyond that, seek to be a gatherer of information and inspiration not just a window shopper. Shopping is draining. Learning is energizing.

For information not just to fatten my head and put me in an overload stupor, I don't just consume information, I learn from it. This demands three things: reading, articulating, and applying. I have a separate journal just for this practice of "cognitive fitness", reserved just to process all I am learning. Capture the ideas. Put them into practice. Reflect on them. Make them your own.

In closing, consider this: we have a metabolism that allows us to digest food and turn it into energy. We can only take in so much food. Likewise, we have a cognitive metabolism for "digesting" information and turning it into knowledge and wisdom. We can only take in so much. Choose wisely. It should be hard for something to land on your plate and on your playlist.