How Do I Overcome FOMO as a journalist without Using Twitter?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:04.800 | Hi, Cal.

00:00:05.360 | My name is Teresa, and I work as a journalist and editor

00:00:08.800 | for a niche industry publication in the Midwest.

00:00:11.960 | Before the pandemic, I would spend up to two hours

00:00:14.600 | of my workday on Twitter, thinking

00:00:16.660 | it helped me stay on top of the news in my industry

00:00:19.360 | and helped me generate story ideas.

00:00:21.920 | But in reality, it was mostly to pass the time

00:00:25.260 | while I was sitting at a desk from 8 to 5.

00:00:29.240 | After reading your books and listening to your podcasts,

00:00:31.920 | I decided to use my work from home opportunity

00:00:34.560 | to develop new habits.

00:00:37.920 | So I decided to quit Twitter.

00:00:39.880 | Now I only use Facebook to keep informed of my daughter's

00:00:42.880 | school announcements and my favorite local businesses

00:00:45.640 | I choose to support.

00:00:47.640 | The problem is, now that I'm back to the office,

00:00:51.360 | I feel like I'm behind my colleagues who are still

00:00:53.720 | on Twitter and getting story ideas from the chatter

00:00:56.840 | among those of us in our industry.

00:00:59.440 | My question is, how do I overcome the fear of missing out

00:01:03.520 | as a journalist and still stay up to date on news

00:01:07.440 | in my industry without using Twitter and social media?

00:01:11.360 | Thanks, Cal, and I really appreciate your podcast

00:01:14.080 | and all of your advice.

00:01:16.640 | Well, I appreciate this question.

00:01:18.840 | I actually had this debate with Ezra Klein in one

00:01:23.840 | of the appearances I did on his show.

00:01:25.680 | I remember arguing with him about the necessity of him

00:01:30.120 | when he was the editor of Vox actually being on Twitter

00:01:32.440 | or not to keep up with the news.

00:01:34.880 | And it was a spirited debate, which

00:01:36.240 | is to say, if you're actually in a job where you want to keep up

00:01:40.240 | with what's going on, it's not an obvious issue.

00:01:44.360 | I would say a couple of things here.

00:01:45.840 | First of all, I do applaud you for quitting Twitter.

00:01:48.920 | I think Twitter is basically like a reverse anxiety drug.

00:01:53.120 | So instead of taking Paxil to feel like you have less anxiety,

00:01:57.320 | you're taking anti-Paxil to make your anxiety really go up.

00:02:00.800 | It really is terrible for mental health,

00:02:02.480 | especially in our current climate.

00:02:04.520 | So let's start with that as probably being good

00:02:06.480 | and see if we can figure out how to go forward without it.

00:02:09.160 | I also want to mention, however, as an aside,

00:02:13.080 | this observation you had that pre-pandemic you were really

00:02:17.160 | using Twitter to fill the time.

00:02:19.720 | It's a really important observation.

00:02:22.280 | And it's why I really recommend time block planning,

00:02:24.640 | especially if you're going to be working in an office where

00:02:27.120 | you are making a plan for what you want to do with your time.

00:02:30.440 | What's the best things to do with your time?

00:02:32.440 | If you're time block planning, you're not going to kill time.

00:02:35.400 | You either are going to find more or additional productive

00:02:39.400 | things to do, or you're going to be

00:02:41.160 | able to put large intentional breaks into your day.

00:02:44.400 | And you could use these breaks to make progress

00:02:46.960 | on other projects or to learn about other things.

00:02:49.200 | We've talked about this before.

00:02:50.520 | You can do it in a way that your employer won't be upset.

00:02:53.440 | So I really don't like the idea of killing time informally.

00:02:58.760 | Schedule what you want to do.

00:03:00.000 | Make the most out of the time when you don't

00:03:01.840 | want to be working.

00:03:02.640 | Time block planning helps you do it.

00:03:04.160 | All right, let's get back to trying to stay up on the news.

00:03:07.200 | I have to imagine in whatever industry it is that you cover,

00:03:10.400 | there is a way to stay up on what matters in the news

00:03:12.840 | without having to just watch the ill thought

00:03:16.400 | through small tweet character count messages going by

00:03:21.360 | in that feed.

00:03:22.080 | There's just so much that's toxic that happens on Twitter.

00:03:24.680 | It just hits this way of interacting

00:03:27.000 | that presses all the buttons.

00:03:28.360 | Just it's so quick to be annoyed or upset or mean

00:03:32.160 | and pseudo-anonymous.

00:03:33.040 | I mean, the whole thing is a mess.

00:03:34.460 | There has to be a way.

00:03:35.640 | There has to be a way that you can stay up on news

00:03:38.160 | without having to just be there on Twitter.

00:03:41.440 | So maybe there's email newsletters.

00:03:43.160 | There's podcasts.

00:03:44.160 | There's websites.

00:03:45.040 | There's honest-to-God physical newspapers.

00:03:46.960 | Depending what the medium is, find other ways

00:03:50.000 | that you can ritualize to expose yourself to what's

00:03:52.080 | going on in that world.

00:03:55.080 | Hold the line if you can against getting back on Twitter.

00:03:58.360 | I mean, honestly, if I was a reporter--

00:04:00.320 | this is what I suggested to Ezra--

00:04:01.720 | I would rather hire someone whose job it

00:04:03.720 | was three times a day to go into a Twitter account we set up

00:04:07.400 | for them with a clear list of the type of things

00:04:10.080 | I care about, what qualifies as breaking news

00:04:12.840 | I need to know about.

00:04:13.720 | And they can call me if they see something.

00:04:15.400 | Because you know what?

00:04:15.880 | They're going to find something once a month.

00:04:17.360 | And once a month is not worth spending three hours a day

00:04:19.720 | lost in that morass of anxiety-producing nonsense.

00:04:22.400 | So find a way not to be on Twitter,

00:04:25.160 | especially if you know that you're prone to falling down

00:04:27.960 | that rabbit hole, especially if you know you're

00:04:29.960 | prone to start using that as just anxiety-producing,

00:04:32.080 | time-killing.

00:04:32.840 | There's other ways to stay up to date

00:04:34.440 | on the world with a little bit of effort.

00:04:36.160 | I think you can find it.

00:04:37.760 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:04:41.120 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:04:44.480 | Get it?

How Do I Overcome FOMO as a journalist without Using Twitter?

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