Stop Sifting Through Garbage Looking For Gold

There’s a lie creators tell themselves. We act like we need to know exactly what’s on-trend at every given moment. So we scroll Instagram, check Twitter, and watch TikTok videos for hours each day in the name of “research” and “marketing.” 

But the reality is, we don’t need to consume hours of content to understand what’s popular. It doesn’t change that much week over week. Aside from trending TikTok sounds, a daily consumption habit isn’t necessary to create something relevant. And even then, TikTok sounds usually stick around for a week or two before they lose popularity. There are curation accounts, meme accounts, and weekly wrap-up shows that will show you the trends in a fraction of the time you would have spent scrolling on your own. And if your goal is to create something somewhat original, maybe a little disconnection from the moment’s trends is a good thing. 

If you’re running a curation account, then you already know that you need to sift through mountains of garbage to find the single golden nugget. And the rewards for diligent curation accounts are great. But for the rest of us, we don’t need to sift through the garbage to find our next idea. We can find inspiration everywhere, and we don’t need that much to start creating our next good work. 

It’s radical, but a digital detox might be the key to your next great idea. 

What if we only consumed content to the extent that it helped us create?