Recently, I read a newsletter by Ali Abdaal where he talked about an idea he called the creation-to-consumption ratio.
It’s a simple formula:
# of hours spent creating ÷ # of hours spent consuming
For example, if you spent 10 hours consuming content made by other people in the last week and only 2 hours creating something of your own, you would have a .2 ratio.
But is that good or bad?
In the newsletter, Ali advocates for a ratio of roughly 1:1.
Personally, I think that’s pretty tough. Even as a professional creator, I don’t think I could consistently hit that number.
But there is a powerful principle that I want to unpack here:
You need to do SOMETHING with all the information you're consuming.
Your Mind is a Waterwheel
I believe that your mind is like a waterwheel: water comes in, turns the wheel, and then leaves.
In this case, information is what powers the wheel.
But when the flow stops, so does the wheel. If your PKM system doesn’t have an output, it won’t belong until you start to feel anxious and stressed.
That’s because your brain wants to make sense of what it’s collected. But you need to give it a way to express itself.
The way to do this is simply by writing. Doesn’t matter what you write; it’s just important that you write.
There’s an old saying that “thoughts disentangle themselves through lips and pencil tips.”
I’d add “and also clicky keyboards.”
The trick to making sense of things (and making more of your notes and ideas) is to force yourself to have an output.
It doesn’t matter what the output is. It could be a blog post, a podcast episode, a YouTube video, or simply an opinion note you create in your PKM system.
But you need to have an output in addition to the input.
Be a River, Not a Reservoir
A river has both an input and an output. Water flows into, through, and out of a river.
As a result, the fresh water in a river is a source of life.
But a reservoir is different. A reservoir has an input, but no output. Things can come into a reservoir, but they don’t leave.
Without an output, a reservoir will turn stale.
This was the problem with Evernote back in the day (and why it earned the unpleasant nickname of “the roach motel”). It was incredibly easy to get things into Evernote, but getting them out was a huge pain.
But it’s not really Evernote’s fault. In fact, many people have left Evernote and end up making the exact same mistake when they move things into a new note-taking app.
As long as there’s no output, it’s only a matter of time until things go bad. After a while, an unattended reservoir becomes a cesspool.
Don’t let this happen to your notes! Make sure you have a consistent flow of information into and out of your PKM system.
The Bottom Line: Just Create!
Personally, I wouldn’t worry about the consumption-to-creation ratio. In fact, an argument could be made for spending more time consuming if you focus on high-quality inputs (i.e., physical books 😉).
But I understand and agree with the larger point: the focus should be on creating.
That’s why one of my personal core values is Create, Don’t Consume.
It doesn’t mean I don’t consume anything. It means that I always make sure I create something from the information I collect.
The important thing is that you create something with the notes & ideas that you’ve captured.
