At any single time, you are only able to either take in input, or put out output. Talking while you are listening is not doable in any useful form, and any variation of this will leave you tired very quickly. Accepting this concept is helpful for you to break up your time into manageable chunks.

Output Is The Name Of The Game

Your first priority has to be on your output. All the things we see around us are are based on some one’s output. Those people certainly had much input and knowledge obtained to be able to create, but they eventually did create. In the same way, you have to mainly be thinking about your time spent working on output.

For a freelance electrician, that means time spent doing electrical work. While an electrician could spend their time talking to other electricians and hearing what they have to say, or reading electrical books, or watching videos about cool electrical appliances, the real deal for them is doing electrical work.

For a student, putting out research papers might be the output that is needed. If this is the case, then repeating the experiment an extra time just for fun, or reading research papers on a similar topic, or doing unrelated writing might be enjoyable to do in some way, but it isn’t what is needed for output. Time has to be set and used for writing and crafting the research paper(s). We have to remember what “done” means, as David Allen would put it.

Input Is Fine As Long As It Is Controlled

Taking in input, like reading something, hearing some one’s story, watching a video, or so on, is just fine, as long as you control the duration and effects of the input. Letting the input control you is not the way to go. It might not be as leisurely or enjoyable, but you’ve got to take in input with a sense of purpose, such as by remembering that you are watching a certain video to learn a concept, or reading a certain chapter to check for a relation to your own life. We get as much out of what we see as we are prepared for, so you want to prepare for input and remain in control.

As long as you make sure to properly separate your periods of input and output, and keep a healthy amount of output in place, you will not get overtaken by input overload or any variation of it that puts you into a trance. Too much input without usage of it is like putting more and more charcoal into a barbecue grill, and not lighting the charcoal on fire. The fire, or output, is the goal.