Don't read the daily newspaper

I do not read the daily newspaper and I don't think you should either. When trying to both focus and be creative sacrifices has to be made and it's best to start with those that you're better off without anyway.

What do I suggest instead?

1. Read a weekly magazine
News are important for several reasons but the things that might change your life on a day to day basis will find their way to you pretty soon even if you don't read a daily newspaper.

2. Read blogs
If you read about things that interest you in blogs then that will be a focused activity that will reward you more than simply going through the newsitems and the not-often-valid journalists analysis. Blogs often give valuable perspective which can induce creative thinking. Seth Godin writes in a prediction that newspapers will change radically in some way soon and blogs may be a part of that.

So here are the reasons why people trying to maximize focus and creativity should skip the daily newspaper:

1. I have never gotten a single novel idea when reading the newspaper
Even though the news items change every day it does not seem to help the creative process yet it is a focused activity that takes quite a bit of time. Instead I recommend that you read blogs. I probably read 15+ blogs every day.

2. Weekly magazines are more worthy of your attention than daily newspapers
Daily newspapers often have to cover events that are too momentary for any analysis to be more valid than some other analysis. In this idea I am inspired by author and philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb who argues that coverage of day to day movements of the stockmarket does not help anyone reach a valid conclusion.

3. It takes more time to read daily news than weekly
It actually does. Magazines like The Economist summarize useful information and they don't include the "useless" slownewsday items.

4. Daily news is a distracting activity and weekly news is a focused activity
Taking Sunday morning to read a magazine is relaxing and feels really good. Being able to go to a news site every hour or so will be distracting. If you read a magazine your work will be more focused because distractions are reduced. You also get to take news off your mind until Sunday.

I hope that you think this is something that you can use in your life to become more focused on studying and working while also getting better at preserving creativity.