We live in a world of over-abundance of information. It is remarkable how many different media outlets, social networks, news sources, and random mobile apps compete for your attention. It is easy to get overwhelmed by all the different options — and to waste an incredible amount of time sifting through them all with little value to show for it.

In January, I gave up Twitter for the month and found it amazingly relaxing — with little lost in terms of information. For the time being, I’ve decided to continue to avoid Twitter with the occasional exception to post an interesting article or thought. I’m getting emails for interactions and DMs, but I’m really avoiding the feed. One big questions I get from people is how do I get news without Twitter. I have been refining my news diet for a number of years, so I thought I would share it here.

It’s actually been a bit of a journey. I used to sign up for a lot of different news sources and found it overwhelming and very duplicative. I’ve recently narrowed this list of sources and have found myself much happier with the more limited set of information. I don’t feel un-informed — and it’s eating up a lot less of my time.

I actually get a number of my news sources through daily email newsletters. I find that very refreshing

General News

These are my more general news sources. I actually receive all of them via daily email subscriptions (except for the Economist, which doesn’t have an email option). The emails serve as a great reminder to read through everything — and I like getting the information that way.

  • New York Times Morning Briefing. This is a great, quick read in the morning to give me an overview of what’s going on in the world.
  • ** Economist Espresso**. Also a quick morning read, but with a more international flavor. If I don’t get to something any given day, it’s usually this.
  • New York Times Evening Briefing. A very concise wrap up of the big stories at the end of the day.
  • New York Times California Today. A good news roundup (with one bigger story per day) of just CA news. It’s always good to know your state news on top of the national stories.
  • Pasadena NOW. I also enjoy getting the highlights from the city I live in. This daily newsletter is a good roundup of daily city news.

Industry Topics

  • Stratechery. This is a great daily read on the business strategy of the technology space. I’ve been a subscriber for a few years and find Ben’s analysis very useful and informative. Worth the $100/year.
  • Feedly Subscriptions.. Since the death of Google Reader (still a painful topic…), I have been using Feedly to curate my industry specific news sources. I find it a great way to have a list of sites that I can skim headlines for and read a few articles in more detail. I do spend some time curating the list of sites and will on occasion add or remove sites from the list. It’s a mix of standard tech sites (The Verge, Recode, Ars Technica, Five Thirty Eight) with some individual blogs. Limiting feeds and curating them regularly is key here.
  • American Banker Daily Briefing. Given my current role of establishing partnerships between Upstart and banks/credit unions, I find this to be a great source of daily news.

This overall news diet has been quite effective for me. I can get quick, general updates in the mornings and it only takes 10–15 minutes. I tend to look through my Feedly feed throughout the day. Mostly I read the headlines, but I do drill in and read full articles a few times a day. That doesn’t take much time — and I feel like I see most of the critical news I need.