The Information Filter Framework: How To Know What Information To Save And What To Ignore

Ahoy Digital Writers!

Writing great content starts with consuming great inputs.

The problem is 95% of content consumption is procrastination disguised as productivity. Most people waste hundreds of hours consuming “just-in-case” content because it’s “interesting.” Instead, you should consume "just-in-time" to answer a question keeping you from moving forward.

One way you can avoid this rabbit hole is by creating a strong information filter.

So, we partnered up with our friend Tiago Forte one of the world’s experts on productivity and the bestselling author of Building A Second Brain, to help you determine what information to keep (and what to safely ignore).

Here’s Tiago:

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We’ve all gone through a digital hoarding phase.

You’ve saved way too much information, more than you could ever put to use. It clutters your digital workspace, making it hard for you to find the ideas you actually need.

That's why I created the Information Filter Framework.

A 3-step process and ChatGPT prompt to help you:

• Find your most pressing problems

• Create a list of Open Questions to solve those problems

• Use these questions to filter information so you can finally make what you collect work for you

So, how do you decide what content, emails, conversations, etc to keep and what to disregard?

Here’s how I like to look at it:

Filter information by finding your “favorite problems” to solve

This framework was developed by Richard Phillips Feynman, one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century.

Feynman’s work in theoretical physics radically reshaped our understanding of the universe at the most fundamental subatomic levels. But his brilliance was not solely due to his natural cognitive abilities.

He relied on a method: a simple technique for seeing the world through the lens of open-ended questions, which he called his “favorite problems.”

Throughout his life, he used these “problems” as a north star, guiding him through all the information he collected and the decisions he made.

You can use your own “favorite problems” to create a concrete set of open questions to both, filter the information you consume and connect the dots between challenges and potential solutions.

They allow you to:

• Dedicate your time and attention to ideas that truly spark your curiosity

• Attract like-minded people who have the same interests and goals as you

• See how a piece of information might be useful and why it’s worth keeping

• Focus the impact of your work on problems where you can make a real difference

• See insightful patterns across multiple subjects that seem unrelated, but might share a common thread

• Prime your subconscious to notice helpful solutions to your biggest challenges in the world around you

These open questions are hard problems without simple answers.

The truth is, they aren’t even designed to be definitively answered. The value of questions comes from provoking your thinking at deeper and subtler levels, not finding a single “correct” answer. You may even arrive at different answers to the same question in different seasons of your life, depending on what you’re going through and what’s important to you at that time.

Here’s my 3-step guide to formulating your own “favorite problems”:

Step 1: Get started with these prompts

Here are some prompts to help you get started identifying your “favorite problems”:

• What were you obsessed with as a child or teenager? (Ask your parents or caregivers)

• What are the longest-running hobbies you’ve had in your life?

• What common themes or patterns do you notice emerging in your life repeatedly?

• What kinds of stories, art, or music give you goosebumps, make your hair stand up, or move you to tears?

• What pursuits that others consider challenging do you find fun and engaging?

• What do you find your mind wandering to in the in-between moments of your day?

• If you could wave a magic wand and have the ultimate answer to any question, what question would it be?

• If you could travel to the future and ask your future self anything, what would it be? What would you ask your past self?

• If you read all the books and took all the courses you wanted to, what question would you like to have answered after all that?

• What are your most pressing problems currently?

Answer these questions in as much detail as possible.

Step 2: Formulate your own “How/What” questions

Once you have an idea of your long-term interests, I recommend phrasing them as questions that begin with “How…” and “What…”.

Such questions can’t be answered with a simple yes or no – they invite more subtle, complex answers based on deeper reflection:

• How can I…?

• How might we…?

• How can my team/organization…?

• How can I help others to…?

• How does X relate to Y?

• How do I…?

• What does it look like to…?

• What would be possible if…?

• What do I want with…?

• What would I do if…?

• What would happen if…?

• What would have to be true to…?

Once you’ve made a first draft of your list, save it in your notes (my recommendation is a digital notetaking system, which I call a Second Brain).

That way they will appear in your searches, can be linked to and tagged with related ideas, and you’ll always be free to edit and change them as your interests evolve.

Step 3: Make your questions specific, counter-intuitive, or cross-disciplinary

Now that you have your first draft of questions, it’s time to make them as direct and impactful as possible.

Here are some guidelines to help you reshape the version 1 of your questions:

1. Make them specific

Open questions are often profound and a little mysterious, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be specific as well. The best questions are ones that focus your problem-solving and spur you into action.

For example, instead of “How can I be a better team leader?” which is a little broad, try “How can I be a better team leader as an introvert when managing a team of extroverts?” See how that second version puts a fine point on the question, while also creating constraints to guide your thinking?

Anyone can ask the first version. Don’t be afraid to make the question completely unique to you and your circumstances – that is the entire point!

2. Make them counter-intuitive

The best open questions have an element of surprise – they grab your attention and refuse to let go. Try to include something counterintuitive, unexpected, or paradoxical within the question.

For example, instead of “How can I improve the standard of living in the global south?” try “How can I improve the standard of living in the global south without further contributing to the climate change that threatens those regions the most?” Such a question has a tension between two important but potentially opposing forces, which will force you to come up with more creative solutions.

Asking a question is an art form, and like any art form, there should be a bold element of surprise hidden within.

3. Make them cross-disciplinary

Open questions don’t have to be contained within one field, industry, or subject. At their best, they cross the usual boundaries between categories to spark unorthodox connections that no one else is likely to look for.

For example, instead of “How can I improve education?” you could ask “How can I improve education by borrowing ideas from video games?”

With such a framing, you are laying down tracks for your mind to follow. You are purposefully biasing yourself toward certain kinds of answers while drastically reducing the number of options you have to consider.

Now that you have a set of open questions, you can start capturing information relevant to your current favorite problems.

Your open questions are a powerful complement to digital notetaking, because they tell you what you should be capturing in the first place, i.e., anything that potentially leads to answers.

Instead of doing what most people do – randomly and haphazardly hoarding tons of digital stuff hoping it will all somehow magically lead to an insight – you are taking a far more focused approach. You are detailing precisely in which areas you would like to have breakthroughs, which makes them much more likely to happen.

Think of it this way: ****

If your Second Brain is a problem-solving machine, what kinds of problems do you want it to solve for you?

Assuming that you are constantly coming across potential solutions every day, what kinds of problems do you want the solutions for?

Here are a few more things to keep in mind with regard to your open questions:

• They are flexible. They can change over time. You don’t need a certain number, but just enough balls in the air and pathways of interest so if progress stalls in one area you can pursue something else.

• They don’t need to be “career-oriented” or have a practical use case right away. Goal-setting has its place, but your open questions are also for the mysterious and whimsical musings that captivate you for reasons you may not be able to explain.

• They don’t need to appear in order of priority. This isn’t a list of tasks or priorities that you have to tackle in a rigid, linear way starting at #1. Their purpose is to give you permission to move toward whatever naturally sparks your curiosity and joy right here and now.

Over time, you’ll begin to view the world through the lens of these questions. They will arise spontaneously, unbidden, as a filter telling you what information matters and why.

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I used to find my open questions by exploring these prompts with pen and paper or in my notetaking app.

But now I’ve created a ChatGPT prompt to help me every time I want to come up with some new open questions or reconsider my current ones: