For years, I’ve been trying to find a way to keep myself updated about what’s going on without taking too much time out of my week.

My approach took into consideration several criteria that evolved over time:

  • What format is better for me? Text (digital or physical), audio, video? Audio only doesn’t work for me, I can’t focus.
  • When should I watch the news? Watching the news before bedtime is usually a bad idea. There’s a lot of stress-inducing news that could affect my sleep. First thing in the morning is also not great for me. I find the news very distracting and a way of procrastinating on real (presumably difficult) work.
  • How much? Balancing FOMO with an overwhelming amount of information that I can do nothing about is essential for a successful long-term approach to this.
  • Have several sides of the story, choosing politically neutral news sources if they are available, or different sources with different inclinations if not.

Right now, my approach is a mix of:

Local News

I usually watch the local TV news at lunchtime. It’s an easy way to know what’s going on with politics and other important events in my country (and internationally). It’s good to keep track of:

  • Changes to local laws and politics (e.g., changes in taxes).
  • Important events that may affect daily life (e.g., city-wide occurrences).
  • Weather warnings and consequences.
  • General knowledge: It may not impact me directly, but it’s good to stay informed for social reasons.

I like having at least one video-based source because it helps me see the people, the places, and the context behind the events. There’s something about watching things unfold on screen—seeing faces, hearing tone, and observing visuals—that makes the news feel more real and easier to digest.

TV news also provides a good overview of international topics and even sports and other less important (but socially relevant) events. I usually watch the first 20–30 minutes, which cover the most important news of the day (for reference, I’m talking about Portuguese local TV news, which usually runs for one hour).

This format has its drawbacks:

  • It’s very inefficient. In half an hour, we can see at most four or five major news stories.
  • On slow days, we lose time watching news about nothing at all.
  • We can’t control the topics or the agenda (though I’m not sure if this is a bad thing).

Global and Financial News

I generally look at the major headlines of the day. Right now, I check Reuters and Associated Press. Why these two? They look very politically neutral and give a wide perspective on the most important topics.

I don’t love browsing websites to find out what’s new, but after trying RSS feed readers, I didn’t fall in love with that approach either.

This is an area where I feel I could go deeper. I’m trying to read The Economist from time to time. I think it can give me some depth, but it’s hard to find the time to actually sit and read it.

I tried some of the most well-known newsletters but I didn’t like to read those. The choice of topics wasn’t amazing (very focused on the USA or other local viewpoints).

Tech and Science News

For tech and science, I usually follow Hacker News and some tech newsletters. Hacker News is great for the comments, which usually offer diverse perspectives and thoughtful insights.

Newsletters work really well for me. They summarize major highlights, and I can dig deeper into original articles on topics I find particularly interesting. This gives me a great return for the time invested.

That said, I haven’t found good newsletters for world or financial events outside of the major newspapers. If I subscribe to several newspapers, it’s too much to process.

Hacker News gives me some science headlines, but I feel I could get better coverage of what’s going on. What I’m looking for is something like a monthly digest with major highlights:

  • Any major science breakthroughs?
  • Medical advances?
  • New important knowledge about the universe?
  • Anything with a potential long-term impact on tech?

Still haven’t found a good source for that.

Global, financial, and tech/science news are things I usually check after work or after dinner. I usually process my personal email inbox at the same time. I know by now this is not the best approach because instead of processing all my email and keeping stuff to read later, I try to do everything at the same time and usually find myself in dark corners of the internet. Not very GTD of me.

Refining My Approach

Even though I feel I get a good return for the time invested, I still end up spending too much time (around 20–30 minutes per day) checking things that don’t really matter. Most news is ephemeral (especially now, April 2025, with financial news changing every hour). I don’t need to stay constantly updated about every topic, and this is why I’ve never explored social apps much for this.

I’ve tried subscribing to some local newspapers and international magazines, but eventually it was just too much. I cut back considerably, and now I get the highlights—but I miss some of the depth.

How can I:

  • Keep track of what I actually want to go deeper into
  • While getting rid of most of the noise faster?

Maybe I’m just missing a better approach or a tool to help me out, or I just need to better select my sources for some of the above topics.

I’m sure I’ll be refining this over time.