What’s Your Consumption-to-Creation Ratio?

The irony of creating more to ease content overwhelm.

Years ago I came across the concept of a "consumption to creation ratio,” or C:C ratio, when a favorite newsletter author wrote about it.¹ It instantly intrigued me. At the time I was still yearning to start a blog and honor that voice inside me urging me to try a consistent writing practice.

I had never heard anyone talk about this ratio before then but it’s something that my mind has held onto.

Peter, the author of the aforementioned newsletter, describes the C:C ratio as such:

How much time did I spend actively creating (writing, building, fixing, gardening, cooking, designing, planning, giving) vs passively consuming (reading, scrolling, watching, ordering, receiving)?

Or to provide a more textbook-like definition, here’s what I found on the first Google search result from an apt LinkedIn post:

The consumption-to-creation ratio refers to the balance between the time and energy spent on consuming content and information versus actively creating and contributing.

Back when I first read about this in 2021, my C:C ratio strongly favored consumption and was probably something like 9:1. I was listening to podcasts, reading books, and/or watching TV daily; my only regular creation came in the form of cooking and baking or volunteering².

Now, despite skewing heavily in the consumption direction, I often felt like I didn’t consume “enough,” at least when it came to the written form. 

Enter what I call “content overwhelm.” 

I love sinking my teeth into a good online publication, be it the Wordpress blogs of yesteryear, the resurgent inbox newsletter, or today's inspiring Substack feed. Yet I didn’t actually spend that much time reading them. I wanted to spend more time, always have, but something about the pure amount of content out there, even when it’s curated via the act of subscribing to an RSS feed or newsletter, paralyzed me.

I doted out IG follows no problem, but when it came to subscribing to interesting newsletters or podcasts or anything with a recurring delivery, I guarded my subscribes like the the last morsels of food a stranded survivor holds onto.

(I feel a little silly admitting this now because it seems so ridiculous, but I’m choosing to document it in the hopes I'm not the only one out there who feels this way.)

Why is it that I'm able to buy new books and get joy out of gazing at our living room bookshelves, full of books yet to be read, and not feel this same sense of overwhelm? Instead, I am excited by the possibilities, the act of choosing my next read, much like I imagine a child in a candy store might feel when told they can pick out any treat they want.

I suspect it has something to do with the digital versus physical world. Our bookshelves, stacked as they are, are still finite. There’s an end to them, whereas my inbox and apps have an infinite scroll. They are literally never-ending.

I see all that’s there to consume and feel instantly overwhelmed. In true perfectionist nature, I can’t help but put pressure on myself for an “all or nothing” approach. An entirely subconscious act, it’s as if the pressure to read it all stops me from reading anything in the first place. If I can’t sit here for a good hour catching up on my feeds, why check them at all? My thumb drifts to clicking my email inbox or my budgeting app instead. Dopamine hit, check. Quality dopamine hit, on the other hand—unchecked.

In some ways, I really appreciate that I want to be mindful of when I consume, that is, to ensure I’m in a headspace to receive rather than distractedly scroll through something without really taking it in. Yet I fully realize that by continuing to use 5 minute chunks of time to play a NYT game or check app notifications, I’m training myself to crave just that. But what would happen if I spent those 5 minutes reading something on Substack instead? Even if I didn’t have the time to finish it? 

Would it be better to read something, potentially interrupted, then not at all? As I type this, my gut instantly tells me yes. 

Combine this content overwhelm with my desire to increase the creation part of my C:C ratio, and I’ve inadvertently thought that I needed to consume less in order to find the space to create. 

But alas—it’s just the opposite! A rising tide lifts all boats. In this case, those boats being consumption and creation.

Six months into having my own Substack I have learned that creating is often fueled by consuming (at least when that consumption is intentional and of quality). I’ve found that the more I write, the more writers I want to read. I’ve found a fair amount of inspiration from reading other self-reflective Substack writers in particular. And just yesterday morning, my partner pointed out that one can usually improve their own writing by reading a lot of different things.

When I think about my C:C ratio now, it's probably much closer to 1:1, at least on a weekly basis. Some days still skew more towards that 9:1, others 2:1 or 1:2, but I generally feel so much more inspired and energized by what I'm consuming because I’m also creating.

In his book Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport recommends embracing “slow media”:

Whereas the Europeans suggest transforming the consumption of media into a high-quality experience, Americans tend to embrace the "low information diet”: a concept first popularized by Tim Ferriss, in which you aggressively eliminate sources of news and information to help reclaim more time for other pursuits. This American approach to information is much like our approach to healthy eating, which focuses more on aggressively eliminating what’s bad than celebrating what’s good.³

While he uses the European concept of slow media to focus mainly on news consumption, I find it extremely relevant for content of all types. 

I still feel content overwhelm, but now it's coupled with a stronger desire to consume. I'm no longer rationing my subscribes for fear of overwhelming myself; instead, I’m filling my proverbial cart with all the snacks that jump out at me, giving myself permission to celebrate what's good. ✨

1. The Workout Today was a favorite newsletter of mine that is sadly no longer, but one of the founders Keeley occasionally still writes on her Substack Foreword by Keeley.

2. Something to note here that neither definition mentions is the context of one’s day job in the C:C ratio. I’d argue that you need to evaluate it outside of your working hours, especially if your job generally doesn’t give you much fulfillment. However, it’s also valuable to consider that ratio within the confines of one's job, because that could point you in a direction of more work fulfillment. I say this as a person who has always worked for someone else and struggled to find meaning outside work, but I imagine the ratios would be a lot more blended if you have your own business or work for yourself.

3. Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism, (Portfolio/Penguin, 2019), 237.