In my last article, I talked about the importance of doing your research. So in this article, I’m going to be talking about HOW to do your research. So you can make sure that you’re well informed. :)
When it comes to doing your research, the first and most important thing you have to do is forget about laziness. I know a lot of people hate the idea of spending more than a few minutes researching a certain topic, but if you’re looking to be well-informed, you’ve gotta completely rid yourself of that mentality. You have to make doing your research a part of you. Many people see it as an overwhelmingly boring task, but it’s not. Metaphorically speaking, research is more similar to taking a shower, in a way. Sometimes you’re feeling lazy and you just don’t want to do it, but at the end of the day, it’s a normal part of life and it’s something that you just gotta do. And technically, you can avoid it, but it won’t always be a very good idea to do so. So, you got to try to see research as something normal. You’ve gotta make it a part of your life.
But in the meantime, whether you see it as a normal part of your life or not, there are certain techniques you might want to follow in order to do a thorough research. And one of the most important ones happens to also be one of the easiest ones to adopt. Which is…
Make “Open In New Tab” Your New Best Friend. Sounds silly, but bear with me please. This may be a basic thing to do for many, but I’ve also seen way too many people who just don’t do it. But either way, I’m gonna try to move quickly through this point. So… Opening results in different tabs makes things a lot easier because, you want to able to see as many internet sources as you possibly can, and unfortunately, opening results in the same tab just isn’t going to help you with that. So the next time you’re googling something health-related, open as many tabs as you need to, and see if it makes things easier for you. Most of the time it will, trust me. :)
Another very important thing you have to do is pay attention to the source. Is it a blog? Is it a forum? Is it the official website of a respectable scientific organization? What is their purpose? What do they do? What does this information have to do with them? These are all questions you have to ask yourself when doing your research. For example, if you’re reading about the benefits of whole grains on the Kellogg’s website, there’s an extremely high chance that the information is at least a tiny bit biased. And if you’re reading about the importance of consuming animal protein on the Tyson website, the info is most likely biased, as well. So that’s why it’s so important to pay attention to the source, and to think about how the source could be influencing the information you’re reading.
Which brings me to my next point, which is… Always research as many sides of the story as possible. May sound overwhelming, but it’s actually easier than you think. SO. Let’s say you’re reading about the health benefits of dairy. You look it up, and you’re probably going to find thousands, maybe even millions of articles listing the benefits of consuming dairy. And you could open 7 or 8 tabs on the subject, maybe even from many different sources, and while that’s great, in order to be well-informed you also have to search for the “opposite” of your current search. Which in this case, would be something among the lines of “could dairy be bad for you?”. Or something like that. So you search for that, and you repeat the whole researching process with this search term. You open 7-8 tabs, from different sources, etc. And by doing this, you’re making sure that you’re informed on both sides of the story, no matter how different they might be from each other. Oh and as a nice rule of thumb, you know you’re doing your research right when you’re able to empathize with both parties. That moment when you’re able to see WHY dairy could be great for your health, but also WHY it could be harming your health, that’s how you know you’re doing it right.
And then from there, it’s up to you! You’ve been exposed to different points of view, you’re now able to empathize with both parties, and now all you have to do is think. You think about it, you start forming your own opinions, you start informing others, then they inform others… That’s just how it works!
There are many more aspects to doing your research than just these, but these are the basics, in my opinion. :)