What Writing Grants Is Teaching Me About Doomscrolling: An Unexpected LIfe Hack

Just like eating a whole bag of salt & vinegar potato chips, I know good and well that doomscrolling for hours is not in my ultimate best interest. I’ve wrestled with this tendency off and on ever since the pandemic.

Lately, I started back on a downswing of thumbing through YouTube shorts like it was my job. A combination of horrifying national and world events and some personal setbacks fueled my new doomscrolling era, but I never thought my years of writing grant applications would help me thorugh it, but here we are. Turns out, the same skills that help you secure funding can also help you maintain your sanity when the news feels like a never-ending catastrophe playlist on a diabolically driven shuffle.

If any of these true and tawdry confessions are ringing a bell, here’s how each major grant component translates surprisingly well to navigating our current chaos:

• Needs Statement: In grants, you identify the specific problem you’re addressing without spiraling into every related issue. Similarly, when processing bad news, name your actual concerns clearly and specifically, just like you would in a proposal. You can’t solve everything, and trying to absorb every crisis simultaneously is a recipe for paralysis.
• Project Description: Grant writers know you need concrete, actionable steps—not just anxiety. When political or economic news hits, ask yourself: what’s my version of a project plan here? Maybe it’s setting aside money differently, contacting representatives, or simply deciding which news sources deserve your limited attention. Vague worry helps nobody; specific actions create agency.
• Goals and Objectives: The best grants distinguish between big-picture goals and measurable objectives. Apply this to your daily life: your goal might be “stay informed and engaged,” but your objective could be “check news twice daily for 20 minutes maximum.” Measurable limits prevent the endless scroll that leaves you informed about everything but functional for nothing.
• Budget: Every grant has resource constraints, and so do you. Your attention, energy, and emotional capacity are finite. Budget them accordingly. You wouldn’t promise to serve 10,000 people with a $5,000 grant, so don’t promise yourself you’ll stay on top of every developing story while also working, maintaining relationships, and sleeping occasionally.
• Evaluation: Good grants include checkpoints to assess what’s working. Build this into your news consumption too. Is your current media diet making you more informed and empowered, or just more anxious and exhausted? Evaluate honestly and adjust accordingly. If something isn’t serving your actual goals, it’s okay to revise your approach.

You can’t fund every good idea, and you can’t process every legitimate concern. But you can be strategic, intentional, and honest about your capacity. It’s helped me so much recently to remember that not everything is my grant to write.