I love the article by Scott Belsky  - "What Happened to Downtime? The Extinction of Deep Thinking & Sacret Space"  http://bit.ly/rqANqw . It touches on the same concepts that Nicholas Carr brings with his book "The Shallows" - http://bit.ly/mSVAGO.

Nicholas Carr goes to explain how our brains are pre-programmed to respond to and value new information higher than old one. And historically this was driving innovation and progress - the search for something new. However, with the current information overload our brains are also overloaded, and are exposed to a drug-like set of incentives to chase the latest news. 

Scott provides a nice practical advise for getting at least some level of control back:

1. Rituals for unplugging.
 

...Perhaps you will reserve one day on the weekend where you force yourself to disconnect? At first, such efforts will feel very uncomfortable. You will deal with a bout of “connection withdrawal,” but stay with it. ....

2. Daily doses of deep thinking.

...We need some rules. When it comes to scheduling, we will need to allocate blocks of time for deep thinking. Maybe you will carve out a 1-2 hour block on your calendar every day for taking a walk or grabbing a cup of coffee and just pondering some of those bigger things....

3. Meditation and naps to clear the mind.

...Some mediation forms require you to think about nothing and completely clear your mind. (This is quite hard, at least for me.) Other forms of meditation are about focusing on one specific thing - often your breath, or a mantra that you repeat in your head (or out loud) for 10-15 minutes...

4. Self-awareness and psychological investment.

...It is supremely important that we recognize the power of our insecurities and, at the very least, acknowledge where our anxiety comes from. Awareness is always the first step in solving any problem...

5. Protect the state of no-intent.

...when you allow yourself to just look out the window for 10 minutes – and ponder – your brain will start working in a more creative way. It will grasp ideas from unexpected places...