7 Steps to Dealing with Information Overload

Be honest: How many tabs do you have open in your browser right now? And how many times will you stop to check your email, IMs or Twitter while reading this post?

There are too many links to click, blogs to subscribe to, Tweets to Retweet, books to read, and oh yeah, work to do.

So how do we do it all? How do we keep up?

We don’t. We can’t. We won’t.

So what should we do?

We. Must. Focus.

Easier said than done, of course. How do we know what to focus on? How can we deem what is relevant, newsworthy, or beneficial to the maintenance of our employment status without checking it out?

The truth is, I don’t have the answer. I’m just another guy who spends too much time reading stuff online. And some of it was very good.

Here are what some of the brightest minds have to say about freeing your mind from the tyranny of stimulus overload (though they didn’t phrase it like that – thank God).
 
Their advice?

1. Be picky. Go ahead, be a snob.

Scott Stratten comes up with unconventional ideas that mock conventional wisdom (I mean, the guy created the art of “unmarketing,” a pretty gutsy move). His litmus test of value is pretty simple:

2. Redraw.

I’d call Chris Brogan a thought leader if I didn’t think it would make him cringe, but if anyone can lay claim to this title, it’s him. He has helped to turn abstract concepts into concrete ideas that have paved the way and poured the foundation for a ton of social media initiatives.

But he’s running out of bandwidth. Which is why he’s redrawing. He says “(t)his has precious little to do with social media marketing, but everything to do with human business.”

Find out exactly what this means, and how you can benefit from him (again!) here.

3. It’s spring. So clean.

Eric Fulwiler wants you to get trigger-happy. With the unfollow button on Twitter, that is. And while you’re at it, why don’t you clean out your RSS feeder (you haven’t touched some of those feeds since Thanksgiving and they’ve got mold all over them).

Eric shares his 8 step plan for social media spring cleaning. Much easier to follow than a diet.

4. Stretch your brain less. Flex your brain more.

Google’s ex-CIO, Douglas Merrill shares the secrets of his success with Jay Yarow at Business Insider. Among them?

“Don’t try to learn things.”

“Never multitask.”

“Don’t confuse being neat for being organized.”

The dude has a Ph.D in cognitive science from Princeton, and was CIO at Google. I’d say that’s decent enough street cred to at least read this post.

5. Be part of the solution. Being part of the problem is weak.

Michele Linn shares her counterintuitive thoughts from the other side of the equation (the content-pusher side) on how to attack information overload and make it a win-win for everyone involved.

How? By making it easier for users to unsubscribe. Sure, you like dropping that impressive number of subscribers in your board meetings, but wouldn’t it be more impressive to be able to claim you have actual readers? Trim the fat, take pity on their inboxes, and help to ease the case of information overload going around.

If people only read what they truly wanted or needed to read, we’d have a lot more time to actually get work done.

I’m not sure if that’s what Michele was going for, but that’s what I got out of her piece.

6. Admit that you’re more likely to be the rule than the exception.

Nobody can handle the amount of information being produced every day (but you can). No one can truly multitask (except for you). It’s impossible to keep up with all the trends, fads, and funny stuff online (for everyone BUT you).

We’re arrogant. We think we’re smarter than everyone else. We think we are the snowball that actually does stand a chance in hell.

We’re probably wrong. But admitting this can be a blessing in disguise. Learn why here.

7. File all your truly important stuff in an easy to find location.

Like the trash.

Ok, so this one probably doesn’t help in the long run. But damn it feels good in the moment.

What articles on information overload did I miss? (And can you blame me?)

[image: lululemon athletica]

Related articles

• Five Tips to Avoid Information Overload (chris.pirillo.com)
• 5 ways to take control of information overload (holykaw.alltop.com)