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Home > For Free > Action Ideas > Information Overload

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Information Overload

In an early article on dealing with Information Overload (now published in Success with Simplicity), I listed five 'coping mechanisms' we use to handle the pressures of living in a crowded city. Translating these to the subject of Information Overload, you might give the following some thought as a starting point for dealing with the problem.

If you put your mind to adapting to the Information City, rather than trying to conquer it, you will come up with numerous ways of doing so. Here are some thought starters.

Learn to filter out the ‘noise’: Be brutal about unsubscribing from e-newsletters that you never read, or have lost interest in. (Not this one I hope!). Likewise, be ruthless also at deleting, filtering or bouncing back unsolicited emails. (Products such as Mailwasher Pro are excellent for letting you do this before downloading your emails to your inbox).

Develop the skills needed to get around: Not learning how to use search engines properly is like never bothering to learn how to read a city map. It is the essential skill for making the most of the Information City’s opportunities. Google has some good basic search instructions.

Find comfort in your communities. Find forums and chat rooms relevant to your specific interests and use them to find the best and most relevant websites. Word-of-mouth is a terrific resource on the internet, just as it is in real life. Both Google Groups (groups.google.com) and Yahoo Groups (groups.yahoo.com) will have something of interest to you.

Make deliberate choices. Directionless browsing was something we all did a lot of when we first discovered the central suburb of WorldWideWeb in the Information City. But it can be an enormously time wasting habit if it gets out of control. A directionless stroll every now and then can lead to unexpected finds – but not if its at the expense of your real focus.

Develop a ‘sixth sense’ for security. Not having virus protection which is regularly updated (at least weekly) is like not having locks on the door of your house. Obviously something a city dweller would never do. There are numerous products on the market, most of them pretty easy to use and update these days. I use Vet but there are many others.

These are just a start. Good luck with your challenge!