How Do You Cope With Information Overload?
How Do You Cope With Information Overload?
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Home Page > Self Improvement > Time Management > How Do You Cope With Information Overload?
How Do You Cope With Information Overload?
Posted: Nov 05, 2010 |Comments: 0
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I am old enough to remember the days before the internet and cell phones when I was living in a small town in England’s Lake District. A beautiful place with mountain views and lakes.
One day I decided that I would go out and buy some new music. The only place for this was the local record shop. I searched the racks of records but could find no music that I liked. I then looked on the wall where some records were displayed and my eyes rested on Aretha Franklin’s picture. I left the shop clutching my new purchase, Lady Soul by Aretha Franklin.
This became one of my favourite records which I played over and over again. Fast forward a lot of years to a few days ago when I downloaded the latest update to iTunes. An added feature is Ping. Click this and a drop down list appears. From there you can go to a page about the music track, including lots of other tracks available by the artist or you can join a social network for music
My issue now is not finding music that I like, but finding too much music that I like. There is not enough money in my bank to purchase it all and not enough time to listen to it all.
Back in my Lake District home I had no TV, and if I had, there was only 3 channels to watch. My satellite TV now has hundreds of them. If I wanted to tell someone about my new Aretha Franklin album, I had to wait until I got home to call my friends, and if they were not in there were no answering machines to leave messages on.
To some extent having computers, cell phones and other gadgets makes life easier. If my car breaks down, I call the breakdown service using my cell phone and listen to my iPod whilst waiting for the breakdown truck to arrive. If I want to send a message to my sister I don’t need to write a letter, then take it to the post office, I just email her.
The downside is that I find myself bombarded with too much information. I downloaded a desktop application that connects with the social media network. In one window I can see my Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and other social network sites I subscribe to. Any time one of the people I follow on Twitter tweets, a black box pops up with their Tweet. No mater what I was working on , the darned pop up windows appeared every few seconds. It became so distracting that I closed the program down.
There is a 17 year old boy in my household. I often give him lifts as he does not drive yet. Every few seconds a loud discordant chord emits from his phone to indicate one of his friends is sending him a message. He can never just stop and enjoy the ride. Faced with information overload I decided that most of the information was not that important to me and I then implemented a strategy to reduce it.
Here are some of the things that I recommend to combat information overload:
• To combat email overload unsubscribe from email lists except those you feel give really useful information. Then only check your email 3 times a day maximum.
• To combat text overload stop texting unless it is important. People will stop texting you.
• To combat 24 hour news channel overload spend 10 minutes day catching up on the news. I use the Guardian app on my iTouch to find out what is happening in the world. • To combat too many thoughts learn how to empty your mind of thoughts. Go for a walk in the fresh air. Learn to meditate.
• To combat social network overload set a time limit of about 30 minutes to check you Facebook or Twitter page. What I try to do is filter out all the junk information and focus on what is really important.
The important stuff falls into 2 categories:
1. Things that I need to do.
2. Information that I need to keep and refer to from time to time.
For number 1 I use Life Manager Pro from lifemanagerpro.com. This uses the Getting Things Done method to organize my actions, projects and goals by focussing on just the elements I need to deal with at the present time. Sometimes I accumulate a list of over 50 things that I need to do. This can lead to a feeling of overwhelm. What Life manager Pro does is enable me to focus on just the things that need my attention right now. The rest are put aside until needed.
To keep track of my information such as emails, PDF’s and other documents I use Devon Think by Devon Technologies. (Sorry PC users, this is only available for the Mac). I can drag and drop files from all over my computer into the program and then organize them in such a way that any bit of information is easily found.
We live in a information age, and that is great. I cannot imagine going back to the days of no internet, mobile phone, Mp3′s etc. To deal with all this information you need strategies and systems to deal with it all.
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About the Author:
Stephen Williamson owns an independent software company LifeField Software. He is also the developer of Life Manager Pro, organiser software based on the Getting Things Done method of productivity.More information at www.lifemanagerpro.com
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Article Tags:
gtd, getting things done, personal organiser, gtd software
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