How to Deal with Information Overload
Many people are suffering from information overload when they want to do something online, you can’t focus or sometimes you feel you didn’t achieve what you want to do. Having so many information in your mind, so many ideas, you think you can do it but the important information is sometimes neglected.
Mary Gallivan gave an information about the Information overload at the warrior forum.
Here’s the details:
I’ve seen a few threads here recently about information overload so decided to post some ways to deal with it.
If you’re anything like me you have oodles of emails arriving in your inbox every day. You open them all because you’ve subscribed to their mailing list and you know they normally (not always) have some valuable offers or information you could use. The computer fills up with ebooks, valuable info, useless info (just in case I missed something when reading it) etc. etc. Before you know what’s happened you discover that a few hours have passed by and you’ve got nothing else done.
This happens day in day out, week after week! Just when I was about to start on a
specific project for the day I suddenly have all this new information and ideas running
round my head I find I don’t what to do first. So what can be done about infoglut?You need to maintain the ability to filter through all the information, and still maintain your sanity! Most people end up drowning in a sea of information when all they wanted was a simple drink of water.
Here are some Dos and Don’ts on how to handle it all and beat back the overload.
Do
1. Have a clear purpose in mind for what you want to achieve. If you only have a vague idea of what you’re trying to achieve you can easily become side-tracked and surf the net for hours. This wastes so much valuable time.
2. Write a ‘To Do’ list, in notepad or word, for the day and keep it on your desktop. It will help keep you focused. Alternatively write a few notes on a post it note and stick on the side of your monitor. E.g. ‘check email’, write article, update website ….This keeps your attention on what you should be doing rather than getting up to date about what’s happening in all your favourite soaps.
3. Try to recognize quality information. Instead of reading every email word for word, skim through them and if they’re not pertinent to your project for the day, then move on.
4. Prioritise your workload. What’s the most important thing you need to do today? Put it at the top of the list. What need to be done after that? And so on…..
5. Reward yourself. Decide for yourself that when you’ve achieved A, B, and/or C you can have say, 30 minutes surfing time before starting your next task.
5. Take control. This should probably have been at the start of the DO list but you need to bear it in mind all the time. Stick it on the monitor!
Don’t
1. Let information take control of you so that you end up working 60+ hours per week.
2. Take computers on vacations or breaks away with your family, or if you do, prioritise between ‘work’ and ‘family’ time.
3. Attempt to examine every piece of data available.
4. Focus on things beyond your control.
5. Waste endless hours trying to do something that you have no knowledge of. Save time by visiting forums and asking for help. It’s a good way to also help others while you’re there.
These ideas are by no means exhaustive. You’ll come up with more as you go along. However, if you start to incorporate some of them into your daily work routine it’ll save you hours in the long term and will become second nature. Instead your time will be spent constructively.
Hope you find it useful and you plan ahead before you do something online 