Info Overload

If you grew up in the 1990s, like me, you remember a period before the internet became widely available.

You also recall being astounded by how much information was now available to you thanks to these new gadgets known as "search engines."

That was back in the day. Before there was an information overload. We used to be constantly connected to everyone and everything via our smartphones.

We're all drowning in data right now. Texts, status updates, conversations, news, buzzes, and dings are all commonplace. It's easy to become overwhelmed by too much information.

So, what's the answer? For most individuals, going off the grid is not an option. You'll still need to contact with your coworkers and family, as well as stay informed about what's going on in the globe.

We'll look at several strategic approaches to dealing with information overload in this piece. What is the goal? I'm less stressed and disorganized.

What Is Information Overload, And How Does It Happen?

When your brain is bombarded with more data than it can handle, information overload occurs. When you are bombarded with so much information that you are unable to process it all, you are said to be experiencing information overload.

The natural propensity of the brain is to classify and arrange all incoming information, which comes in handy in a variety of scenarios. You look both ways before crossing the street, and your brain calculates whether it is safe to do so.

The expansion in the amount of information we receive every day, on the other hand, has made our brains' sorting and organizing process more challenging. We struggle to comprehend all of the data and organize it properly.

Information overload leads to poor decision-making, in addition to confusion and poor comprehension. It's nearly impossible to make decisions that improve your quality of life when you're continually inundated with a massive amount of information that you don't understand 90% of.

Furthermore, information overload has a negative impact on your productivity and capacity to stay focused. You end up in an almost continual state of multitasking when you're constantly assaulted with notifications, texts, chat messages, and emails.

To express the obvious, it's difficult to get significant work done when you're constantly in a state of continual partial attention owing to information overload.

How to Overcome Information Overload

Thankfully, overcoming information overload is achievable, and it does not require abandoning technology. You will, however, require a strategy as well as discipline. Let's look at several methods for limiting the amount of information you receive.

1. Establish a system for organizing incoming data.

Whether or not you suffer from information overload is mostly determined by how you handle and engage with new information. While completely unplugging may seem like the simplest approach, most individuals are unable to do so, especially if they are at work and must answer calls, messages, or emails at any time during the day.

In light of this, you'll need a technique for "triaging" the information that comes your way to battle the onslaught of data. Use these questions to assess and arrange the information you receive.

-          Is the information instantly useful to you?

Every day, you probably get a lot of information that isn't immediately relevant to you. It could be a CCed email thread in an attempt to keep you informed about a scenario. Maybe you're a member of a Slack channel where broad information is shared that has nothing to do with what you're working on.

Determine whether each piece of information is directly relevant to you as you process the numerous streams of information coming your way. If it is, you can figure out what you need to do next, such as save it or respond to it.

If it isn't, you can dismiss it, delete it, or save it for later use.

The important thing to remember here is to not just let something alone. When you do that, things start to pile up, and processing everything gets increasingly difficult. So, if you receive an email that you've been CCed on but don't need, delete it. Don't let it sit in your inbox, stealing a little of your time every time you open it.

-          Is there a job to be done with it?

Whenever you obtain new information, ask yourself if it necessitates action on your part. The action could be as simple as answering a question or as complex as adding a new task to a project.

If the information necessitates immediate action, such as an email from your boss requesting an update on a critical project, take action right away. If it doesn't demand immediate attention, put it on your to-do list and come back to it when the time is right.

-          Is this something you'll need in the future?

If you're like most people, you have a lot of data sitting in your various "inboxes," such as emails and voicemails. Allowing these items to accumulate in your inboxes without being dealt with might lead to a sense of information overload.

If something isn't important to you and doesn't have a task attached to it, you should consider whether you'll need it in the future. If you're not going to do it, then get rid of it. The less "stuff" you have, the easier it will be to deal with new information as it arrives.

2. Reduce The Amount Of Incoming Data To Avoid Information Overload

Changing how you respond to new information is a valuable strategy for dealing with information overload. If you can decrease the quantity of information you're exposed to on a daily basis, you'll be able to deal with what you do get more successfully.

The truth is that we don't require a large amount of the information we receive on a daily basis. If you want to overcome information overload, you have to accept that you won't be able to keep up with

Here are some suggestions for reducing the amount of sources of information you encounter on a daily basis.

-          Unsubscribe from email newsletters

Removing yourself from email lists you no longer care about or have an interest in is one of the simplest methods to limit the amount of information you receive.

Obviously, you may unsubscribe from any email you don't want to receive by clicking the "unsubscribe" button. There are additional solutions available that allow you to unsubscribe from email lists in bulk. One thing to keep in mind about these programs is that some of them collect data from your emails and use it in a variety of ways. Make sure you understand how these tools use your data if you use one of them.everything.

-          Create email filters to route emails automatically.

Most email clients, including Gmail and Outlook, allow you to define custom filters that dictate how your email client processes incoming messages. These filters make it easier for you to deal with the daily emails you receive.

You could, for example, design a filter that sends all emails from a given domain to a specific folder. So, if you want to focus on emails that are directly relevant to your job, you should put all emails sent from company email addresses into a "Important" folder.

-          Disable notifications.

Turning off notifications completely is the most effective strategy to reduce notifications. Go through your apps on your phone and computer and turn off any notifications that aren't necessary. Consider turning off all notifications, including email, text, and social media, at times when you need to get serious work done. You can process the information you've received in batches after you've finished your key task.

-          Turn off chat channels that aren't needed.

If you've ever used a chat software like Slack, Telegram, or Discord, you're well aware of how many notifications you can get, especially if you're a member of multiple groups, channels, or servers.

You can mute individual channels if you don't want to be notified every time someone writes in them. Consider muting all channels that aren't immediately relevant to you and processing messages in batches at different times throughout the day. For example, you might be a member of a Slack channel called "General," where team members share personal updates, links to check out, and so on. These channels can be silenced, and you can answer at a later time if necessary.

-          Reduce the amount of news you consume

These days, the quantity of news providers available is mind-boggling. Furthermore, in only a few years, the variety of mediums via which we can receive news and current events has increased dramatically.

Choose a few credible news sources and rely on them largely for news instead of attempting to remain up to date on the news with many apps, podcasts, newsletters, and so on.