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Information Overload

Written by: Kathy Paauw

Article Overview: Surveys show that people's stress levels are at an all-time high, and a major source of that stress is information overload. June is Rebuild Your Life Month – a perfect time to take inventory of how you are managing the barrage of information you receive daily.

Information Overload

"One of the effects of living with electronic information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There’s always more than you can cope with.”
-Marshall McLuhan

Over the past twenty years, technology and downsizing have joined forces to turn office space into a dumping ground for information. Computer manufacturers promised us paperless offices back in the 1980s, and yet between 1983 and 1994 the use of paper increased by 51 percent!

Information comes to us in four primary ways:

** Paper
** Electronic (e-mail, web links, etc.)
** Spoken (in person or recorded messages)
** Thoughts in your head

What typically happens when you sit down at your desk and are overwhelmed with where to begin?

You could start with your e-mail… or perhaps with the verbal message your assistant gave you on your way to the office. But then…how about that overflowing "In Box" you haven't looked at for days? Or what about getting started on the brilliant idea you had on your way into work this morning?

How can you possibly figure out what is most important to focus on right now? Having clarity about your priorities is critical as you wade through the maze of choices that compete for your time.

The Four D’s
There are only 4 possible choices for what to do with information. I call it the Four D’s:

** Do it now.
** Defer it for later – file it for action or future reference.
** Delegate it to someone else.
** Dump / delete -- don’t do it.

Let's look at each option more closely:

Do it now !

Ask yourself: "Is this the BEST use of my time right now?" When you do weekly planning, you can plan ahead and block out time to tend to your most important activities.

Defer it for later.

Action: If the action required involves paper you’ll need to refer to later, use a tickler file to help you file it for follow-up on a specific date. If it’s an activity you want to remember to do in the future, enter a reminder in your calendar if it’s date-sensitive, or add the idea to a Perhaps List if it is not date-sensitive or deadline driven.
File for reference: Be sure you have a good filing system that enables you to file and retrieve things with ease. The Paper Tiger enables you to find anything you file in 5 seconds or less!
Delegate it.

If you are not delegating some of your work, I encourage you to revisit the possibilities. The most productive people in the world are those who spend 80% of their time doing what they do best and love most, while surrounding themselves with people whose talents are complimentary to theirs.

Even if you don’t have the money to delegate tasks to others by hiring help, you may be able to trade services with others. For example, let’s say that you’d love to delegate cleaning your house to someone else, but hiring a house cleaner is not in the budget. Your good friend who lives up the street loves your cooking – something you really enjoy doing -- and has admitted that nobody in her household can cook. Her house always looks so clean, and your friend has commented that she actually enjoys house cleaning. Perhaps bartering services with each other would be a match made in Heaven!

If you are a small business owner, you probably wear many hats…and some of those hats may not fit very well. Let’s say that you are a great writer, but you really struggle with graphic design and layout. At a recent networking event you overheard a graphic designer say that he wanted to put out a quarterly newsletter but he was not a very good writer. Perhaps you could barter with him for your ongoing graphic needs in exchange for ghostwriting his quarterly newsletters.

A number of my small business owner clients – often cash-poor when in the start-up phase -- have found ways to delegate tasks they were either not good at or did not enjoy, in trade for something that they love doing.

Think outside the box. Identify what you would delegate if you could, and then figure out some creative ways to make it happen!

Dump it. Don’t do it!

Don't overlook the productive power of asking yourself these questions:

** What's the worst possible thing that could happen if I don't have this or don't do this?
** If I toss this now and discover I need it later, can I get it elsewhere?
** Does it have tax or legal implications? Visit these websites for some Paper Retention Guidelines:
** Information Records Clearinghouse contains a wealth of information such as recordkeeping requirements, retention procedures, and much more.
** Bank of America retention guidelines includes information about what financial records to keep and how long to keep them.
** General Retentions Guidelines for State & Local Government Agencies (state of Washington) includes guidelines for schools & colleges.

To Do or Not To Do? … That is the Question!

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
-Stephen Covey, First Things First

How often do you complete everything on your “to-do” list? (I call those “do-do” lists – we do this and do that.) I have been invited into many offices as a productivity consultant, and I can tell you that most busy people have multiple do-do lists stashed throughout their offices, cars, briefcases, and homes, in an attempt to try to remember everything.

But how often do you stop to examine if what you’re doing is really the most important thing you can be focused on at the moment? As Stephen Covey, author of First Things First, says: “What does it matter how much we do if what we’re doing isn’t what matters most.”

When you have multiple tasks and to-do lists competing for your time, it can be stressful and difficult to focus on any one activity. Imagine driving through a construction zone on a busy street, where all lanes of traffic must merge together into one lane. The merge can be stressful due to the simultaneous activities requiring attention all around you. But once you’ve transitioned into a single lane of traffic without colliding with another car or hitting a construction cone, stress goes down and confidence goes up.

In the Seattle area, where I live, road construction is going on everywhere. But by the time construction is completed, capacity has already outgrown the new infrastructure and additional cars quickly fill the new lanes. We're back to gridlock by the time the paint is dry! I see some parallels between adding lanes to a highway and creating new paths for transmitting information. Even though we're already bombarded with too much information, we continue to create more every day! Since it's not going away, we've all got to learn to manage information overload. The key to managing overload is to clarify your primary goals and then focus on a few top goals you most want to accomplish in the coming year.

Regardless of what form your information takes – paper, electronic, verbal communications, or an idea in your head – establishing your priorities is the key to working most productively. Without prioritizing information, ideas, and opportunities as they come in, you are at risk for either doing something that is less important while something more important is neglected, or you are at risk of forgetting to handle an important task before the deadline passes. Without a clear sense of your personal and professional goals, any tools or techniques you use to manage information overload are bound to fail.

Once you’ve established your priorities and have decided when you will do something, you can put a reminder in your tickler file for follow-up at the appropriate time.

Tickle Your Memory

I review three types of tickler files daily:

1. My electronic calendar contains reminders for important follow-up. For example, if I tell you I’ll call you in two weeks, I create a reminder attached to your record in my contact management program (I use ACT!). Two weeks from now my contact management program will sound an alarm and will flash on my screen (and my PDA) to remind me to call you. I can also schedule blocks of “protected time” for working on important projects and activities by myself. For example, right now I am writing this newsletter during time I scheduled for this activity. I also schedule time for activities such as exercise. In other words, my calendar is not just used for making appointments with others. During my weekly planning time, I make regular appointments with myself for activities that are important to me.

2. My email inbox contains red flags for items that require my attention, unless I decide to respond immediately after I’ve read the message. (Outlook and Outlook Express offer this feature; you can even sort your messages so all your flagged items are together.)

3. My paper-based tickler file (click here to see a picture) consists of an accordion file containing tabs for 1-31 (current month) and January – December (tabs for all other months of the year). Behind this I create some customized hanging files. Important papers requiring follow-up at a specific time or for a specific task go here. Time-sensitive tasks go in the accordion part for the day of the month or the month of the year you plan to follow-up. Repetitive actions, such as To Pay (for bills) or Data Entry (for business cards and phone messages you want to enter into your contact management program), are hanging files you can create behind the dated accordion file.

Don't wait for someone else to give you permission to take time for yourself. As I shared in my article Running Out of Time http://www.orgcoach.net/newsletter/may2004.html, it's essential to take a step back to gain perspective if you want to manage the deluge of information coming at you daily. You'll never be able to read everything, so accept that fact, set some goals, and then limit the information you take in, based on your goals and priorities. Thomas Malone, a professor of information systems at MIT's Sloan School, sums it up well: "The fact that there's a public library shouldn't make you feel guilty about not reading everything that's in it."

If you’re willing to take a detour from the busy multiple-lane highway of activities zooming across your desk at any given time, you can reach your most important destinations faster and safer by utilizing our Paauwerfully Organized Personal Productivity Program, which will enable you to focus on one activity at a time. Contact us today at kathy@orgcoach.net for more information.

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  Information Overlaod: 5 Ways to Cut Through the Clutter
  5 Secrets to Control Information Overload Before it Controls You

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