How to Avoid Information Overload

Written by Fred Tracy - 23 Comments
Categories: productivity tips, self improvement

As people who are interested in personal development, we’re all seeking out ways to improve ourselves. And there is definitely a ton of information out there to meet that demand. In fact, there’s so much that it can be hard to process it all. Ironically, this information overload is often most responsible for people’s lack of progress.

If you think that having a wealth of information at your fingertips full of wonderful, new, engaging ideas 24/7 (like the internet) is always a good thing, think again.

Why Information Overload Will Kill Your Progress

We all know that too much of a good thing turns into a bad thing. And it’s no exception with information. There are literally thousands of books and blogs out there devoted solely to bettering the people who read them. And the truth is, most of them have something good to say. The problem comes in when we, as consumers, are faced with this gluttony of information.

 

Let’s say you wake up in the morning and come across a new post from your favorite self help blog. “That sounds great!” you think after reading it, and you feel a little boost in your mood. An hour later, you decide to sit down and read some productivity tips from a book you’ve been glancing through lately. “Hmm, interesting,” you say, and then you get ready for work.

At work the same process continues. You have a meeting on time management where you learn some more cool tips. That’s great and all, but the problem is that you don’t have nearly enough time to actually implement any of these ideas. All you’re doing is collecting ideas, day in and day out. They’re going in one ear and right out the other.

It just doesn’t work. Here’s how to solve the problem.

How to Eliminate Information Overload and Create Real Progress

One of the best ways to eliminate information overload is to stop soaking up so much information. It sounds simple, but it’s true. Try to limit yourself to one specific product/blog post/whatever for each thing you want to develop.

For example, if you want to learn some time management tricks, then get a good related book and sit down and study it. Don’t read anything else while you read that book, especially other nonfiction books. It’s okay to get your daily dose of inspiration from pickthebrain.com, but limit yourself in the time management department only that book. This will give you time to really absorb the new ideas that you’re learning.

The second thing to do is to specifically focus only on that idea. Even though we receive so many different great ideas from lots of sources each day, we rarely turn those ideas into new habits. Even one minor habit change a month is enough to significantly change your life in a relatively short period of time. Therefore, focus on the one subject that you want to learn and work on making it a habit in your life.

As you can see, information overload is rampant. We need to combat this by simplifying and eliminating the information we receive a daily basis. We can do this by focusing strictly on only that which we want to learn. After that, we should focus on turning our new understanding into real habit changes.

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Fred Tracy runs a personal development website where he shares his insights and quirky stories. He is practical and eclectic, borrowing ideas from psychology, spirituality, and common sense, among many other sources. All of this information is distilled into articles that help his readers. He also runs an awesome Twitter page.

Photo courtesy of: HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP/Getty Images

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  • http://www.TransformationalMotivation.com M. Tohami

    I recommend using Google Reader to manage information online. It greatly helped me to manage the information from the websites/blogs that I like and subscribe to via RSS feed.

  • http://www.clintcora.com Clint Cora

    One of the biggest areas I’m finding in terms of information overload right now is the area of internet marketing and social media.  There are so many so-called gurus out there pushing articles, products, webinars, newsletters — we are getting swamped.  Although education is extremely important, one can easily get overwhelmed by all the information.

    So I’m cutting down on my newsletter subscriptions and relying only on a few trusted sources of reliable and reputable information to my email boxes.

  • http://hanofharmony.com The Vizier

    Hi Fred,

    Information overload can be overwhelming.  In this day and age, there is so much information that we have to filter out things that are not relevant or do not appeal to us.  And even then there is still so much information left to manage that I don’t even know where to start.

    I fully agree with you.  To manage information overload, we have to bring the axe down somewhere so we can focus on a few sources of information.  This means making hard choices. 

    One way to ease the process is to stick to sources of information that you feel comfortable reading.  The easier it is and the more it appeals to you the better.  It makes it easier for you to stick to it and to derive maximum benefit.  Naturally your tastes may change over time, but that is ok, you just have to find new sources of information that appeals to you then.

    Thank you for sharing this lovely article!

    Irving the Vizier

  • http://www.awesomelifecoach.com Kian | Awesome Life Coach

    Great article! There was a time when i thought information overload was good, in that having a lot of information about something was the way to go. As you say it’s best to choose one reliable source and to get all your information from one place.

    As other’s have said it’s also a great idea to unsubscribe from all the guru’s and senders and just focus on one. Too many e-mails can be overwhelming as well.

  • http://www.fredtracy.com Fred Tracy

    Absolutely. I use Google reader religiously. :-)

  • http://www.fredtracy.com Fred Tracy

    That makes sense, there is a LOT of stuff out there.

    Whenever I was first learning about Internet marketing, it seemed like the wave of information would never End. I find focusing on the few gurus who have already proven that they know what they’re doing works best for me.

    Hello from the SP forums, by the way. :-)

  • Anonymous

    Thanks Irving. :)

    Yeah, I rarely read more than one book at a time these days. And if I do, and make sure that there is only one nonfiction book I’m trying to learn from. The rest is just entertainment.

  • Anonymous

    No kidding!

    I think the “less is more” cliché is definitely true.

  • http://www.colon-liver-cleanse.com/ Sean

    Learned a lot about this when I started internet marketing. There’s a TON of information out there and it’s so easy to get overloaded and give up.

  • http://www.martinthemindreader.com Martin Mendler

    Hey FreddyIt’s so true that soaking up too much information limits progress.

  • Anonymous

    Ain’t that the truth!

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, definitely.

    It’s one of the great ironies of life that focusing on too much will actually get us nothing. I prefer to focus on one or two things like a laser beam, much like you.

    Thanks again for linking to me, by the way. :-)

  • Dougcartwright

    Ahhh, this post has driven me over the edge with information!!! No, thanks for the sensible tips.

  • Anonymous

    Hahaha my bad. :)

  • Whitneymgallegos

    This is one area that I need to focus on. I try to multitask even with information. It almost feels like I live several different lives, turning one subject on and the other off then vice versa. In order to succeed at one thing its important to provide your attention to one thing in order to make it effective.

    Thanks for the valuable information!

  • http://www.tourismdentalindia.com Dental Tourism

    This is so true. Just reading anything and everything can be a great burden on the brain. 

  • http://nicheaffiliatecash.com Adwello

    I always allow myself an extra slice of time during my work online in case I discover an interesting link or audio: it is vital to focus and plan our journey but Life progresses thru enjoying a little distraction now and then – this gives our subconscious mind food for future thought and enables our awareness of a greater world. How would it be to take a journey of a thousand miles only to say “I arrived!” but having seen nothing en route! A sadness, I feel.

  • http://www.OurWishRadio.com Raymond Cubeta

    Hey thanks for the post. This is really cool information.

  • http://twitter.com/RomainGoday Romain Goday

    Google Reader also results in information overload. 

    We sign up for too much information. In every news site, blog or company website, we are offered to subscribe to a newsletter, RSS or social media feeds. It is difficult to say no because we do not want to miss potential valuable information and because it is also a little bit too easy to sign up. It only takes clicking a button and we tend to click it too many times. 

    So we end up with feeds and alerts overloading our inboxes, readers and aggregators. These tools can easily become more of a problem than a solution and ending up adding to the information overload problem. 
    You should check this article on how discovery engines might be of help http://www.darwineco.com/blog/bid/70094/6-Traits-of-Highly-Effective-Discovery-Engines

  • http://www.achievebrilliance.com Marcelina Hardy

    I know… information overload can make you just give up. I use Google reader too. It’s awesome. 

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  • Jarod Online

    Great post, because I definitely do this A LOT. In fact, I’m actually a victim of information as I time this comment, but that’s about to change soon.

    And I know you said its best if I focus on one thing at a time, but I want to start a blog about web design that’ll be filled with all the information I’ve learned (and am learning) about the field so far, but I also want to learn to run and build a successful blog at the same time.

    I’ve already bought the books, i just need to know about if it’s okay if I try to make a blog while learning about web design.

  • Jim

    I like your information on information overload. Much better than my present method of just deleting everything.