Are you overwhelmed yet?

I love learning, and am fascinated by all the possibilities the internet provides for small businesses.  There is more free information out there than ever before, some of it very good, and certainly more than enough to satisfy my curiosity.  And that’s causing me a bit of a problem that I’d like to discuss with you.

The internet provides me with more information than I can possibly take in. Not even a lifetime will give me enough hours to read all the blog posts, articles, eBooks that attract my attention and cause me to lose track of time!

When I fall behind with other work because I’ve been reading, watching or listening to yet another great piece of content, I make excuses (mostly to myself) that it’s research to help my coaching clients.

While the information was available just to read, I was largely able to contain it by downloading and storing until I had finished my working day, and then read it in my ‘free’ time.  That worked, and continued to work reasonably well when audio information came along. 

But my self-discipline seems to desert me when it comes to how-to videos and I find myself irresistibly drawn to watch them.  Even when I know they’re ultimately trying to sell me something!

So now, I’m not only falling behind with work, I’m also putting off launching my own products!  What a crazy situation!  And that’s before I own up to the time spent on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

I’m not blaming anyone here – this overwhelm is totally a problem of my own making.  So what’s the solution?

Well, just as email was once the enemy of business productivity and needed to be put in its place, now the overload of available information has become my personal ‘bête noire’. 

As an experiment, over the next few weeks, I’m going to try different ways to tame my addiction to new information, sharing my findings and results in this blog.  I’d also welcome suggestions and comments from you!  What have you tried that has helped stop you being overwhelmed by information and increased your productivity?

Comments

[LouiseBJ]

Shona, thanks for sharing! Great advice to spring clean once a month, I'll add that to my list of tools to reduce the information overwhelm.

[Shona Partridge]

Louise - this sounds spookily like me> My name is Shona and I am an information junkie!

What has worked for me recently is that I have radically reduced the input of information by biting the bullet and unsubscribing from loads of things! Scary at first, but then I don't know what I may be missing once it's gone. Of course new stuff catches my attention and I sign up - but spring cleaning once a month keeps it almost manageable.
Realistically I know I have enough information on my bookshelves and computer files for the next 50 years.
Like you I worry I might miss something, but I try to tell myself that if it's that important I can always find it again. Or maybe Louise will have it!!!