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When you feel overwhelmed with too much information, take some time to clear your mind. Even a short break can relieve stress and give you a fresh perspective.
If you can, step away from the information and distractions that surround you, be they computer programs, phones, TV, books, or papers. Go for a short walk, preferably outdoors, but indoors if necessary. (But don’t make a vending machine or kitchen your destination, unless you’re truly hungry. Sugary snacks and caffeine will only give you a temporary lift and end up leaving you more stressed.)
If you can’t get away at all, simply turn aside from your work and do some mindful breathing. Close your eyes (if you can do so safely), sit with both feet on the floor, and put your hands on your lap. Your hands should be open and not touching each other. Inhale slowly through your nose, and exhale slowly through your mouth when you need to. Notice the weight and posture of your body in the chair, and let other thoughts go. Repeat for at least five long, slow breaths. Notice how much calmer you feel.
When you can get away for twenty minutes or more, here are some other ideas to try:
- Take a longer walk outdoors. Watch for changes in the environment. What flowers are blooming? Are the trees beginning to change color in the fall? Is a new store opening in the neighborhood? Or look for the negative spaces between objects, such as the shape of the sky seen between tree branches.
- Spend time on a craft or hobby. Choose a project that keeps your hands busy, but that doesn’t require much concentration. Rhythmic activities such as knitting or pottery can be particularly effective for relaxation, but it’s most important to choose something you enjoy.
- Listen to music. Don’t multitask; just listen and follow the melody and/or rhythm. You may find instrumental music the most relaxing when you’re feeling overwhelmed, but experiment to find what works best for you.
- Have a massage, or take a hot bath.
When you return to your work, you’ll feel more relaxed and better able to focus your attention. If you need to do information-intensive work for several hours at a time, plan a five minute break about every forty minutes. When you have long-term projects that require ongoing concentration, schedule longer breaks, at least one day/week if possible. Taking time to clear your mind will help you be more productive and beat information overload.
You can learn and work most effectively by balancing approaches to information. Seek and gather, organize and analyze, reflect and synthesize—all three approaches are needed at various times.
Information seeking is important when you are exploring a new topic and when you need answers to specific questions. When exploring a new subject, an unstructured approach is appropriate, as it maximizes opportunities for serendipity. Cultivate “beginner’s mind” so that you are open to new ideas. Unstructured approaches include:
- Web browsing; following links you find through general search engines and on blogs, Wikipedia, Twitter, social bookmarking sites, etc.
- Asking people you know about the topic
- Looking through books and periodicals at libraries and bookstores
- Subscribing to free reports and email newsletters
- Watching videos
When you’re looking for answers to specific questions, however, structured information gathering is more efficient. Structured approaches include:
- Interviewing an expert or paying for expert advice
- Using back-of-the-book indexes
- Searching a subject-specific database and/or search engines
As you gather more and more information, it’s easy to slip into information overload. Feelings of overwhelm are a signal that it’s time to shift to organizing and analyzing the information you’ve found. In this phase, useless information is eliminated, and information gathering is focused on filling gaps in information. Close down your web browser, e-mail program, and other information-gathering tools while you work so that you aren’t distracted. Review the information you’ve gathered so far. Is there information you don’t need, at least right now? If so, discard it or save it for future use. Are you missing some key pieces of information? Then search for that information, but don’t be distracted by other information you come across. Useful activities for the organizing/analyzing phase include:
- Developing a mind map of your topic
- Talking about the information with a friend, colleague, or adviser
- Taking a workshop or a course
- Summarizing the main points
- Creating a chart, spreadsheet, or database
After organizing and analyzing the information, you’ll have a basic understanding of it and how pieces fit together. Now it’s time to reflect on it and synthesize a new understanding or “big picture” by adding your own perspective. Reflect on the information you’ve analyzed, and add your own twist by creating something new or sharing your knowledge. Examples include
- Writing an article or paper
- Explaining the topic to someone just beginning to explore it
- Making something using what you’ve learned
After achieving a degree of mastery by moving through this information cycle, you can begin again. Research the same or related topic in greater depth to develop your expertise, or explore a new subject. You may be in different stages of this cycle with different topics at the same time, but limit the number of topics to just a few at any one time. Lack of focus leads to overwhelm and inaction. Take a focused, balanced approach to beat information overload.
In an earlier post, I talked about focusing as a key step in beating information overload. If you don’t focus on what’s important to your vision and goals, you can easily get sidetracked by less important, even trivial, bits of information. That’s what happened to me last Saturday. During a get-together with friends, the discussion turned to purses. Two friends remarked that they liked Vera Bradley handbags because of their many pockets. I like pockets and compartments in my own purses as well, so this relatively minor bit of information seized my attention, and I found myself window-shopping for Vera Bradley purses at two malls that afternoon. Afterward, I regretted not having accomplished my planned priorities for the day.
Had I intended to buy a new handbag, the information about Vera Bradley purses would have been important and immediately useful. In this case, however, my lack of focus ended up wasting time.
If you could use help defining your vision and focusing on your goals, Cathy Demer’s free report on magnetic goals is a good place to start. She also offers a home study course with more in-depth information.
Articles, videos, TV, radio, movies, books, Twitter, Facebook, websites, online forums, e-mail, advice from other people—sometimes the amount of information coming at you seems overwhelming. Yet other times it’s fine, and you feel like you can handle it. It’s not just the sheer amount of information that creates a feeling of overload. Rather, it’s how you approach processing information.
Focus is the cornerstone of managing information overload, and there are three important ways of focusing. First, take time to define your vision and to develop goals that will help you achieve it. Then you can more easily determine which information is important and which you can, and should, ignore.
Second, focus your attention. Multitasking can be useful if you’re combining several activities that don’t require much concentration, such as listening to an audiobook while exercising. But if you’re doing information-intensive work, such as writing a report or reading technical or complex material, multitasking will just break your concentration. That makes it harder to grasp new concepts and reduces your productivity. If you’re having trouble concentrating, try setting a timer for 20 minutes. Work on just one information-intensive project during that time. After 20 minutes, take a five-minute break, and repeat the sequence once or twice if you have time. After an hour or so, take a longer break.
Visual thinking is a third way of focusing. Doodling can help you focus by reducing daydreaming while you listen. Sketching your ideas, writing ideas on cards and sorting them, and mind mapping all tap into the power of visual thinking. Highlighting important material with colored markers or pencils is a tried-and-true way of marking important information. Be sparing in marking text, though, so that the highlighted information clearly stands out.
For more techniques on beating information overload, claim your free e-course, Beat Information Overload the 5F Way, by entering your first name and primary e-mail address in the sign-up form to the right.
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