Increasingly, healthy people complain of chronic fatigue, apathy, and insomnia. Vitamin deficiency and depression have nothing to do with it. Maybe it’s all about information overload.
The invention of the personal computer gave us the ability to create and distribute information at virtually no cost. More texts have been written in the last ten years than in the entire history of mankind.1. We got access to scientific articles, books, films, paintings, training courses. And that’s great. But too much information is not always beneficial.
20 hours a week, knowledge workers go through email, processing 50 to 100 emails a day;
60% of computer users check their mail in the toilet;
85% of computer users take their laptop with them on vacation2.
An excess of potentially useful and accessible information prevents a person from using it effectively. Overload causes feelings of overwhelm and loss of control over the situation. In advanced cases, “overeating” undermines health — provokes stress, causes attention deficit disorder and anxiety attacks.3.
Consequences of overload
In the pursuit of productivity, we drive ourselves into a trap — it seems to us that we know a lot, in fact, we know a little bit of everything. In addition, an excess of news and sources adversely affects the quality of work and personal life.
Decision paralysis. You collect information to decide where to go on vacation, what car to choose, where to celebrate an important date — but there is too much information. A large selection, conflicting opinions and data complicate the choice. You are lost, unable to make the right decision4.
Decline in productivity. Consuming information creates the illusion of productivity. We read how to run properly and feel like experienced runners. In fact, we are stuck at the stage of collecting and analyzing data, instead of putting them into practice. The more information we consume, the less likely we are to put it into practice.
Decreased concentration. Too much news is associated with multitasking. We open several programs on the computer and several tabs in the browser. We constantly interrupt our main work to answer a phone call, write an email or check the news on social networks. It becomes difficult for us to concentrate on the main task, and we spend more time on its implementation.
«People who take XNUMX minute breaks from work are more efficient than those who don’t rest.»
Unloading the head
How not to become a victim of the information tsunami? Psychologists, neuroscientists, and self-organization experts say there are four ways to solve a problem.
Self-control. The optimal tool. Define goals for the near future, and filter information according to them. Minimize reading articles and watching videos that are not related to the main tasks. Sort relevant information too: focus on knowledge that can be immediately applied, and skip the rest. Set a time limit for searching for information.
Organization of the working day. Write down your current plans for the day. This will help you clear your short-term memory and focus on the task at hand. Do the same chores—small phone calls or preparing bills—in batches. Emails are also better divided by relevance and checked several times a day, at certain times. Turn off notifications in social networks and instant messengers.
Technical assistance. Modern technology is to blame for information overload. However, they also help to tame the flow of data — some of their functions and applications help to weed out the excess. These include prioritization and automatic sorting of emails in email, programs that limit time on the Internet or on certain sites, browser extensions that allow you to browse the Internet without ads and additional materials.
Vacation planning. Don’t forget to rest. A break, a nap, or a short walk is not a waste of time. People who take XNUMX minute breaks from work are more efficient than those who don’t.
1 D. Levitin «The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload» (Dutton, 2015).
2 P. Hemp «Death by Information Overload», Harvard Business Review, 2009, vol. 87, № 9.
3 D. Bawden, L. Robinson «The dark side of information: overload, anxiety and other paradoxes and pathologies», Journal of Information Science, 2009, vol. 35, № 2.
4 L. Palladino «Find Your Focus Zone: An Effective New Plan to Defeat Distraction and Overload» (Atria Books, 2011).