Dealing with Information Overload

I've enjoyed the recent posts about work and prioritizing important activities but how do you deal with information overload that may take away from work? There's so much interesting, beneficial content on the internet. Are you efficient at processing information or is it more about being good at shutting out everything but the most essential content?

I've found using RSS helps, but I still feel like I spend way too much time consuming content. Most of it is beneficial which is why I feel so conflicted dealing with it and have yet to find a satisfactory solution. I was thinking maybe doing a month long "fast" in  regards to internet consumption to reset.

I'm interested if Tynan or anyone has a successful system for dealing with it?

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I think the important thing is to consider whether or not you're actually likely to benefit from whatever information your receive. Part of that is the source of the information, but part of it is also your habits.

So for blogs-- ask yourself if the person you're reading is actually providing information that addresses issues that you have, and then ask yourself whether or not you're going to do what it takes to benefit from that information. For example... if you read my "every day" post and my "love work" post, but you aren't working harder or working every day, then something has to change-- either stop reading my blog, or make yourself take action based on it. Otherwise you're just wasting your time.

I follow only 2-3 blogs closely, and another 2-3 once a week or so. That's it. The ones I follow closely cause me very frequently change my attitudes and actions. The other few are either entertainment or infrequent change.

A lot of content seems beneficial, but really isn't. Most stuff on Reddit falls into that category. You also have to consider the costs-- if you read Reddit everyday, you will sometimes find useful stuff... but you will also spend hours getting there. Probably not worth the tradeoff.

Thanks for the reply.

So you use potential for change of action or attitude as a gauge for what to read. That makes sense.

I tend to consume a lot of internet content around more academic learning, so stuff like history, science, finance, etc. so I think it's easier to justify to myself, but it really doesn't have an immediate impact on my life. It's easy to think I might use it in the future though. 

I guess it comes down to prioritizing and realizing that while learning is great if it doesn't align with greater goals it can be a hindrance.

I think that sort of stuff is MUCH better learned through books. Spend 1-2 hours reading every day. The advantage of books is that they're much longer and give you more "hooks" to memory, so if you're not going to use the information soon, you won't forget it as easily. Blogs are only really good for immediate action sort of stuff... think about what you read two weeks ago on blogs. Do you remember any of it?

Yeah, not too much and the returns for time investment are usually not particularly good depending on the source.

One last question for you - how well do you keep up with the news since none of it is particularly actionable?  

I ignore the news entirely for that very reason-- it's not actionable. If you want to learn about the world around you, I'd suggest turning to history rather than current events.

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