The Information Overload Myth

The medical industry is campaigning for “plain English” to cure obesity. The idea is that GPs should tell patient they are “Fat” instead of “Obese“. Medical language creates an excuse to mask the truth but let’s get honest about this. We’re greedy and we know that to lose weight, we need to move more and eat less. It’s a simple equation that also applies to our insatiable appetite for more stuff and more information. Yet we continue to ignore what we know so deeply.

Our curiosity has evolved such that we consume everything we can but it often feels like the web is actually consuming us. We use the “Information overload myth” to deflect our greed for never-ending consumption and our lack of control over what we read, watch, listen to, talk about, and even think.

And just like eating a balanced diet, we need to moderate the information too. The net has increased the rate at which we can access information like nothing ever before and we desperately need to quench our appetite and harness its power for good.

Take Radical Action

If you’re serious about this, I challenge you to take radical action. It’s the only way to make a big difference. Sure small changes alone are good but to reclaim the mind-space you need to focus on the things that will make your life better, you need the compound effect of combining all of the small changes to make an impact. Besides, life’s just too short for small stuff.

I know that this is going to freak a lot of people out – I was talking to some of my mates at work about it this week but they were just bemused by it all and they looked at me like I was some kind of freak. So bear with me and give it a shot. Like anything, the technical bit is crazy simple and you’ll be amazed at how much you can tame your digital life using these tools.

You in?

Let’s do it…

The Information Diet

The web as just a vast series of channels each streaming information into the ether. It’s always on and always available but if you feel like there’s too much to handle there is only 1 solution – TURN IT OFF.

Your job is to find which channels you NEED and filter out the rest. Here’s how….

Step 1. Set up Gmail (5 minutes)

If you’re not using gmail yet, get an account right away – you’ll need it to use the other powerful google services and it’s simply better than anything else for managing your email and your digital life.

Try to get yourname@gmail.com or yourbusinessname@gmail.com. You’ll use this google account to run your online world and create your brand. This is not the time to use your pets name.

Step 2. Clear Your Inbox (1 hour)

There’s something ultimately rewarding about the zen of inbox zero and if you just set up your gmail account in step 1 then you’re already there. You have a fresh start, like your first day at school when you get your new exercise books. Feels good right?

If you feel a bit uneasy about the mess you’ve left behind I suggest you just walk away from it for at least 2 weeks. Then if you find that you need some valuable emails like passwords and receipts, then you can salvage them later. Be brave and delete the rest – this action alone is a step towards exerting your power over the very noise your going to eliminate and it’s a comforting feeling.

Never keep something “just in case” – you need to be decisive. Be Proactive not Reactive.

Now that you have a clean break, you need to find a way to manage the streams that are flowing your way before they turn into a torrent that overwhelms you again. Charley Gilkey talks about his STAR system in his Email Triage program which I recommend for managing the new influx.

Step 3. Unsubscribe from email (10 minutes)

Go through your inbox and see what lists you are subscribed to. Count them and write that number down. I like to measure things like this because it helps to quantify your achievement.

I try to follow only 2 or 3 emails newsletters because I can focus on those 100% and not be distracted. And I want you to do the same. Go through your email subscriptions and unsubscribe from them all. If there are 2 or 3 that you really enjoy and that you can USE, then you can keep them.

If that means you have to unsubscribe to my emails to focus on something else, then go for it.

Most marketers will never have to balls to tell you that, but I’m right behind you. I respect your decisiveness and I’d love to see you focus and make the changes that will put you in control. You know where to find me. It also helps me build a stronger bond with subscribers who actively decide to stick with me and we all benefit. I can focus on delivering the mojo to those who want it without distracting those who don’t.

We’re programmed to be hooked on numbers but I’d much rather have 500 subscribers who care about what I have to say than 5000 email addresses who forgot to unsubscribe after picking up a free report that they dumped on their hard drive and never even read. Subscribers should be part of a community – who interact and respond to emails, who comment on blog posts, and share advice. Not just because that’s good for me, but because it’s good for you. If you’ve ever seen the film 300, you’ll understand the power of a small congruent tribe working together.

Back to the task… How many email subscriptions have you eliminated?

Awesome. Feels good doesn’t it?

Step 4. Create your own magazine with RSS (2 minutes)

I don’t want you to go live under a rock but there’s also no genuine reason for you to tune into mainstream news and media. RSS finds the news that affects you and aggregates it in a single page. You no longer have to watch 20 minutes of TV news (plus 10 minutes of ads) to find out how your team did in the game or how many points your apple stock gained today.

And stop kidding yourself that you’re smarter than you are by trying to gain general knowledge. Unless you are a pub quiz champion, general knowledge is useless in the age of wikipedia. Go narrow and go deep – immerse your mind what you care about and become a genius in your field.

This is about regaining mastery of our information streams so you only consume stuff you care about.

But it’s not all just entertainment – there are some feeds that you absolutely need to manage your online presence. I wrote how to using google alerts to manage your online reputation (this is where you need your gmail account details from step 1). It’s an incredible way to see who’s talking about your brand and your clients will love it.

And if you’re gonna do this – do it right. I use RSS to manage my scientific journals, blog subscriptions and various news feeds – all catagorized by topic. So if I’m at school and I can read about the latest trends in the biotech world, without reading about eating staplers.

Whilst Google reader provides the engine to aggregate your rss feeds but as with most google products, it doesn’t look great. It does allow you to use Googles powerful search within your feeds and you can share your interests to build your social mojo. But to create your sexy magazine interface, you’ll need to use feedly and you’ll have a slick clean environment to catch up with your personalized news.

Remember though, that reading isn’t really work – even if it’s educational. So don’t think that just because you’re on the web you’re being productive. The whole purpose of your information detox is to free your mind from the whirlpool of data so you can focus on the stuff that’s important to you.

Don’t screw it up now.