There’s a phase in human development when we can remember a full day’s events without the slightest problem. Classes and tests, sports and music lessons – ask the average high schooler what the schedule for next Tuesday looks like and you’ll get a full run-through, from breakfast to bedtime.
Ask an adult and you’ll get a blank stare, followed by “I have to look at my calendar.”
Part of the problem, surely, is that we’ve lost a lot of brain cells along the way – but another part is that working adults are consistently overloaded these days, with both tasks and information. There’s too much to do, and there's too much bombarding us while we do it.
If you’re interested in getting a handle on the overload in your life, consider participating in Information Overload Awareness Day on Wednesday, October 20th.
Information Overload Awareness Day is the brainchild of a research company called Basex. The organizers recommend a number of ways to participate in the day, including cutting your e-mail output by at least 10% (avoid replies to all, forwards, and anything that’s not truly necessary) and using more thorough search strings when looking for information on the Web (it’s much more efficient to search for “wireless modem reviews,” for example, than to take pot luck with “modems”).
Here are a few more suggestions on how to turn back the overload dial.
Unsubscribe to mailing lists. We all get too much e-mail, and a lot of it’s newsletters that we don’t need or read. If you’ve ended up on several useless mailing lists, celebrate October 20th by hitting the “unsubscribe” button – or, at the very least, mark some as “junk” so they won’t show up in your inbox anymore.
Simplify your slides. PowerPoint is often a vehicle for overloading our colleagues, and it’s our responsibility to stop that mess. Next Wednesday, pull up any slide that you regularly introduce with “Sorry about the tiny font” or “I know it’s hard to see what’s going on here” and cut it down. Considerably.
Carve out some uninterrupted time. If you work in a cubicle farm, you know it’s difficult to find time when you can focus, uninterrupted, on your tasks. Quietly observe IO Awareness Day by escaping to a calmer place or by displaying a “Do Not Disturb” sign for a while – and buckle down to get some real work done.
Stop trying to multitask. Most people think they’re really good at doing several things at once, but research tends to prove we’re not. To drive this point home, the folks at Basex are offering an online event (see InformationOverloadDay.com) that brings speakers, authors and other experts to a Web-connected computer near you. The only asking price is a simple pledge not to multitask during the event.
Altogether, information overload costs organizations and entrepreneurs a huge chunk of productivity – and money – everyday, but the solution lies within all of us. On October 20th, let’s remember to stop overloading ourselves and each other, and let’s start focusing those last remaining brain cells on getting our work done.
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