Can We Lessen The Weight Of Information Overload?
Information overload and the internet.
There is hardly any topic that doesn't yield a result of several hundred thousand pages when googled. Even on 'information overload' Google returned 1,670,000 pages. That's a lot of pages, Because of this plethora of information sources, we get way too much more than what we need, and end up at sea and even more bemused than before the search.
Even when we are not deliberately looking for specific subject matter, most of us are bowed under the weight of information that we are expected to wade through, sort, collate and assimilate each day…a convoy of letters, email, journals, books, articles, reports, and assorted paper we need to get acquainted with on a regular basis.
To remain informed and ahead of the curve, we need to crawl through a tangle of information and extract those that we need, to allow us to function in our chosen fields.
Individuals who are considered successful do a lot of reading, even outside their primary area of expertise, and are able to retain a large portion of what they read.
We all want to be successful according to our own yardstick. Even more, we want to be considered interesting and knowledgeable. But there's still the problem with too much information, not enough time and a selective memory that seems to reject retaining 80% of what we so painstakingly read 15 minutes later.
Is information overload inevitable?
What can we do about the burden of information overload? Not much apparently. Either we find a way of assimilating information faster or we need to allocate more time to reading. The former is a definite preference. A third option is to give up reading altogether, but that's not very practical or achievable for obvious reasons.
Addressing information overload.
1.Take a speed reading course. Speed reading not only shortens the time needed to read, but also improves retention and recall. It's an extremely important skill in today's information-generating society.
However, speed reading does not mean you don't need to discriminate against information that serves very little purpose in your particular playing field. To be most effective, you need to select what you want to read, based on your professional interest or leisure activities.
2.Another option is to get audio books that you can listen to while carrying out other necessary physical activities, and putting the underutilized time to better use. However, audio books topics are limited, and the medium is not suitable for business and trade articles which invariable include diagrams, charts, graphs and other visual aids.
3.Subscribe to selected business and trade publications specific and relevant to your area of expertise and professional interest; discard any other unsolicited offers.
4.Take a memory training course. Its benefits are self-evident.
5.Combine two solutions. Get audio books for general knowledge or entertainment (they are inexpensive) and subscribe to selected business and trade publications to satisfy your professional needs and wants.
More about discriminate reading to reduce information overload:
Because information overload is a bane of the present information age, we need to be very clear about our central priorities and main interests. Speed reading measurably accelerates scanning through loads of documents and words to define the relevance of the information. This allows us to concentrate on more important material, and discard the time-wasters.
A large number of people has convinced themselves that they have to read everything or they'll be clueless about something of import when the information is needed most. However, these instances are hardly a matter of life-or-death. If you really need information on a topic, however esoteric or arcane, the source is only as far away as the nearest computer.
However, we must distinguish between a centered, qualitative approach and a broad unfocused pattern. In some fields, it is imperative to be well-informed and up-to-date on a broad range of topics. For my corporate training service for example, I need to have more than a passing conversance with subjects specific to the training topic.
To summarize the handling of information overload:
1.Identify your reading priorities, and let that direct your actions through any day, week or month.
2.Take a speed-reading course to reduce reading time and increase data retention and recall.
3.If you want the whole hog, consider a course in memory training as well.
4.Consider audio books to turn unproductive time fruitful.
5.Subscribe to business and trade publications specific to your needs and discard any other unsolicited sources of information or alternatives.
Select from hundreds of business and trade publications that are free for qualified individuals and organizations at http://vmsbonline.tradepub.com
And pick audio books from children's classics to philosophy at http://www.vmsbonline.com/audiobooks.html
Dan is involved in lecturing, corporate management, in-house skills training and offers proofreading and editing services at http://www.fogfactor.com - http://www.vmsbonline.com is an information site.
