How to Avoid Information Overload that Affects Your Performance


When I was a child, I often heard my mother saying, “Do not eat too much cadies, or else you will have tooth decay.” When I was a teenager, many people say, “Do not eat too much oily foods; they causes pimples.”

"Too much of anything is detrimental,” a popular maxim says. It is true. For this reason, we'll be discussing a few points on how to avoid information overload and why you need to do so.



Whenever your brain receives an excessive amount of information, it decelerates and takes quite a long time to process anything you fed it. Hence, rather than finding solutions and having answers fast, you could possibly turn out confused and even more clueless of the task you had been given.

This leads to low productivity. Your performance could be greatly affected by information overload, so do not take this matter for granted. You may be wasting time which can be allotted for more beneficial things.

What should you do to avoid it? Here are points to remember:

1. Identify your objectives


With your goal clear in mind, set the scope of your works. Create filter questions and match the information you will gather to their answers. This will enable you to work on your tasks one at a time.

2. Get rid of distractions


When you are reading a source article from the internet, close all your social networks apps. Don't answer any instant messages that, you know, are not and will not be related to the work you're at. By doing this, you will be able to absorb and analyze well what you are reading.

When you are reading a book taken from the library or a bookstore, turn off the TV or the radio. Set your phone in silent mode. Read in a quiet place. By eliminating the presence of unnecessary sounds, you help your brain to focus on the visual information you get.

3. Make a schedule


Knowing that you have a task to finish before the allotted time ends will help you stay focused. You will be obliged to remove all distractions and stick with your goal. Remember to prioritize the most important tasks in your schedule.


4. Minimize your sources


If you have read enough information, stop. You don't have to read twenty books or articles, or open twenty tabs to get enough info. Set aside additional topics that are not related to your goal. Research about them some other time, when you're free.

5. Sort your mails


When you receive a lot of snail mails every day, you need to classify them, and have a bin near you so that you can immediate throw those not so important letters.
Delete the unsolicited emails right away. Just like sorting snail mails, create a folder for every important emails that are coming into you inbox.
You can also create another email address which only intended for blogs feeds and newsletter subscription so that, you personal email address will not be flooded with bulk messaged.

6. One subject at a time


Do this once you're done gathering enough information. Do not browse the internet at the same time. Give your brain enough time to correlate all the ideas and provide you with satisfactory results. Our brain is like a computer, the more tasks run, and the slower it performs.

I look forward that these tips could help you to avoid information overload.

No comments:

Post a Comment