Tame Information Overload-Post & Video Clip

I hope you enjoy this short post and video about  information overload and solutions to this growing problem. These days most of us are deluged by the sheer volume and velocity of information before us.  While this access to information is supposed to help us make faster and better decisions, it has the reverse effect because our circuits get overloaded.

Studies suggest that information overload actually makes us dumber; making smart people underperform while also increasing stress related illnesses. Our circuits get overloaded and it negatively impacts cognition, performance and health. In a Harvard Business Review article, Overloaded Circuits-Why Smart People Underperform E.M Hallowell, MD  discusses the negative impact of information overload.  While this article was written in 2005, the epidemic of negative effects caused by information overload has continued to grow as information multiplies at a staggering rate.  Sufferers from information overload have been described as having ADT-attention deficit trait.  “ADT is now epidemic in organizations. The core symptoms are distractibility, inner frenzy, and impatience. People with ADT have difficulty staying organized, setting priorities, and managing time.” E.M. Hallowell, M.D.

Information will continue to grow at an exponential rate. Knowledge doubles every 12 months; soon to be every 12 hours says IBM.  “Buckminster Fuller created the “Knowledge Doubling Curve”; he noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today things are not as simple as different types of knowledge have different rates of growth. For example, nanotechnology knowledge is doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average human knowledge is doubling every 13 months.  According to IBM, the build out of the “internet of things” will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours.” David Russel Shilling, Industry Tap, 2013

⇒How can you tame information overload and excel? This short video clip is a great place to start. Daniel Levitan, author of The Organized Mind, talks about 4 important, powerful and simple ways to tame information. Enjoy!  Just click here to access the video.  ⇐

Gratitude to Daniel Levitan for a great read/great book and to Business Source for a terrific video and platform.

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