You can easily spend hours each week just consuming information. And boy does information come to us in many forms: internet searches, newsletters, links to articles through social media, posts to read on social media, texts, emails, books, newspapers, magazines, apps, junk mail, research and reports. I imagine I’ve missed some sources too. The information we receive isn’t always asked for and can often show up unexpectedly in our news feed, inboxes and mail boxes. You may welcome some information that comes your way and feel overwhelmed by some of it. Information can be valuable, it can be a distraction and it can even be life-changing. How do you balance the limitless material available at your fingertips?
Be Picky: With so much coming your way, you have to be choosy about what you’ll spend your time on. If you’re not interested, recycle it or pass it on to someone who is interested in it.
Make Quick Decisions: Decide quickly if this is something you’d like to read or research further. Don’t hem and haw and set something to the side to read later. The chances are good it will end up in a stack. Stacks become overwhelming and things can get lost. Information may not be pertinent to you by the time you come across it again.
Stop It: Cancel anything you’re receiving that you no longer have time or an interest in reading.
Read What You Want: I used to feel guilty when I didn’t read a magazine cover-to-cover. I got over that by reading what I want to read and donating the magazines to the library for someone else to enjoy.
Avoid Analysis Paralysis: If you’re researching something, such as destinations for your family vacation, the options are seriously endless. Don’t let yourself get sucked into such an information vortex that you get overwhelmed and don’t make any decision at all. Set limits for yourself, such as researching five destination options, give your family your top three choices and then choose one together. Then go have fun on vacation!
We have so many ways we can spend our time and energy so we certainly don’t want information to take away too much time from other activities. Practice these tips to give yourself more time for other tasks, self-care and the important people in your life.
Courtesy of my Efficient Organization column in the Lake Stevens Ledger.
