More information, more confusion
Yes this is coming from a data analyst 😰
The other day I said, ‘my head feels heavy’ and immediately I felt as ludacris as I sounded. But am I?
Haven’t you ever felt like your brain was taking in so much information its weight changed?
This is called Information Overload; it is when we receive an excessive amount of information. Now many argue we should not complain about this because we are living in a knowledge economy where information is our most valuable commodity but when I am receiving and sending around 115 emails a day I definitely need to complain.
Yes that is right, we are receiving and sending around 115 emails a day on average according to Radicati Group, a research company focused on digital services.
Information Overload stems from many factors, a few being, the extensive amount of information that is created constantly, the pressure to become an information provider (I can attest to that), the ease of sharing information online and of course the increase in the number of channels to send and receive information.
This is leading to poor health and wellbeing where more people are suffering from burnout, stress, lowered productivity at work, cognitive overload which affects our decision making skills and of course ‘heavy heads’.
I have found many innovative tools and techniques to combat information overload but I like to keep things simple — I am learning to ignore and unplug! I just sign out, if it is important information, it will find a way of reaching me. I also set limits, I limit the amount of news I consume, the time I spend on social media and of course emails. I am learning to master the art of skimming; what I read and what people say. And the last tip I found interesting was delegating information responsibility — certain people have all the information about specific things, they are my go to for those.
I am the director of research at Versa Research, a data, research & consulting company!
References
https://hbr.org/2009/09/death-by-information-overload
https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/prevent-information-overload
