We are constantly deluged with an unmanageable amount of information screaming for our attention.
Each day:
- 269 billion email messages are sent
- 8 trillion text messages are sent
- 500 million tweets are tweeted
Astoundingly, 90% of the data in the world today was created in the past 2 years. (IBM Marketing Cloud 2016) It’s not surprising that we get overwhelmed and overpowered by information. Defensively, we utter the phrase, “I’m so busy” like a salutation, “Good morning! I’m so busy!” So what can we do to stop drowning?
- Identify our essentials
- Consume only the information that contributes to our essentials
Without vigilantly deploying these filters, any information can seem intriguing, interesting, or important. To identify essentials… “Essential” gets defined by our aspirations, our goals, our commitments, our vision, and our battle cry. We need to ask, “What are my aspirations [goals, commitments, vision, battle cry] for my career, my family, my heath, my finances, and my life?”
To determine what information is important… Pause to evaluate: “Does this information [email, text, tweet, data, Yahoo story, LinkedIn announcement, Facebook update, YouTube cat video] I’m about to consume contribute to or contaminate one of my aspirations?” (“Contaminate” is any distraction, derailment, or sabotage.)
If the information does not help us move toward that which is important to us (our aspirations!), we need to: resist it, trash it, return it, or ignore it.
The only way to survive the deluge is by taking back our power over the information.
When we don’t use filters, we don’t have control. And then we helplessly grouse, “I’m so busy!”
We can do better than that…