How to Survive in a World of Information Overload
We live in a world of too much information, and it’s nothing less than a blessing. We have the incredible opportunity to learn nearly anything with a few taps or clicks. This new ability presents challenges, however, such as the fact that we are drowning in information.
The world is bifurcating into people who allow their time and attention to be controlled and manipulated by others and those with the power to decide for themselves
Indistractable is a super skill. Without the ability to block out distractions, you’ll be condemned to going through life following someone else’s agenda
A schedule imposes a constraint
People who rely on long to-do lists often don’t accomplish what they say they’re going to do
- Calendar: forces you to make trade-offs
- You only have 24 hours in a day, so you have to make decisions about how you want to spend your time
- Decide your values, turn them into time, and impose constraints on your schedule
Multitasking
Single-channel multitasking is the kind humans are really bad at
- There are two kinds of multitasking: multi-channel and single-channel
- Multi-channel: information on multiple information channels at once
- You can consume content while doing other things like exercising or driving
- Turn your values into time, filtering out the superfluous sources of information we don’t have time for, and finding ways to get more out of the time we have
Become a master of information consumption by determining your values, then turning your values into time
A value is like a guiding star
- It’s the fixed point we use to help us navigate our life choices, including how we spend our time.
- If we don’t plan time to live out our values-e.g. making time to spend with our friends for the value of loyalty-we won’t follow through.
What happens after you decide to consume certain kinds of content and find there’s still too much to get through?
Distraction pulls you away from what you intended to do, while traction, on the other hand, draws you toward it.
- We often consume unnecessary information as an emotional escape when we don’t feel right
- If it’s not what we planned to do with our time, it is, by definition, a distraction