ARE YOU A VICTIM OF INFORMATION OVERLOAD???

Most of us start the day, with a plan or checklist to be accomplished by the end of the day. Inspite of all this preparation, is it not common that many of us end up doing something totally different from what we planned to do for that day?  Have you ever wondered, why?. Yes, you know the answer. It is because we get lost in a world of distractions owing to the new age problem called “information overload”.

With the amount of information coming in from all quarters of life, such as Phone calls, Text messages, Email, Snailmail, Internet, Instant Messengers like Whatsapp and Telegram, Notifications and alerts from social networking sites like Facebook and Linked In,  Newspaper, Magazines, Trade Journals, Reports, so on and so forth we seem to lose focus of what is important and end up doing things which are not important.

All the information we receive on a daily basis or not useful and we need to become wise enough to differentiate the necessary from the unnecessary. Though it is easy to say this, it is truly difficult to differentiate the important from the unimportant.

Here is where, Stephen Covey’s principle of “First things First” comes as an obvious answer. We need to classify each information we receive in any one of the 4 categories and act accordingly

·        Urgent /Important – Act immediately.

·        Not Urgent / Important – Mark it as important and make sure you follow up.

·        Urgent/ Not Important – Reply quickly and keep it short.

·        Not Urgent/ Not Important – Delete it.

Always remember: the choice of where to focus your efforts is yours to make. Once you gain this clarity, you will be able to understand and prioritize what information and communications are absolutely necessary and develop the habit of ignoring all non-essential information. You'll achieve a newfound sense of balance derived from focus.

Some tips that I think will help you to be in control these distractions

·        Allotting specific time slots to check Whatsapp or Facebook, say 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening.

·        Disable or mute notification in Facebook and Whatsapp.

·        Enabling DND Service ( Do Not Disturb ) service in mobile phone.

·        Saying NOT INTERESTED firmly to marketing calls and cutting short the call.

·        Having a ready to use SMS template, which says “Not able to attend your call at the moment. Shall call you back later”. You can use this template, to reject calls, when you are focused in some important work or in a meeting.

·        Do not give your mobile numbers or email unnecessarily, when filling up any feedback forms, at hotels or shopping malls.

·        If ever you should give your email id,  you can have a separate email id, which you check sparsely,  assigned for this purpose.

·        Create rules in your email, so that mails that come from specific email ids, goes to a separate folder, which you can read later at leisure.

·        Create rules in your email to send to spam or block a few email ids.

·        You can unsubscribe to mails, which you are no longer wish to receive.

There are many more ways, you can regain control of your time. So it is also about forming some new strategies and exercising self-control.

The choice is yours. It's 100% up to you how you choose to handle the 86,400 seconds of every day. If you keep your goals in mind, you'll find yourself making wise decisions. I hope you will!

Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Article Dated Feb 2015