Information Addiction and Some Ways to Cure it.

byAlexEvans

11.9K followers

7 years ago

It is so easy to become an information addict just accumulating information for the sake of it, probably to use up some space on our hard drives.... I don't know. All day long information is arriving into my inbox and onto my screen. At the end of the day, we can only process so much information before it just goes on the never going to use, scrap heap.

The trouble is that we can all fall into that trap of being a collector of information, that we never end up using. It came into my vision when I was looking for a program that I had tucked away, I couldn't sift through the dross on my hard drive not to mention the portable ones because there is just too much stuff there seriously. It became strikingly obvious that I am addicted to gathering information. There is no other way to describe it.

One of the telltale signs is if you catch yourself saying I might just need this it may be useful, I will download that and use it down the track.

Another telltale sign, especially with regards to social media, is when you catch yourself getting anxious that you just may well be missing out on something if you don't touch base with that platform of choice

The translation is;

This will probably end up taking up space on my hard drive and never see that light of day. You will never use it and FOMO is a real thing it can make you anxious.

How to cure information addiction.

• If you are not going to use it in the next little while then don't download it in the first place.
• Hard as it may seem to be, go through your info collection and discard the things that you will never use.
• When looking at information become more selective go for quality not quantity especially when looking at data and programs better quality is the name of the game.
• stick to niche related information or the things that will help you in your business be ruthless on that point.
• Looking at social media, how much is too much, it is all about finding that balance what will help your business to grow and what is in away time wasting. there is a fine line but it is worth the effort doing that stock take.
• Look at how you store information, try and implement systems that will allow you to better access the information that you have, you will be more likely to use that information if you can access it readily.
• Set aside some time for gathering information and doing that deep research each week make it part of your routine.
• Keep track of what it is you want to learn and only look at the realvent info that is related to your goals.
• With regards to information rank, it in the level of importance keep the stuff you are using or going to use close at hand, you are more likely to use it if you do.

Information is only of value if you use it.

That is the big one, so with the information that you have, create a schedule for implementing and using that information.

The motto no more information until I use and implement the information and knowledge that I already have. Don't move on until what you need to do, is embedded into your business or routine.

A long way of saying no new stuff until you use the old stuff. Well, that should be fairly easy.

Consuming information can take so much time much of it is unproductive if we are not using it. One of the real drawbacks is that we can start to get conflicting messages so we are unsure how to proceed, which can lead to overload and then to paralysis. Where we end up doing nothing, not good for anyone's business or online career.

Hoarding information is not a problem if we remember this one golden rule;

Information in its self will not help us to move forward it is taking action with and implementing what we know that will.

Alex