An observation: It seems to me that we, as a nation, are addicted to consuming ridiculous amounts of information. Never in the history of mankind have we had the ability to overload our brain with information – much of which isn’t helping us in any way, shape or form. All the information we could ever want is just there in front of us – like an ginormous salad bar with so many choices we end up taking a little bit of everything. Not good.
I’m recommending you take a more focused approach. We all need to stay on top of things, especially industry related information, but we don’t need to blitz our brain every single day. Consider consuming information at a measured pace. Alternate the intake of your information. For example:
- Schedule time in the early morning for visiting your favorite blogs
- Later in the day use a news aggregator like Alltop.com – for quickly finding articles of personal or professional development
- Schedule time during the day – or week – to see what the competition is up to
- Schedule time in the evening to search the web for interesting or entertaining tidbits
The key here is S C H E D U L E.
You have much more control over your time than you give yourself credit for. Take control of your day. Make your calendar your new best friend. Set time aside each day to take in the information you (think) you need to enrich your life. Know what and how much to eat before you grab your plate and head down the line at the salad bar. Do the same with your information intake. Put yourself on an information diet. Your overloaded brain will appreciate it.