Information: Junk or Nutrition?

There's a lot of talk these days about how greed has been responsible for the crash in our economy - greed on Wall Street as well as greed on Main Street. In our insatiable need for more, something finally had to give - and it did. But there's another kind of greed that doesn't get a lot of attention. I don't know exactly how this greed has impacted the economy, but I know that it impacts me greatly. This is greed for information. The Treasure Hunter Do you remember watching a movie where a group of treasure hunters, after a long and arduous search, finally unearth a cave full of riches? It's an old theme; invariably, one of the party starts stuffing gold and jewels into every pocket, overwhelmed by the accessibility of the vast riches spread out before him. Then, of course, the cave roof collapses, burying our hapless treasure hunter, along with his dreams for freedom and happiness. Moral of the story? Greed will kill you! Of course, we'd never do that, or would we? Here's an upated story: An independent business owner, in search of success, comes across a different kind of treasure trove. This treasure is information. The information available is more vast than any golden treasure of ancient times. Google, Wikipedia, blogs, emails, e-courses, Twitter, Facebook, podcasts, YouTube, online articles, and other information treasures are there for the taking in unimaginable quantities. Dazzled by the wonder of it all, we dive in greedily to absorb as much as we possibly can. We look things up, we download reports, we listen to audio and view video, we link to web sites from Twitter, until one fateful day the roof of the cave crashes in. We find ourselves exhausted, overwhelmed, and confused. All this information has given us a few good ideas and some excitement, but ultimately we feel a little empty inside. No matter how much information we get, it never seems to be enough. The Solution to Information Overload One solution is to cut back on the information we consume. But that's just part of the solution. The thing to realize is that information overload is triggered by "junk information." This is random information, articles, and ideas that don't make any substantial contribution to our business and lives. All of this junk information seems to flow in automatically. It's always trying to pull our attention, and ends up distracting us from what's really important. Look at all the information that comes into you, and ask if it's really adding value. Then cut it back. Unsubscribe to newsletters, discontinue certain magazines, stop reading some blogs, remove the news feed on iGoogle. If you really need to know something, you can always look it up. The next step is to up your consumption of "nutritious information." This is information that adds real value to your life and your business, such as books and courses. We often don't get to this information because we are so inundated by the junk. For instance, I recently bought a course on how to do more successful online product and program launches. It's great information that can really help my business, but it's been hard to get around to studying it. My friend and business coach, Patrick Summar, suggested a very non-intutive solution: He said, "You should consume this highly nutritious information earlier in the day. Don't wait until the end of the day when you're tired. For instance, take some time before lunch and read a section or chapter. The bonus is that this information will give you ideas and energy you can tap into for the rest of the day. "When you're consuming junk information, that's not the case, because it doesn't have much value or immediate application to your business; it only distracts you. Ultimately it's only wasting your time and adding to your overwhelm." So that's my new information plan. Reduce the junk information, increase the nutritious information and schedule the consumption of this information in a way that works for me. Maybe it will work for you as well. The More Clients Bottom Line: Although it may not seem like it, we do have a choice about the information we consume. We can subsist on a junk diet of ideas, snippets, and news that does nothing to build our businesses, or we can sit down regularly for an information meal that can nourish us and make us stronger. It really doesn't take any more time to consume this kind of information; it just takes a little more intention and planing. 2009-03-17T01:03:47Z

2009-03-22T02:33:49Z