OD83: Dealing with information overload ??

Reducing variety & increasing capability to manage the variety of information.

Dear readers,

Given the current global context, we’ll keep this edition light, focusing on a few ideas that might be helpful when dealing with massive fluxes of information.

We’re sad to see this war unravelling in front of our eyes and hope that peace will come soon.

All the best from Romania ????

Raluca & Bülent

Dealing with information overload

Information overload is generally associated with an excessive quantity of daily information, compared to our ability to process this information and do useful things with it.

The central idea that helps us deal with lots of varied information is that:

“Only variety absorbs variety”

If we apply it on dealing with lots of information, it means that:

You need to increase your capability for managing the variety of information,

while decreasing the variety of information that you are exposed to.

Here are 4 principles we’re using for reducing the variety of information:

1/ Look inward to look outward.

Reflect on what matters for you and what you find valuable to make better use of surrounding information.

2/?Don’t keep up with what’s?on trend?for the majority.

Building on the first principle, if you’re connected to what matters to you, you might discover that what’s currently trending, considered cool or hype is not relevant or valuable.

3/ Less, but better.

Look for information and channels that bring you more insights and a better understanding of what’s important for you. What is better for me might not be better for you.

Define “better”, then find ”better”, then minimize what’s less than this personal definition of “better”.

4/?Learn when to get out of autopilot mode.

Autopilot mode helps you operate in stable contexts by consuming less energy and attention. Get out of this mode and adjust information and channels when the context changes.

To balance them, here are 4 principles for increasing capability to manage variety:

1/?Visualize to optimize.

Having an explicit model of how you interact with the information around you helps you make better decisions about dealing with it. Visual models are easy to tweak and play with.

2/?Match information flow to context.

Have you tried studying a difficult book and taking study notes by using only your phone? Different setups support different ways of dealing with information. Experiment with setups and ways of dealing with information. See what works.

3/ Experiment with premium information tools & products.

Many tools that are created to help us better manage the information in our lives (e.g. Feedly, Pocket) are continuously improving their value proposition. Play with these tools and see if they can add value to your flows.

4/ Get inspiration from what works for others.

Deliberately or not, most knowledge workers have ways of dealing with the influx of information of various types. You might learn unexpected principles and practices from others.

For example, applying principles 1, 2 and 3 for reducing variety and principles 1, 2 and 3 for increasing capability for managing information variety, we’ve created a visualisation of the flow that helps us constantly curate information from hundreds of sources.

Hope these principles and examples inspire you to ask yourself about your own information flows and how you’re dealing with them ??

Thanks for reading the OrgDev Newsletter!

See you again next week. ?? The Strategy & Organization Goodies and the Interconnections will be back in the next edition.

This newsletter is curated by?Raluca and Bülent Duagi, creators of?ForBetterOrgs.com,?with the aim to inspire and equip leaders like you to build better organizations better.