It has come to my attention that the Internet and what we’ve come to know as Information Overload have a whole lot to do with… breathing.

So much of the large load of information that come to us has to do with HYPE, and from this combination, I’ve coined the term HYPErventilate.

Our only course of action is to take a deep breath and just Dive In. During your hard work of pitching it all to the curb, you’re in for a bit of heavy breathing. And lastly, when you’ve emptied the trash, you can then breathe easy.

We have all been dealing with the increasing information load for more than two decades. Here is a quote — not from our new 21st Century, but from 1990:

“Everything from telegraphy and photography in the 19th century
to the silicon chip in the 20th has amplified the din of information,
until matters have reached such proportions today that for the
average person, information no longer has any relation to the
solution of problems. Our defenses against information glut have
broken down; our information immune system is inoperable. We don’t
know how to filter it out; we don’t know how to reduce it; we don’t
know to use it.”

~Neil Postman

Resource: http://www.eff.org/Net_culture/Criticisms/informing_ourselves_to_death.paper

Indeed, information barrages us from all directions at an amazing rate. Information overload is frighteningly easy to encounter and almost desperately hard to counteract.

Deep in the bottomless pit of newsletters, RSS feeds, personal Email consisting of family announcements and forwarded Cute Stuffs, and professional Emails, you find that you have perhaps hundreds of pieces of information to assimilate every day.

Do you literally find yourself “zoning out?” Does all of this unconnected content take away the focus from the primary information you’ve also received, and which has complete relevance to the here and now, and the success of your business?

It is becoming more and more complicated to sift the golden nuggets of real information from the mountains of fool’s gold that is the data hurled our way from all directions.

You literally get lost in an avalanche of information. Of course, to a certain extent, we bring this upon ourselves — most of us try to take in just too much of all the goodies that this age of unlimited digital access has brought us.

Not to mention all the traditional sources such as TV, radio, billboards, and the other gazillion media pieces that hit us every day. It is no wonder that we feel overwhelmed. Daily, we have reason to HYPErventilate.

Although I’ve taken a light approach in this writing, there are serious physical symptoms showing up in people who live large amounts of time online.

Professors of psychiatry at Harvard have studied the consequences of technology on the human attention span and our ability to focus on core tasks.

They have coined the term “pseudo-attention deficit disorder” (ADD). Although those of us who suffer from this disorder don’t truly have clinical ADD, we do live with a shortened attention span.

To help you in your fight against information overload, learn to recognize the daily happenings that produce the problems. Once you see the patterns, there are ways to counteract and defend against being overwhelmed:

• Don’t allow the profusion of content to work against you.
Instead, modify the way in which you manage it.

• Today’s demand for what amounts to out of control multitasking,
and the deluge of information have fashioned a counterproductive
way of life. What a paradox this is: The more we attempt to do,
the less we actually get done… and the more swamped we are
with information, the less time we can effectively absorb it.

• Use your Email filters and weed out the junk. A lot of what you
receive is the latest “fad” for spammers and will have identical
subject lines or phrases. It only takes a few moments to create
a filter, and this will refunnel all the repeat spam from your
inbox. Choose some keywords contained in the subject line or the
body of the message. This will filter out those Emails that match
your keywords.

• In limiting the quantity of material that comes to you, you will
purge much of the source of your information overload. Once
you’ve accomplished this, you will have more time to spend doing
the things you need to do, for growing and developing your
business.

Here is the bottom line: Implementing uncomplicated strategies for dealing with information overload online today will bring great rewards in peace of mind and increased time management, in the future.

You will find you will have more time for the things you really enjoy, and for being with those who mean the most to you. Instead of being a victim of the HYPErventilating Syndrome, you will discover that

“Once in a blue moon, people will surprise you, and once in a while
people may even take your breath away.”

~from Grey’s Anatomy, 2005, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413573/quotes

So. Again. Take a deep breath and dive right in. This time, you’ve tamed the Information Overload Beast, and you are in control.

Gilles Rais

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Information overload happens when you are attempting to learn too much, too fast.

What a statement for the 21st Century! I can just hear the groans — this is the INTERNET! Of course it’s too much, too fast!

Because you are an Internet marketer, I am guessing that you just think that stress comes with the territory. But, does it have to? Let’s explore what we might be able to do to alleviate this.

A lot of the stress and apprehension, and our sense of overload that we carry comes from feeling our lives are out of control. We plainly feel overloaded.

Is this a new thing? Is this a part and parcel of having entered a new century?

Ponder this quote, and decide for yourself whether or not this came from a post-Y2K speech:

“…[W]e don’t know what information is relevant, and what
information is irrelevant to our lives. Second, we have
directed all of our energies and intelligence to inventing
machinery that does nothing but increase the supply of
information. As a consequence, our defenses against information
glut have broken down; our information immune system is
inoperable. We don’t know how to filter it out; we don’t know
how to reduce it; we don’t know to use it. We suffer from a
kind of cultural AIDS.”

~Neil Postman

Resource: http://www.eff.org/Net_culture/Criticisms/informing_ourselves_to_death.paper

This speech was made in 1990! Not in 2006 at the writing of this article. We’ve been dealing with technology-driven overload for much more than two decades.

Are you suffering from business stress? Business stress is experienced during times of conflict, heavy loads, bereavement, illness, anxiety, or fear.

It is a description of the frenetic pace of business life. Everybody responds in different ways to stress. Some people are able to cope and take it in their stride, but others find the burden is too heavy, and buckle under the strain.

Taking the necessary steps to prepare yourself for the stress and , many times, the rejection that all new businesses confront ,will allow you to develop your background and experience and create a truly successful business.

Surveys indicate that stress levels are at an all-time high, and a key source of that stress is information overload. There is a tremendous amount of information on the Internet.

If you move toward it judiciously, you will benefit. If you don’t approach it shrewdly, you may end up suffering from information overload.

One common reaction is to start pitching large portions of your saved info into the E-File 13. And you probably are deleting some really good, needed information mixed in with all that junk mail you receive.

Your office space and your computer workspace are mirror images of you and your business. An organized, shipshape workspace will allow you to be more productive and less stressed.

Once you devise your plan for keeping what is essential and throwing the accumulated junk away, you will suddenly find that your surroundings are very pleasant and not so conducive to the info overload you’ve been dealing with.

You will stop losing so much time searching for files. As a matter of fact, you might even find yourself with enough time for an evening out!

Always keep in mind one of your top reasons for entering the world of online business, and leaving behind the nine-to-five routine. You are in this to have FUN!

Don’t let temporary activities create stress. Don’t feel like you have to do every single thing perfectly. Interact with visitors to your site, and create a real community of like-minded folks.

Perhaps you could even include your experiences with information overload and stress to your newsletter readers. It would open the door to real conversation where everyone will learn new ways of dealing with our digital age.

I will leave you with two quite brilliant observations about dealing with stress:

“Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with
the time we have rushed through life trying to save.”
~Will Rogers, Autobiography, 1949

“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.”
~Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

Gilles Rais

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