As not sink in the information stream

If you do not know the artist Michael Mandiberg (Michael Mandiberg) decided to print all the "Wikipedia". You want to see how it looks? The photo captures part of the exhibition From Aaaaa! to ZZZap!

And that's just one site. Although he is one of the largest in the world, it is only one domain name.

I dare say that the Internet - one of the best inventions in the history of mankind. And I'm glad unreal that he was born in a time and place that open to me unlimited access to this wonderful source.

Sometimes, however, his strength and size confuses me. I literally can not keep in mind the abyss of information, to which I can reach at any time of the day or night.

My mistake is that I'm trying to learn as much as possible, though it has repeatedly urged that better filter information and throw out ideas as much as possible.

To ignore thousands of articles, records, courses and stories about how to change their lives.

Only if we ignore them, you will be able to focus on multiple sources of information, fully understand and apply the tips that gives the author. Otherwise it's just a waste of time and cause of constant interruptions. This is what happened to me.

As soon as I plunge into the abyss of inspiring content, my desire to do something falls to zero. I can not process the information and highlight the most important, because there are too many garbage.

Minimalist approach to information

So I remind myself of a minimalist approach, which assumes that the mass of useless information can be discarded to focus on a few things that really matter.

But it works, if the information to clean regularly and firmly.

When you try to implement the plan, it turns out that to adhere to these rules without any exceptions is difficult. And if you give up the slack, return to the regime would be more difficult.

I plan day and think over the strategy according to their own purposes. Usually I do it at night, so after waking up always know what to do. But sometimes it turns out at the end of the day, the results are far from planned.

One of the main reasons for this is that, where would you go into online travel, there will always be a few people who are fighting for your attention.

Imagine that you are walking down the street, surrounded by a dozen people who are watching your every move, analyze it and try to throw something interesting. One invites to the cinema and offers a ticket for a movie marathon profitable, while the other lures coupon that gives a discount of 50% in the clothing store. Third loudly argues that would be nice you lose weight and then shows the new drug for weight loss and training program.

In general, around a mess already. And then there are two insurance agents who claim that they have the best rates, "Here, see for yourself!" And other satellites too, you just pour the flow of information, not interested, or you need it not.

Like this do you feel on most sites that insert ads in every free corner. Roughly the same thing happens to your mailbox if you want to keep track of updates on many websites.

I like to subscribe to newsletters that attract attention and can improve my quality of life. But the number of inspiring letters endlessly, but my time is limited.

Attention can not be measured. We can not perform more than one task at a given time. A number of companies competing for our attention every day is growing.

Network Godin (Seth Godin)

The same applies to books.

A few months ago I stopped buying paper books and bought KindleAnd it was the right decision. No clutter on the shelves, and indeed no shelves on the walls, no dust on the nightstand forgotten books. There is room for all the books, all the books in place.

Excellent!

E-books allow for a ridiculous price to get a huge amount of value. A lot of exciting work can be bought for a penny, and sometimes even free of charge.

And then everything becomes more complicated again.

The paradox of choice

What do you choose? If you have virtually unlimited choices, it is difficult to think rationally and not to allow the number of proposals to knock themselves confused. And instead of having to open and read a useful book, I will open the section of discounts and will upload the books that need to be read later on. You can even realize how it is unproductive, but stay very, very difficult.

Here are some mistakes that will eventually lead you into a trap information overload:

1. Subscribe for more dispatches than you can read.
2. Saving subscribe to the, you do not read.
3. Saving interesting content for later - in fact it is "later" never comes.
4. Real-time news feeds of social networks.
5. Too many pages of public and people on whose news you subscribe.
6. Lack of priority (the inability to focus on the main).

The latter is more says Gary Keller (Gary Keller), author of the book "Start with the main». The best thing that can be learned from this book - a question that I am now constantly ask myself, when the horizon looms information chaos.

That - only one and the most important - I can do all the other things were given lighter or even become unnecessary?

The meaning is simple: Focus on what is one thing, important, and everything else will fall into place. This idea is easy to apply in many areas of life and work.

For example, I want to learn as much as you can about fitness and proper nutritionAnd I also want to discover the marketing techniques that will gently bring blog readers. I want to improve writing skills in order to better select words and dispense with unnecessary phrases. And I want to learn more about how to create a useful online course, which I plan to sometime in the future to run.

And this is only a small part of my plans.

Easy to lose momentum, jumping from one topic to another, and does not move in any sphere. Therefore, the choice of the main idea is so important.

In determining the main act tough and rough. Otherwise, everything will seem important and necessary right now. But since you're not a machine that can effortlessly analyze an array of data, each new change of activities will lead to an information noise.

Access to information is impressive, but a great opportunity and imposes a great responsibility. If you do not control the flow of information, he will cover the important things and will carry your precious time, and you do not even notice how it happened.

How to benefit from the Internet

Here are five key rules that I developed for myself after a frustrating because of attempts to absorb more information than I can do.

1. Start with the main. Find the most important task for a week, a month or a year. This can be Exam Preparation, The completion of a book or achieving training goals.
2. You have something to miss. It is inevitable, it should be. I noticed that the more you give up something, the more you manage to grow. And vice versa. The less you throw away the life, the more lose and the more slowly moving forward. Every day I walk past countless gigabytes of information. I want to or not, but it is inevitable. But if I focused on one topic, the small amount of content that I distinguish among Knowledge flows, brings many benefits, that the phrase "less is more" does not require any other evidence.
3. Identify sources of information. Even if you understand that you are the most important things can go awry because of attempts to gather information from too many sources. For example, if you want to learn more about entrepreneurship, select a book about business, read, and only then proceed to the next. Subscribe to five business mailings, buy a heap of business books, bookmarked hundreds of videos on how to do business, only slow you down. I already did. Graduated frustration on the ratio of the enormous amount of wasted time and the resulting benefits. The feeling of permanent employment is deceptive, because the time and efficiency is not the same thing. You need a second rather than the first.
4. Plan your learning process. Where there is no plan, the chaos settles. It's human nature. Spend 30 minutes in the strategy, and you do not have to spend hours searching for reference points.
5. Try to keep only one open tab in the browser and use useful extensions.