INFORMATION OVERLOAD October 1, 2009
Posted by Mike in : Mike, Motivation, Resources , 1 comment so farInformation overload. Hits me every day. I don’t mean the newspaper stuff. I mean the ToDo lists. Not that the lists are long, I’ve already spent all week whittling them down to five. It’s the amount of crap I find out for each item as I try to tackle it.
For example, on web developer stuff: “Make a web page center in the browser”. I do a web search on that, 32,000 hits. The second one looks perfect. I open it up and its some tech blog with 20 people suggesting the perfect way to do it with links. I soon have 80 tiny tabs crammed in so tight I can’t tell what they are. So now I have to go through them all and repeat the prior process till I have 13 browsers open with 200 “related” articles and soon I’m off analyzing how giraffes can center themselves in their sleep from zoology today and six hours of my life have passed.
So what do I do? I procrastinate more. It’s a nice little circle that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I read all the GTD (Getting Things Done) stuff like Steve Allen’s book “Ready for anything”:…practiced them as well…it made me so happy to only have 4 categories of ToDo and spend all night moving them between the boxes.
I have found that the only thing that works for me is a timer. Here is a free browser based one that I created (stole) that can be used anywhere just to remind you to get up and take a break. http://www.2people1year1million.com/timer.html.
New studies have shown that the top performers from CEOs to Athletes treat their brain like a muscle. About every 90 minutes they take a 10 minute break that enables them to handle periods of high stress so they can pull off that all-nighter or just produce more in less time. The bonus is after every break you see where you’re at and can get back on track.
P.S. On the bright side I did discover a gem or two in those long lists of articles. I think its hard to find good references because those who know what their doing don’t waste their time answering blog posts, which of course I’ll do if anyone wants to post me a question.
