Informed but not Overwhelmed

How can you stayed informed without being overwhelmed?

* Choose to acquire knowledge that supports or interests you, not what you simply happen to ingest, or think you have to ingest.

* Look for broad-based patterns and trends, as opposed to quickly disappearing fads and forgettable trivia.

* Learn to delegate some of your reading to your most junior staff. After only 15 minutes of instruction and armed with a list of key words, they will be able to rather easily identify articles of interest to you.

* Prune your files regularly and ruthlessly. Constantly throw out what does not support you.

Choices and Misery

"Logic suggests that having options allows people to select precisely what
makes them happiest. But, as studies show, abundant choice often makes for
misery."
Barry Schwartz, "The Tyranny of Choice," Scientific American, April 2004

Life is Finite, Information Infinite

Too much information violates our senses and even becomes harmful. As you receive more information, you experience stress, anxiety, and even helplessness. Your perception of breathing space is adversely and directly influenced by the more news, information and details that you ingest, or believe you have to ingest.

* In 1302, the Sorbonne Library in Paris housed 1,338 books, most handwritten, representing nearly all of humankind's accumulated knowledge spanning a few thousand years.
* In 2005, at least 730,000 books are published each year -- more than 2,000 a day.

In today's business environment we are being pulled in so many directions at once!Recognize, with the clarity of death, that life is finite; you cannot wistfully ingest the daily deluge of information/communication and expect to achieve balance.

Don't passively yield to the din and settle for living your life in what's left over after each day's onslaught. Hereafter make sensible choices about what is best ignored and what merits your time and attention.

Overload in Packaging

A New York Times story, titled "Product Packages Now Shout to Get Your Attention" written by Louise Story, is most revealing about the direction of information overload in society:

"In the last 100 years, Pepsi had changed the look of its can, and before that its bottles, only 10 times. This year alone, the soft-drink maker will switch designs every few weeks. Kleenex boxes used to be square or rectangular, but no more. Kleenex, after 40 years of sticking with square and rectangular boxes, has started selling tissues in oval packages."

"Coors Light bottles now have labels that turn blue when the beer is chilled to the right temperature. And Huggies' Henry the Hippo hand soap bottles have a light that flashes for 20 seconds to show children how long they should wash their hands."

"Consumer goods companies, which once saw packages largely as containers for shipping their products, are now using them more as 3-D ads to grab shoppers' attention. The shift is mostly because of the rise of the Internet and hundreds of television channels, which mean marketers can no longer count on people seeing their commercials. ...So they are using their bottles, cans, boxes and plastic packs to improve sales by attracting the eyes of consumers, who often make most of their shopping decisions at the last minute while standing in front of store shelves. "

Does this mean ever-accelerating product packaging changes and accompanying bombardment? It appears so.

Personal Success, Real Happiness

In his book, The Templeton Plan: 21 Steps to Personal Success and Real Happiness, author John Templeton offers some rare gems in a world awash with self-help information. For example, he suggests demonstrating:

* Truthfulness when a lie would be so much easier.
* Reliability when you could slack off.
* Faithfulness during moments of doubt.
* Perseverance when you think that you are too tired to go on.

* Energy while encountering roadblocks.
* Humility while others heap their praise on you.
* Altruism although you may sense an atmosphere of selfishness around you.
* Joy at the moment your prospects seem darkest.

So refreshing to have handy these short passages of sage advice.

An Epidemic of Unhappiness

"Being able to choose has enormous important positive effects on us, but only up to a point. As the number of choices we face increases, the psychological benefits we derive start to level off. At the same time, some of the negative effects of choice...begin to appear, and rather than leveling off, they accelerate...a point is reached at which increase choice brings increased misery rather than increased opportunity. It appears that American society has long since passed that point."

"There's a good reason to believe that the overwhelming choice at least contributes to the epidemic of unhappiness spreading through modern society."
- Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

Too Many Choices!

If making product purchases was as simple as choosing supermarket items, we could all cope. But the tyranny of choice extends to large products, as well as services like insurance, retirement options, investments, and frequent flyer programs.

By the time we absorb all the rules and regulations, we heap on more stress to our already stretched-thin composure. I recommend that you judge the merits of any product or service on two criteria:

(1) the intended benefit, and

(2) the ease with which we can understand and enjoy those benefits.