What is Information Overload?” - Professor M.S.Rao

Now a days too much of information is dumped. People often find it tough to differentiate between chalk and cheese. At times irrelevant information takes precedence over the relevant information. In this regard, let briefly know what is all about information overload.

The term ‘Information Overload’ was coined by Alvin Toffler much before the internet revolution. It is about giving excess information that clutters human mind and confuses people. It prevents people from understanding the real content. Sometimes it deviates from the main topic and area of interest. John C. Maxwell reveals in his book Success, “more new information has been produced in the last thirty years than in the previous five thousand. A single weekday edition of the New York Times contains more information than most people in seventeenth-century England were likely to encounter in their lifetimes.”

Similarly while teaching, it is essential not to dump too much information as it becomes heavy for the listeners to digest the content. Knowledge has to be imparted in a piecemeal manner by giving breaks by way of humor, interaction and questioning. It leads to effective teaching.

Tips to Tackle
It is essential to focus on what not to read. The process of elimination must start from your mind first. Declutter your mind by focusing on your main goals. Don’t deviate from your main goals. Focus is the key to success in this information world. You must also aim to hit bulls’ eye.

• Learn to ignore irrelevant information.
• Narrow down your focus on the key things.
• Lot of crap is available in search engines. You must be choosy in your content.

For freeing your mind from clutter, Jim Collins mentions his book, Good to Great as follows:

“Most of us lead busy, but undisciplined lives. We have ever-expanding “to do” lists, trying to build momentum by doing, doing, doing - and doing more. And it rarely works. Those who build the good-to-great companies, however, made as much use of “stop doing” lists as the “to do” lists. They displayed a remarkable amount of discipline to unplug all sorts of extraneous junk.”


Therefore, hereafter be careful in choosing the appropriate information as it saves your time, fine-tunes your mind and polishes your personality.


Reference
John C. Maxwell Success - What Every Leader Needs to Know p 109. 2010 Jaico Books


Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com



Dear readers,

I would appreciate your comments about this article.