Filtering What's Important

For most of human history, we have benefitted from working to get more-more knowledge of our environment, more food, more family, and more comforts. While these advancements have led to countless improvements over time, many parts of the world are now suffering from having too much. People are often aware of this in the context of obesity (overabundance of calories) but fewer recognize the degree to which we suffer from an overabundance of information.

But how can you go about reducing this information overload? So much of what we read on a daily basis is useful at times, even if the constant stream itself is extremely distracting. While I don't have all the solutions, one idea that I've been testing out is using an alternative email address for newsletters. Newsletters and blogs often have useful information but rarely contain anything which requires your immediate attention. On top of that, there will always be more resources on the internet than anyone can process. By separating automatically generated messages from human-to-human communication, you can drastically reduce your daily inbox flow. Then, pick one or two days a week, set aside a specific amount of time, skim through all the messages that have built up, and identify any that might be of particular interest.

If you stick to the set time, you may have unread emails left over. In that case, you can either just delete those emails or try to increase the time or frequency of checking. Even if you have to check three times a week for an hour instead of two times a week for 30 minutes, the extra mental capacity gained by freeing yourself from the constant assault of emails is likely still worth the effort.

Partially closing off the information spigot might lead to fear of missing out, but if you are able to overcome that fear I guarantee the extra headspace will be well worth it.

###

Photo is the mural “Swift and Safe” by Gaylord Chan in Hong Kong Station. Wall mounted paper cut style relief 6m x 9m, completed in July 1997. The artist describes the concept as “created to enhance the environment; to provide commuters with a light hearted, bright and joyful encounter each time they use MTR. Motifs created for this relief are used to depict modern Hi-Tech flying object; rocket and space shuttle alike, with satellite hovering above.”