Article Title: Dealing with Information Overload
Author: Stephan Szugat
Word Count: 828
Article URL: http://www.abenetis.com/encyclopedia.html
Format: 65 Characters per Line

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Dealing with Information Overload
Today the sources of information seem to be endless. Magazines,
journals, memos, emails, web sites and a lot more, provide us
with more data than any person is able to handle. Furthermore,
information presented to us while taking part at meetings and
other events will join the already obtained information from the
above mentioned sources. Information overload is a very real
concern for today's business people, but also for all others.

We must possess skills that allow us to process huge amounts of
data. Consider the following method as one option to bring your
information flow under your control.

1. Have a structure for the information you like to store.
Without a structure you will lose overview about which
information is stored where. A good solution for the beginning is
a structure of your own knowledge and information requirements.
For example: Make some folders or directories on your computer.
One directory or folder for one knowledge area, such as
languages, computer knowledge, knowledge from your working
experiences.

You could use your computer to store things you receive by email
or internet searches. To store offline items just follow the same
tactic. You might create one or more folders as you need to keep
your structure work. What ever you do, keep your structure topic
oriented. Open only new topics when you have many items for the
new ones. It works fine if you have a folder where you store
things first for which you don't have a folder yet. Just call
that folder 'Collected Items without Category' or something
similar.

2. Scan Articles before reading.
When you encounter information of interest, read the first
paragraph or two, scan the body for keywords and read the
conclusion. Then decide if you want to keep the article for
future "in depth" reading. Store the articles in a folder or
directory which states that you like to read this article in full
length. Furthermore you could have collecting folders where you
put all information, which you couldn't allocate to a specific
area of knowledge. Learning to "preview" information before
deciding to spend valuable time on it will save you many hours.
Time to spend on the things that matter most.

2. Managing Emails
Today it's easy to receive 200 or more emails each day. It's
often difficult to determine which are important and which are
not. To save time sorting the emails, simply filter the important
emails into separate folders. Then once a day look at the rest.
Use your email programs filtering capabilities to accomplish
this. Just setup some rules to sort received emails into some
folders.

Or use a spam filter. However, none of the programs available
today work 100% correct. You have to bear in mind, that the spam
filter might delete some important messages. Well, my experience
is, that if you use a filtering system you will probably clean up
your Inbox as good as if you use a spam filtering software. But
the advantage is, you won't miss important emails.

What ever system you use, a filter in your email program, or a
third-party spam filtering product, controlling unwanted emails
is a must. And if even that is not working anymore, setup a new
email address and share this one just with the people very
important to you. This will reduce the flood of spam mails for a
while.

3. Set aside "in depth" reading time.
Asign times for the in depth reading of articles and other
information. At these times you could read your articles and do
further researches. While reading articles, you could also do
the review which is mentioned in the next paragraph.

4. Review stored information regularly
Information has a short life. It is essential to review the
information you store regular, to keep the information actual.
All old and no more usefull information must be deleted or thrown
away. If you don't review regular, you will see your folders mess
up and your computer harddrive will get very full. No kidding,
soon you will have thousands of files. When reviewing remember to
review also the bookmark in your favorite web-browser. You may
save it for later reference. A review should be made at last
every 6 month, at least once a year if the information is for
private use. Business owner should review every 3 to 6 month.

Conclusion
It needs a structure and discipline to handle the information
overload we all are facing every day. If you don't follow your
own rules for Information Management, you will be losing the
information game one day.

To win the information game has little to do with time
management, it's an issue of self organisation and discipline.
While implementing and using the above described solution you
will see that things are changing to be more comfortabel for you.
You might also find out that the life of information is not
really that short as most people think. Good Luck.
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About the Author

About the Author:
Stephan Szugat is founder of abenetis a web-based service about Business Management Solutions focusing on the core needs of business management. He has approx. 15 years experience in the Finance and Accounting Area from companies of different size and from various industries. http://www.abenetis.com