Information Anxiety
April 12th, 2005Cindi (well, her colleague) puts a twist on the information overload issue. She writes:
“A colleague of mine suggested today that perhaps the ‘information overload’ that we all feel couldn’t be dissipated somewhat by changing our attitudes–we’re not overloaded, we just have a *lot*. I’m not so sure. The problem that she speaks of, and of which I am also a victim, stems from taking on too much, from not letting go of (or transforming) the traditional when implementing the cutting edge, and I haven’t the slightest idea what the remedy is.”
Yes, it’s an attitude change issue, but I don’t buy the “we just have a lot” theory. The term “a lot” is relative and subjective. It’s relative to the information and it’s subjective to the person. IO is a myth because we have full control over the information that comes to us. Too much e-mail? Get off those mailing lists. Too much to read in your aggregator? Unsubcribe. Too many trade publications piling up in your desk? Get yourself off of those routing lists. Easy. If you have 20 minutes per day to catch up on professional development (not enough, IMO), then only schedule 20 minutes of reading per day.
Last week, someone told me that they feel that they can’t keep up with all of the trends on the web. Geez, what an impossible task. Nobody can do that. I told her to pick a few trends that she was interested in and follow those. Another librarian said that she starts to feel anxious if she feels that she hasn’t been able to catch up on all of her reading and that she suffers from IO. I replied, “You don’t suffer from information overload. You suffer from information anxiety. There is a difference.”
Information anxiety (I’m sure that this phrase has been used before, but I’m making up my own definition - no I’m not going to Google it!) is a nervous feeling of not being able to keep up with the amount of information coming across our desktops. Information overload, as some people describe it, is too much information coming across their desktops. Information anxiety is a feeling (hard to control). Information overload is material (easy to control).
Don’t be fooled into thinking that you can’t slow the flow of information that is coming across your desk. You can. It’s easy. Probably one of the easiest things to do. Theoretically, if you have no time (I’m talking zero minutes, nothing, nada), then you would keep up to date with nothing, right? Simple math. If you have 10 minutes, then you have 10 minutes to keep up. It’s all under your control, depending on your schedule.
So, when you get that information anxiety feeling, don’t just chalk it up to “we just have a lot.” That’s a cop out. And don’t blame anyone else (your boss, spouse, kids, etc). Take a hard look at the information that is coming at you (a very hard look), figure out what is most important (some stuff is always more important than others) and get rid of the rest of it. Problem solved. You can pay my receptionist on the way out.