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Managing Information Overload, or "Drinking from the Fire hose"
"Drinking from the firehouse" means picking and choosing what information you absorb.
How do you choose what information is important?
Here's what I suggest in order for you to create a clear strategy to manage all the information that is out there.
How to Determine A Reliable Source...
Read the context around the post, try to "reverse engineer" to find the original post. For example, here's a few "Must Have" sources
- Pandia Search Engine News
- Search Engine Watch
- Glenn Gutmacher's Sourcing Blog
- And of course right here on JobMachine's Blog and Sourcing Intel page
How to Measure quality of information
- Make a list of sources you read regularly.
- Write down the % of articles you find useful among the last ten.
- Eliminate the bottom 50% from your list of current blogs being read.
- Google Reader "trends" can help you decide.
Also consider..
- Posting lengh
- Posting rate
- Avoid the link frenzy - stay away from blogs that re-post - they are like internet "fast food" tons of content, little substance.
Overcome overload - How to structure your day
- Use an RSS Reader like Google Reader.
- 15 minutes a day read the sources on your short list.
- 30 minutes a week "gist" the rest of the sources like with techmeme.comÂ
- 30 minutes a month delete unproductive feeds.
- Archive what you fall behind on.
HINT - Reading early in the day doubles your speed.
Speed Reading Tips
- Scan first & last sentence of every paragraph.
- Skim the whole article, then go back and fill in the blanks.
- Keep or Delete - Information Triage.
- Don't be a pack rat with your data.
- Before bookmarking or adding as a favorite - ask yourself, will it have meaning later down the road?
- Always - do it, delegate or delete it.
How to prioritize
Read and process in order of importance
- Your Job
- Your company
- Your industry
- informational
- The economy
- The world
Email Tips
If you have a big email box - batch process
- View by "Sent to" in order of importance
- View by "Conversation topic" aka Subject line. If it doesn't effect you, delete it.
- View by "Sender"
Folder Management Tips
3 folder system
- Action Required - on going task or currently working on.
- Follow Up - anything that takes more then 2 minutes of time to reply.
- Archive - everything else. (Shallys Linkedin Stuff goes here)
Bolierplate Emails
- 80% of your emails require the same 10 basic messages.
- Develop master templates of your top 10 responses.
Evaluating New tools
Change is inevitable, new tools and websites are created daily. Before sinking time in a new tool ask yourself some questions
- Can you verify the claims about its impact?
- Have others used this tool successfully?
- What is required to support this tool?
- What do industry experts say about this tool?
- Does your organization supply support for the tool?
Shallys Top 5 Tools
- Save Data entry with - Contact Capture - Free with referral from Shally
- Time management with Rescue Time
- Instant Searches with Opera Browser
- Email Assistance with Sandy
- Capture your thoughts & ideas with Evernote
- Monitor what's going on in the world with Alerts like Google, Yahoo & MSN
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Written by Nicole Bodem (St. Martin), Author of HR Search Marketing BlogÂ
Summary -
You cannot read, remember and process everything you see. There will always be more stuff. If it is important enough you'll probbaly see it more then once. Save only the items you think will be important down the road and delete the rest.
The handouts and presentation PDF are available as attachments below this post. To get the OPML File please referr to the bottom of the sourcing intel page.
Additional Resources
Check out TimeDriver, a way to share your calendar and automate the process of making appointments. Integrates with Outlook, and there's no cost to use it. Â
Tips for Outlook Contacts:Â mass-change one field on all records (e.g., when a company is acquired), delete dupes, integrating with contacts in different places like Gmail, etc., and others:
