Feel burned out by constant bombardment of decisions, opinions and information?  How do you keep the flow of information from overloading your life?

In my last post, I recommended an information fast.  Stop reading or watching except when absolutely necessary, focus for 3 months on ACTION – just doing what you already know.  In the process, I think you’ll discover that “motivation is better than information” and that you can be less stressed and more productive by not letting information overload your life.

So how do you come back, but not let the information flow in your life get back to the point of overload?

1. Commit to taking in less information than before.

I know this sounds simple, but an emotional, deliberate commitment to limit your information intake is
going to be necessary.  You have to choose simplicity.

My Tips: This commitment probably needs to be shared with someone in your life to make it real. It also should be accompanied by some specific actions tailored to your life. If there’s an app that used to overload you, don’t install it. Or set data limits on it.  Unsubscribe.  Avoid.  Uninstall.  Block an offending website or add it to your StayFocusd list.

2. Prioritize reading well-recommended books over social media.

There’s a reason why publishing companies are willing to spend money to put that book out there. There’s a reason why those reviews on Amazon were written.  Books are more valuable than a steady stream of everyone’s off-the-cuff opinion.

My Tips: I don’t always finish a book. 90% of the helpful content of the book is usually in the first 60% of the chapters.  Michael Hyatt says this is the dirty little secret of publishing, and I agree.  While finishing what you start is a virtue, no pressure here.  Get the value, and walk away.

3. Spend most of your time on a smaller number of trusted sources.

Ask, “Do I really need to know this?  Is this the person I should listen to?  How often is this source really helpful and life-altering?“

It is impossible to overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.

My tips:  I read very few blogs & almost no magazines.  I subscribe to a few like ArtofManliness.Com and MichaelHyatt.com that help me stay focused and thinking, and hopefully a little bit productive. 🙂  For my marriage, I subscribe to The Generous Husband.  I subscribe to their emails, so I can read the post without ever going to their site.  (If I go to the site.I will over-read due to affliate & post links.)  Even with my favorites, if I don’t think the headline is for me, I don’t read it.

4. Tame the email beast.

Inbox Zero.

Email can soak up 1-2 of your best hours each day if you allow it to.  It really shouldn’t.  To help you process it, read Michael Hyatt’s post “Yes, You Can Stay On Top of Email” and keep your inbox near zero.

My Tips: Touch each message only once, if possible.  This means when you read it, you either 1) act on it, or 2) delete it or 3) put it on your to-do list or 4) archive it.  Really.  Use www.unroll.me to unsubscribe from virtually everything.  Only continue your subscription to things you REALLY don’t want to miss… and have a spam address you give out to stores and sites you don’t really want to hear from.

5. Find ways to make the flow of social media information manageable.

Social media is a great way to get word out about what you love & what you have to offer.  But now we are subjected to the opinions of thousands of people before lunch.  How to manage it all?

Twitter Tips: I use Tweetcaster and Twitter lists (I have an OKC list and a church list for example) to manage twitter incoming posts.  But I don’t spend a lot of time reading incoming social media.  I used to do a lot more, but came to the conclusion that it just wasn’t producing a harvest of enough good to make it worth my while.

Facebook Tips: I have about 2800 Facebook friends.  That’s way too many to be meaningful.  I don’t want to know what everyone had for dinner.  So I use the “close friends” feature to limit the number of people whose posts I actually see and that show up in my notifications list.  Most of those are church people, family, trusted colleagues, and young men with whom I want to have influence.

News Tips: I don’t do very much news anymore because it didn’t make any real difference in how I performed in my everyday life — except to make me more distracted and less motivated.  I occasionally check local headlines from a local news channel’s app.  I use Google Now (mobile) occasionally.  They collate news stories that I might be interested in, based on my web history and searches.  But I keep it to a few minutes every couple days, while I’m stuck waiting for something/someone.

Posting Tips: I post primarily through Buffer, one of my favorite social media tools.  I use Buffer to post to LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook at the same time.  Not very nuanced, I know, but ease of use is paramount for me at this stage.

Exit Question: What tips do you have for managing information overload in your life?  Speak up in the comments below or join the conversation on my Facebook.

In my first post on systems, I shared the benefits of having systems in your life. Just in case you think you’re “not really a system type of person,” I should explain — you already have some systems.  Really.

Strangely enough, whether you are organized or live life “by the seat of your pants,” you have systems.  Many of them may be unconscious.  You put your clothes on in a similar fashion each day.  You probably put the same leg first into your pants, you put the same shoe on first each day.  You brush your teeth in approximately the same way each day.  Your brain does this to conserve energy.  It moves tasks that are commonly done out of the prefrontal cortex (home of conscious thought, decision making and willpower) to a lower region of the brain called the basal ganglia.  This area of the brain is responsible for automating common behaviors.

The brain does this to conserve energy and speed itself up.  After you do something a good number of times, it moves to the basal ganglia, and the brain becomes much more efficient in performing that action, because little to no conscious thought goes into it.

So, what I’m advocating is that you put this energy-saving, willpower-conserving brain trick into play for you.  But how do you get them into the “habit” section of the brain?  Here’s the starting trick: move some of the actions that represent your deepest values outside your brain entirely.  

In other words, write it down, and use a checklist.

So here’s how to develop systems for your life or work:

1. Notice where systems are needed.

Take inventory.  Here are some questions to help:

• Where do you often forget things?
• In what areas are you stressed?
• What areas of your life make you sigh heavily right now?
• Is there an area where I really am struggling with the mental RAM to do well?
• In what good things am I struggling with having enough willpower?

2. Write down each step of doing something perfectly.

If this is finances, what does an ideal financial week/month look like?
(Deposit paycheck, give to charity, save, pay key bills, purchase needs…?)

If it’s at work, what does it take to prepare for pulling off a highly successful meeting?
(Prepare presentation? print handout materials? Contact attenders? and probably 20 other things)

If it’s cleaning a building, what needs to be done in each room?

If it’s spiritual, what time and resources do you need to have a great time of spiritual growth?

If it’s getting a successful start to the day, what are the things you need to get done each day?

This step can be challenging, but it’s worth it.  Honestly, as I think about it — most of the areas in my life that are working… are areas where I have taken the time to do this kind of heavy mental lifting.

I sat down once and typed out every single step to a perfectly executed weekend worship service.  (There were over 60!)  Then, it was time to go on to the next step:

3. Organize your list into a written checklist.  

When you have identified everything that needs to be done, put them in order or priority, or group them together by types of actions.

This will not work 100% the first time.  You’ll have to add & change as you use the list.  This isn’t a failure, it’s improvement!

4. Find a place to keep your system.

Save your work in a place where you can quickly get a copy again.  For me, some of my systems live in Evernote, while others are hard copy that stay in a place (a clipboard the cleaning supplies room, laminated on the sound booth counter at church, etc.)

I’ll talk more about how I save my systems in the next post.

5. Automate what you can.

With all the digital tools available, there are some things you should never have to remember again, except to review once or twice per year.

Finances: Giving through your church website.  Retirement savings through your company’s 401(k) program.  Short-term savings with a checking to savings weekly auto draft.

Relationships: This one’s tough to automate.  But IFTTT sends me a text each week to remind me to text my wife and ask how her day is going.  (Don’t tell her.)  🙂  For a while I felt bad about having to do this kind of stuff… then I realized, “Hey, I’m not devaluing my wife by ‘reducing her to a checklist!’  I’m acting like she is too valuable to leave to chance!”

Random things you forget: Mute your phone automatically when you get to church, or during the workday.  You can do this on Android with Tasker (techies only!) or with If This Then That.

You can’t automate everything, but if you automate 15 actions per week, that clears some stress!

6. Set reminders.

To get your unconscious mind to let go of the stress of holding everything in short-term memory, you’ll need to set reminders so you can forget them and live in the moment.

This has never been so easy in the history of mankind.  You probably own a cell phone, and probably a smartphone.

• Alarms!  (Most have custom repeat options these days!)
• Calendar alerts!  (Set Google calendar to text you when an event happens in 10 minutes, or 30 minutes)
• Location based alerts!  (I have one that reminds me to text my wife when I arrive at Sam’s Club.)

In the next post, I’m diving deeper into the systems that are working for me right now.  I’ll share some of my favorite tools in this area.

How about you?  What systems do you need to install in your life?  Share them below, or on Facebook.