When Information Overwhelms

Have you ever worked on a project, research initiative, presentation, document or anything like that where there is A LOT of information and VERY LITTLE management of the information. I know that somedays the information comes from everywhere: emails, links to documents, websites, chats and pings, whiteboards and jamboards. It can get to be too much, especially if you are working on something or in an environment where there isn’t a solid communication and knowledge management structure.

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I’ve spent endless minutes (probably hours) looking for documents someone has shared with me, trying to find that email with the right attachment, or waiting impatiently for someone else to do the same thing. While no individual fix alone can overcome organizational overwhelm, over the last decade I have developed a few helpful rules. I may not always follow them but when I do, I feel less overwhelmed and inundated. If you are reading this, I imagine you are also in the middle of unstructured, constant information streams and I hope you find this helpful.

Decide the where: System/tool/mechanism, whatever you want to call it, identify one and stick to it. Ideally you would get others around you to do the same, but if not, take those 5 minutes and bring the information over to your system. Google user? See if Docs and Keep work for you. Microsoft user, try One Note. Of course this is not relevant if your organization/workplace does not have this pre-determined. Simple is often better.

Figure out the why: Just identifying the where isn’t enough, you have to be committed to it. And let’s be honest, it is boring and time-consuming to be committed. Chaos can feel easier in such environments. Why do you want to develop your own system. Is it to be more organized in your own life? Is it to make the people around you more organized? For me, it is to spend less time searching for information I know I have somewhere; and to manage different parts of my life.

Lock down a naming convention: Your gut reaction to this could be how tedious and boring. And while that may be true, just think about the time you have had to spend to find documents/presentations etc because you didn’t know what you named it. You can make this more fun - some people use themes such as Harry Potter and Star Wars, along with dates, versions etc. For me, even if nothing else exists by way of Knowledge Management, I wish we could standardize naming conventions. It would make all of our lives easier.

Do you have other ideas on how to much the barrage of information that comes our way non-stop?