Is information overload really the problem we think it is? Clive Lewis suggests that it's more to do with our willingness to adapt and use smart skills.

If you feel beleaguered by the amount of information you have to deal with then it's time to stop feeling sorry for yourself. You are not a victim to overload, you are a contributor to it. You send emails and texts. You leave messages and you use the net. And at home you probably enjoy all the benefits that fast technology brings via your TV, laptop and mobile phone. So face it, you are just like everyone else - thoroughly engaged in the infoconomy, sending and receiving essential and less essential data every day. It's the way life is and, let's be honest, you wouldn't really give it up would you?

"The next generation, 10-20 years younger than you, is hungry for employment and is quite at home with all the sources of information that might be stressing you out. They even get a buzz from it."

Even if you don't agree with the above there is a reality check that you might want to consider. The next generation, 10-20 years younger than you, is hungry for employment and is quite at home with all the sources of information that might be stressing you out. They even get a buzz from it. And their openness to data in all its myriad forms gives them a huge business advantage over those who are trying to resist the flow. So here's the challenge. Get over your resistance. Find ways to engage with the infoglut. Discover how to work smarter with information, today.

It's not so difficult. You need to change your mindset of course and you need to practice a few important skills but it isn't hard. Here are the four essentials that you need to address.

1. Develop your assessment skills
   An enormous amount of the information you get sent is irrelevant. But people spend hours every day reading and sorting this data. You need a more ruthless way of assessing what you've been sent so that you can either ditch it, delegate it or take action on it.
   There are some simple techniques to learn here. For example, the initial evaluation technique is a fast way of getting a broad overview of any document. It involves learning how to look for the big picture, noting the ground the document is covering and assessing its value to you or others. Remember there are only a few big ideas in any book, report or paper. Your job in your assessment mode is to get a sense of what these are and decide whether they have any relevance to your job.
2. Deepen your understanding
   The assessment aspect of working smarter with information can probably rid you of 90% of the material you get sent. But what about the rest? A lot of the stuff you decide to pay more attention to will still be of marginal value so now you need techniques that deepen your understanding but still don't take too much of your time.
   In some instances you do this already. When you pick up a magazine at an airport and you only have five minutes spare what do you do? You start skimming and scanning the articles to see exactly what catches your interest. There might be some writers, some themes, some issues that attract you and so you buy the magazine. On the other hand if nothing catches your eye, you will move onto another title and see if that is any more interesting.
   It's exactly these skills you need at work too. You need to be deliberate of course, but in essence the application of skimming and scanning can identify for you information or knowledge that is particularly relevant or interesting.


"You need a more ruthless way of assessing what you've been sent so that you can either ditch it, delegate it or take action on it."
3. Speed-read the rest
   So now you have the key papers, reports or documents that you've deemed relevant. What next? There might still be a welter of paperwork to read. The way to tackle this workload is by speed-reading.
   Don't think that speed-reading will mean any deterioration of your understanding. The opposite is true. With speed-reading there's no backtracking, you pick up fast on the logic of the argument and there is far less room for interruptions. In this sense it's a brilliant way of getting to the heart of any document in the shortest time.
   What it needs, of course, is practice. As with any new skill you have to build the muscle. But this doesn't have to be hard. It takes discipline to practice but if you take just 10-15 minutes a day to hone your skills, within a few weeks you will have mastered a vital skill.
4. Capture your knowledge
   Finally it's also essential to use Mind Mapping as a way to capture and code the key knowledge that you've now mined so successfully. Mind Mapping is a simple process but one which you will find fits with your individual way of thinking. It allows you to represent all the information that you think is important on a single page by using key words, diagrams and simple illustrations. With Mind Mapping you develop your own style and in so doing you not only code the essential knowledge you will need for later but in the way you capture it, you make it memorable and easy to access for later recall.

And that's it. That's the essence of smart working. Four steps; adopt them and it will change your life. It will stop you feeling like a victim to information overload and it will let you take charge of your time, your job and your career.

Clive Lewis is MD of Illumine Training. The themes in this article are explored in greater depth in The Extraordinary Reader, a book about how to eliminate information overload by Clive Lewis. For more information contact Illumine on 01753 866633 or www.illumine.co.uk