Do you ever feel like you’re hoarding information, and not doing anything with it? Saying to yourself “Oh, I’ll totally need to know that someday!”, & that day never comes? All those articles & notes you have saved are really a burden, not a badge of honor, if you never use or even review them! In this post, I’m going to share some no BS tips for using information intentionally to get things done.
Why Information Overload Sucks
Endlessly scrolling through social media or blog feeds sucks the energy right out of your brain. This can then suck the life out of the rest of your day, causing decision fatigue over every little thing (”blue shirt or black shirt – argh!”), & distract you from making important progress in different areas of your life.
The truth is, you don’t need more info – You need a system to make the info you do consume work for you.
Game Plan = Filter Ruthlessly
One filtering method would be to avoid saving anything that doesn’t contribute to a project you’re working on or a problem you’re trying to solve.
Tiago Forte has some good tips for information management (check out his website at Forte Labs). One tip is to keep a list of “Favorite Problems” – complicated life problems that don’t have a simple answer, & which should be edited occasionally to keep it relevant. For example, one of my favorite problems is “How can I create a reasonably profitable business that fulfills my need to help others, without consuming too much of my time?”
Tiago’s CODE framework is another good tip, which focuses on actionability – Capture useful information, Organize it by how the information can be used, Distill it down to the main points, & Express it as a new article or idea. But make sure you keep note of the source!
Build a Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) System That Works
Like many people, I prefer to use a digital notetaking system because it’s easy to organize & search through. An analog system (such as a commonplace book or Zettelkasten) can be useful to help you remember important information, but don’t stop there!
Tiago’s PARA method works well for organizing information. Projects are considered anything you’re currently working on that has a short term end date; Areas are ongoing aspects of your life (household management, personal health, etc); Resources are topics of interest that don’t fit into the first two categories; and Archive is for anything that is currently irrelevant but may be useful in the future. These four main categories can be broken down further and used as folders or tags for whatever system you choose to use – I use a Notion database, but you could also use platforms such as Google Keep, Evernote, or Obsidian for digital note organization.
Another benefit of a digital PKM is that you can easily link relevant notes together, or even link them directly onto a project page (which Tiago refers to as “Intermediate Packets”).
Stay Out of the Info Trap
Set some rules to avoid saving all the things, & stick to it!
- Limit how much time you spend browsing new information
- Don’t save it if you won’t use it
- Review & delete or archive outdated stuff – Your PKM isn’t a museum
Conclusion
Information is useless if you don’t use it.
Audit your info intake today, & turn knowledge into momentum – Share how you’re cutting the clutter in the comments below!
zen BLITZ 