Information Overload Awareness Day

Today, October 19, is Information Overload Awareness Day 2021. These days, we have more information flowing into our lives than at any former time in history. The Internet has accelerated the flow of information exponentially.

“Information overload has become a well-known problem: pieces of knowledge pile up too fast for people to sort and make sense of them.” ~ K. Eric Drexler

Here are some areas where you can reduce the information flowing into your life:

• Cancel magazine subscriptions you don't have time to read.
• Cancel memberships and club cards that you're not taking advantage of.
• Unsubscribe from newsletters and mailing lists that you just delete anyway.
• Close extra email accounts that you don't use. Perhaps you even have extra phone numbers you could eliminate.
• Purge your browser bookmarks.
• Reduce the number of apps on your smartphone.
• Cut back on the time you spend on social media.
• Close redundant accounts, such as social media accounts, that you rarely use.
• Clear your contacts lists of those you no longer work or socialize with.
• Reduce the number of sources of incoming information that you follow, such as blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, and other notifications.

For each source of information coming at you — from newsletters to contacts to website accounts — evaluate how useful each source is. Do yourself a favor and cut out the ones that are the least useful. Take a few minutes to reduce the information flowing into your life. Simplify.

Then organize what's left. Free-form information management software like Personal Knowbase can help you organize the notes, web clippings, emails, and other inputs coming into your life.

Here are some ways that notes organizer software can help you manage your information to reduce the stress of overload:

• Reduce the clutter of paper notes on your desk.
• Consolidate the small text files on your computer into one repository.
• Index your notes to make information easier to find.
• Keep records in one location.
• Record household inventory for easy reference.
• Save software download and registration info in one place.
• Store subscription and membership details.
• Record website and login information.
• Archive contacts that are no longer active but you're not ready to discard.

Organizing your text information with a keyword index helps you find what you're looking for later. Try Personal Knowbase for Windows to help you keep information overload under control.