Featured products on different platforms. A new startup coming out every 5 seconds. An endless feed on Twitter. Hundreds of newsletters on the email. Interesting articles on Medium and Pocket waiting to be read. What's going on? How to deal with all of this? Whenever I start reading or following entrepreneurs I get this fear of missing out. What should I do?
Keep your head down and work on your own project. Stop being a spectator to what other people are up to.
Ignore all the noise.
Start unsubscribing from mailing lists.
Delete your memberships at social media platforms, or at least stop logging in.
Stop paying attention to Twitter feeds. Treat them like TV channels. Watching TV and following tweets is not entrepreneurship!
Want to read? Read a book.
Divide your email into critical and non-critical inboxes. Make yourself a rule not to check the optional inbox except on Friday evenings between 4 and 9 p.m. With any luck, you'll be enjoying life too much to bother. Friday nights are a good laboratory for testing those priorities. Force your inbox and twitter feeds to compete for attention with your significant other, and see who wins! Soon you'll recognize how unimportant that stuff is.
Information overload is an excuse addicts make for their addiction. It's akin to compulsive rubbish hoarding or an all-day TV binge.
Endlessly following the latest startups is no different from endlessly following celebrity gossip. Just because the people you read about are accomplishing things does not mean you are.
If you have any ambition, then you can create something while ignoring what other people are doing and saying. A novelist or an inventor will keep busy on their own work to an almost hermit-like extent.
If 100 people started throwing 100 objects toward you simultaneously in a hopelessly mismatched game of dodge ball, why would you be under any obligation to catch them all?
Stop paying attention. Stop following. Lead! Do something!
Begin to articulate what you want rather than what you believe will sell. Ultimately pursuing what you desire will be far more sustainable. Limit the scope of information.
Keep yourself organized. Everyone works differently in this way. For me, I keep a running list of my top priorities on a whiteboard. Every time I walk by it, I am reminded of what I need to be focused on. I create my priorities based on what is going to give me the greatest return.
Set aside a specific time in your day to "catch up" on social media feeds, news feeds, websites you like, etc. There is so much noise out there, you need to spend that catch up time on a select number of sources that pertain specifically to you getting ahead. Be selective. For the rest of your day, ignore your news feeds.
You will not miss out. Focus and discipline are THE key habits of entrepreneurs who are successful. There is no silver bullet for retaining your focus and discipline, only your inner strength.
Like a previous poster said, "information overload" is an excuse for not taking action. Do *something*, see what happens, and then do something else (presumably based upon what you have just learned).
Entrepreneurs are action-oriented. At least the good ones are.
The same way as you used to excel in that one subject in your School/College despite having so many of them. You need know where your passion lies. To go from Point A to Point B you can either chose a public transport, book a cab, drive your own four wheeler, chose to bike around, or may walk-on. The choice depends on so many parameters, isn't it? But you manage to cut through the choice overload.
The same applies to information surrounding you. You need to chose the right vehicle than trying to hop each one of them. News stays same, just the channels vary. Wisdom lies not in trying to gain every piece of information but trimming the already acquired ones.
Be focused. You need more time to work than more time to know what others did!
Overload means lots of waste and lots of unnecessary information.
But...
You can still hire some one , or an executive secretary, to follow up on things you think are important and just give you a summary at the end of the day..etc , and be there like your moving library to answer questions on up to date news.. It all depends on what you really do , and how much info and how far up to date you need to be.
Well done for noticing what this is doing to you as many people don't.
There is a growing body of neuroscience research indicating that we become less agile mentally and able to think innovatively if we allow the continual distraction of screen feeds to enter our lives.
To me its akin to being punched from several boxers at once.
I set time in my diary for email twice a day and stick to it, I also set time aside for reading books, articles and those things that will grow my knowledge.
As for instant feeds take control of them, ask yourself after looking at each 'has it helped move your business forward? or was it a nice to have piece of info. If the latter get rid of it.
The only time we need instant contact is when we call the police, ambulance etc. Don't mistake the immediacy of the technology for the importance of the message.
Oh my goodness, you are speaking the sentiments of my heart just a month or so ago. You get a tip about something you are interested in but have to subscribe to get it and then a gush of emails follows.
You've been given some great advice about not looking to the left or the right but maintain your own thing. That is easier said than done. Usually there is a reason why we feel compelled to log on to these various social media platforms. We want to know how we are doing compared to other folks. Especially if we are new business owners, there is a feeling of being thrown into the deep end of the pool and you can't feel anything solid underneath you. It's SCARY!
This I can tell that part of you that wants to do it right, wants to be enough, wants to be ahead of the pack, same as I told myself, stay away from what does not inspire you. I found that constantly looking at what others were doing or saying I should do was so deafening that I could not hear the voice of my own inspiration for doing what I do.
There is something Wise inside of you that recognizes when something is for you and when it's not. There is also something magical about being on your authentic path. Stuff comes to you that you're suppose to know.
So the way I deal with information overload is I stay connected to what inspires me, what ignites my creativity, what makes me feel alive. If a subject doesn't do that, I ignore it. If it perks my curiosity, I check it out.
When I do that, what others are doing is of no consequence, neither is it my business. That's why it is imperative that you get clear on why you are doing what you are doing and what is your truest reward for doing it.
You are as unique as your DNA. There is no comparison. There is no competition. The key is to stay true to your pathway.
How to Gain Clarity in a Confusing World 😬
With so many marketing tactics or growth hacks to choose from, how do you prioritize which to invest time and money into?
How can you STOP being confused by all the marketing tactics that constantly pops-up? 🤔
Marketers push you daily to try their new tactics, whether it is Snapchat, Instagram, Podcasting or similar.
How to decide whether to test something new or not? 🤔
The question that I ask myself in these cases is, even if this thing fails, would it build a long-lasting asset anyway?
When Tim Ferriss started his podcast he had no idea whether it would have been a success or not.
He then realized that even if this project would have failed,
he would anyhow improve his speaking skills and connect with amazing people.
A similar story it's from Dan Johnston, a well-known Location Independence Coach.
He started doing videos on Youtube years ago,
Views were not that many initially, but over time he began to gain an initial following on Youtube
What he noticed is that also the views in his past content increased over time while he gained notoriety.
Are you building long-lasting assets or chasing tactics due to FOMO? 😱
- Angelo
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Need clarity? I help entrepreneurs, consultants and freelancers get more traffic, generate more leads and get more customers → Call me now
Information overload is about too many demands being placed on your attention.
If you have FOMO or are having a hard time managing the pace, the best thing is to go the other way for a while - just stop everything completely.
No social media. No news. No email newsletters.
Just process what you have to for your business, and ignore everything else.
If there is something really, truly, world-changingly important... someone will tell you. That's the beauty of today's connected world.
And once you've reached this zen-like absence of information for a while... now you can start selectively adding things back in. Reactivate your Twitter. Then maybe your Pocket account.
Having gone in the other direction for a while you'll be able to accurately gauge what you really need to pay attention to - and what you don't.
May be an unpopular answer... but just absorb it. All that information comes from consumers, from creators, from real people that, depending on your niche and your business model, you should be aiming to interact with on some level... whether it be as a customer, as someone who may recommend you to a friend... Rather than trying to block it out, figure out how it could relate to you, and how it could be of interest. All of the social media algorithms give you relatable content for a reason... Scroll past things you don't think are related to you in any way, an consume things that are related. As long as you are creating and building a little bit each and every day, what you consume should not matter, especially if it is in any way related.
