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i just read checking into information detox on dumb little man:

“doesn’t it seem as if every day that goes by there is more information being streamed to us in an almost non-stop fashion? 24-hour news networks, rss feeds from every web site, blackberrys, instant messaging, e-mail, cell phones — even digital billboards are taking over on the roadways to stream a constantly changing message to us.”

i don’t know about you, but this is definitely something that applies to me. in fact, all this information is probably one of the biggest obstacles to my productivity.

i’m a news junkie, plain and simple. it’s even worse now that the presidential elections are going on (i’m pretty big into politics). as i write this, the television is turned to cnn in front of me, showing the same teary-eyed hillary clinton they’ve been showing for the last few days. even though i’ve seen it multiple times and i know what’s coming up next, it’s hard for me to turn off the tv. i might miss something!

i don’t even want to try to count the number of rss feeds i’m subscribed to. i use google reader and i currently have 451 unread items amongst those feeds. i actually read perhaps 5% of those items. it’s more efficient, i suppose, to use a feed reader and have everything in one place as opposed to surfing to all of those different sites, but wouldn’t i be much more efficient and productive if i didn’t read them at all?

“there is no disputing the need for information so the solution is not to get rid of all the information that is available to us. instead, consider cutting the fluff and only keeping that information which is relevant. we have to learn how to detoxify our lives from the information overdose we are currently in. by doing so, we’ll free ourselves up to pursue other activities — such as spending time with loved ones, or enjoying our favorite hobby.”

i think this is the key. how many of those feeds do i really need to read? very few, honestly. i crave information, however, and like to be on the forefront of new developments. do i really need that, though? no. on that note, i’m imploring myself to unsubscribe from at least three feeds immediately after i commit this post.

besides rss feeds, “e-mail overload” is one of my big problems. i work in information technology and just within my group we send & receive a lot of e-mail. combine that with all the e-mails i receive from others, both inside and outside of my organization, and i probably get, on average, a few hundred e-mails a day.

i have a bit of control over my e-mail, but there are some things i cannot control — like the co-worker who insists on cc:’ing me on everything, even shit that has nothing to do with me or that i couldn’t care about. being i.t., we also get lots of “notification e-mails” that are automatically sent out by our various systems. lots of those i can ignore as well and, for the most part, i do. most of them bypass my inbox and go straight to the appropriate folders — thanks to outlook rules.

i can’t seem to tear myself away from my blackberry pearl, however. carrying a blackberry 24/7 has its advantages and disadvantages. on one hand, it allows me to deal with e-mails when it’s convenient for me — on the way to and from meetings, when i’m on the road, and standing in line at the grocery store. the downside of that is that anytime i hear the “new e-mail” alert, i’m conditioned to grab the blackberry and immediately read the new e-mail. that was something that my ex-girlfriend hated the most. it’s hard to enjoy a night out together when every 10 minutes i was checking my blackberry. i eventually managed to silence it or even — gasp — turn it off altogether! more often than that, however, i didn’t.

i do use the pearl for more than just e-mail, though. it does allow me to get things under control. with just a few clicks, i can send a new task or reminder to my remember the milk inbox, catch up on my rss feeds with google reader using opera mini, listen to music and take pictures (and send them to flickr or facebook).

besides my goals that i mentioned previously, one of the big things i need to do is get my life in order. i use remember the milk to manage my lists (inbox, actions, someday, waiting, etc.) and am doing pretty good with that, though it’s easy to “fall off the gtd bandwagon”. we’ll see how things work out.

how do you deal with all this information overload? what do you do to keep control of chaos? let me know in the comments.