Browse > Home / Coaching / Information Overload and You

Information Overload and You

July 11, 2007

Yesterday I was speaking to one of my coaching clients on the phone. We discussed her projects and we also discussed a friend she had that kept asking her about different products he could buy to succeed online.

Her friend kept wondering about every new product that came down the pike. When something new came out, he asked if that was his “solution” to marketing online. I’ve seen and dealt with this problem for years online. You can’t build a business when you’re being pulled in a dozen different directions at once.

You pick a system…and you work it. You test it. You improve it. You make it work for you. Once you’re successful, then you add in other techniques to the mix.

I’ve now been online for over 11 years. The people who succeed are those who know they’re going to work…and they put effort into making a system work for them. They don’t jump all over and buy everything new they hear about.

And this isn’t to scold anyone. I am successful. Yet I still catch myself buying something I don’t need at times. By this, I mean I already have a collection of books to read or manuals to study which I haven’t caught up on yet. Until I finish the stack, NOTHING else should be added. At the moment there are 8 books on my shelf in a row that will be the next 8 books I’ll read…nothing new gets purchased until those are finished.

How many produts have you purchased that you haven’t read or studied yet?
How many products do you have that you haven’t APPLIED yet?

The second question is even more important than the first.

This is part of the reason I unsubscribed from almost every internet marketing newsletter. They cause information overload! I’ve had clients who were reading more than a dozen newsletters a day…not really finding a whole lot of information they could immediately apply. You can easily waste an hour or more per day reading newsletters if you’re not watching yourself.

Here’s the rule. Anything you allow in your email box…Anything you buy…should be immediately used and applied. If you’re not going to use it, don’t get it. When you read it, write down at least ONE step you’ll apply by tomorrow. If you can’t regularly write down that one step from an email newsletter, get rid of it. It’s a waste of time.

That’s the same rule I apply to the blogs in my Google reader…if I can’t regularly apply at least one step from their articles, they get removed from my feeds.

That’s the key…information must produce action. Whenever it doesn’t, you’ve allowed yourself into information overload and you’re destroying your productivity.

Two questions I now ask people starting out are:
1. How much time do you spend studying about marketing (products, newsletters, forums, blogs, etc.)?
2. How much time do you spend applying, testing, and tracking your marketing?

You should ask yourself those questions.

If you're a new visitor here, you can subscribe to receive notices whenever a new post is made. Plus receive My Free Report:
"10 Key Strategies for Any Business Owner to Earn More, Work Less, and Enjoy Life!"

Email:
Name:

Written by Terry · Filed Under Coaching 

Related Entries:

Comments

6 Responses to “Information Overload and You”

  1. Ryan Healy on July 11th, 2007 6:22 pm

    Great post, Terry. Information overload is a big issue for Internet marketers. I’ve been planning to write a similar post. Our brains seem to be tracking a lot of the time–without even knowing it! :-)

  2. Terry on July 12th, 2007 6:13 am

    Hi Ryan,

    I have your RSS feed right on the front of my iGoogle page, and I definitely agree. It seems we’re often running on the same wavelength.

  3. Thien Kai Wei on July 12th, 2007 11:01 am

    Hi Terry!

    Nice post you have on information Overload. LOL I was writing about information overload too just last Thursday!

    BTW, I know you just stated you have 8 books to read, but is Rich Schefren’s AttentionAgeDoctrine one of them? It basically talks about information overloading, a GREAT and free eBook. Recommend you take a look too!

    And thanks for visiting my blog! :)

    Kai Wei
    http://www.InternetMarketing4Noobs.com/

  4. Waiting for Someone To Hold My Hand? on July 12th, 2007 11:02 am

    [...] Terry Dean has a great post that complements my thoughts here called: Information Overload and You  var a=new Date();var q=’&tz=’+a.getTimezoneOffset()/60 +’&ck=’+(navigator.cookieEnabled?’Y':’N') [...]

  5. Terry on July 12th, 2007 11:45 am

    Hello Kai Wei,

    Thanks for commenting…information overload is definitely a problem.

    I took a look at the ebook you mentioned and personally didn’t get much out of it (it seemed to take a long time to make these same type points). I didn’t take any action based off of it, so it wasn’t that valueable to me. Although I’m sure it is to others.

    I’d be interested in knowing what actions it caused you to take in your business?

  6. Greg Balanko-Dickson on July 12th, 2007 4:52 pm

    I actually went on a 30 month seminar, book, and ebook fast as I found I hadn’t been applying what I already knew.

    It really turned me and my coaching practice around. Acquiring Knowledge without application is a distraction not an opportunity. IMHO

    :D

Got something to say?





Comments will be sent to the moderation queue.