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Suffering from information overload? Information management is increasingly becoming an essential skill for students and for people in the workforce. Many people, perhaps most people, feel that they have too much to read and too many facts to keep track of. Even deciding which facts and documents are the most important takes time. Is there any way to cut down the required reading? Medical researchers and psychologists have researched and documented what many people have experienced, the effects of information overload can be devastating. Information overload can cause psychological symptoms of stress, such as anxiety and irritability, as well as physical symptoms, such as an upset stomach, headaches, hypertension, and even heart disease. For many people, it has become critically important to learn better ways of organizing information. But how do you overcome information overload? The main reason why many people so often have trouble mastering a body of information is that they fail to understand the subject matter they are studying. Understanding bits of information on a subject matter is important, because they form pegs from which you can hang or place further bits of information. This is much like what some memory training methods or memory techniques require you to do, in order for you to improve or build phenomenal recall ability. Without an initial chain of bite-size information that you can build on, you’ll find learning a self-defeating exercise that leads to failure and frustration. Without a foundation of understanding, you’ll grow disinterested, dislike and eventually develop a fear of information. It can make the experience of learning facts seem so unpleasant that you begin to avoid and fear it. Your information management should focus on ownership and interpretation so that you can have a stable foundation to build on. Ownership means making the information your own, that is having your own perception and idea of the information. For instance, you should think before you read. People almost never have to master information that is totally new, and it would be extremely unfair if anyone expected you to do so. New information almost always is related to familiar concepts and facts. Therefore, even before you start reading, you can make an educated guess about what you will eventually think. So start by being bold. Guess what the main ideas will be and how you will interpret them. These guesses will help you to read more actively and purposefully. The one caveat is to realize that your opening guess almost certainly will be at least partly wrong and that you need to be open-minded enough to change it later. Unfamiliar information is intimidating. Finding a partner can make it less so. A partner is an author, a theory, a concept or even a word that connects the new information to something you already know. Ideally, your partner will offer you a perspective on the new subject that will make you feel that it is almost the same as another subject matter except for certain details. it is alright, even if that feeling of familiarity later proves to have been exaggerated. Your partner got you into the subject. That is an important step. Ironically, even an author you dislike can be a partner in the sense being discussed here, as long as you are quite familiar with how the author thinks. Find out what that author thinks, knowing in advance that you will disagree. Look at it this way, the act of disagreement has helped you start organizing a new body of acts. Sometimes there may be no familiar authors or theories to give you a perspective. Glance through your list of titles and notice key words. Specialized subjects usually assign new meanings to key terms. Find out what those words mean in the subject, and decide if you consider their meaning helpful, insightful and appealing. When nothing else is available, a key word or two can open up a subject. When you become the owner of your information, you will develop a sense of control. You will have learned more than how to organize information. You will also have become more skillful at learning, and you will be able to apply that knowledge everywhere and improve your memory retention.
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