As the amount of information increases exponentially, it's easy to find yourself being completely overwhelmed or succumbing to the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). You need a plan for dealing with it, and in this episode Brooks and Mike talk about the problem of information overload and more importantly what you can actually do about it.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re being forced to drink from the information firehose or felt stressed from not being able to keep track of everything, then this episode is for you. We discuss the root causes of information overload so you know what to look for and share practical tips for establishing a system you can trust to regain a sense of control.

Cheat Sheet

The contributing factors to the abundance of information in the world today 1:39

How to deal with the root causes FOMO and FOBO 4:16

A look back to the good 'ol days when there was less information to keep track of online (it wasn't that long ago) 9:51

Why it is so important to accept that you can’t know everything 11:36

Why the things you already know are much more valuable than the information you’re looking for 16:00

How to pick the things that are actually important for you to keep track of 16:38

How to let everything else go if it doesn't make the cut 19:03

Why there are often more things that you should do then things that you can actually get done 23:49

What the Zeigarnick Effect is and why it is so bad for focus 24:48

Why multitasking is a myth and the real impact of attention residue to your productivity 26:00

How many different things can push information at you and what you can do to shut them down when they're not important 29:01

Why taming your notifications is so important on your mobile devices 36:08

Why capturing your tasks into a task manager is a critical piece of any system 41:28

What to do with your different inboxes and how to keep on top of them 48:18

How to use a read-it-later service like Pocket 54:50

Best practices for managing your various inboxes 58:48

How to resist FOMO and beat it once and for all 1:04:14

Links

Hello Internet podcast

App Developer Magazine: "More data will be created in 2017 than the previous 5,000 years of humanity"

Zeigarnick Effect

Study: Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks

The Accidental Tech podcast

10% Entrepreneurship w/ Patrick McGinnis: Achieving Entrepreneurial Freedom Without Sacrificing 9-to-5 Stability (TPS157)

The Art of Thinking Clearly

GTD

MailMate

Instapaper

Pocket

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