Do you remember the 50’s? (Actually I don’t but some of you will.)
Robots were going to solve all our problems, cars were modern man’s salvation, plastic was fantastic and we were going to the moon. Basically technology was going to save mankind.
Then pollution happened.
Actually pollution had been happening all the time, but we suddenly woke up to the fact that there were in fact by-products of all this wonderful exciting technology. And some of those by-products weren’t so good.
Fast forward fifty years and we have this new thing. It’s called the Internet. (Fancy that. And this is a blog.)
Anything you want to know, anytime of the day, you just log on and Google it. We’re suddenly connected. You can twitter with friends you’ve never met, read 100 thought leaders’ blogs a day, find expert opinions about any topic you can imagine.
Any topic at all.
Antipodean lobster gathering? check.
People trying to reinstate Richard III’s good reputation? check.
Anything, people. All just a click away.
And this is all roses right?
Well, not entirely.
Now we have Information Pollution. And like the street pollution that gradually clouded up the air of downtown Tokyo and L.A. information pollution is creeping up on everyone not currently living in a yurt. (A yurt with dialup. Definitely not a yurt with high speed wifi.)
And if Information Pollution makes you think Spam, you’re right. But that’s not all. Information Pollution includes feeling bad because you haven’t checked in on all your favourite blogs that day. That you haven’t cleared your daily eighty emails. That you haven’t read all your newsletters, alerts, tweets, posts, IM’s and general daily clutter that’s taking up all your head space.
So, what can you do about it?
1. Unsubscribe from any newsletter that you don’t look forwards to or that makes you laugh. The easy test? If you unsubscribe and then you miss it, it’s worth resubscribing. I’m willing to bet you won’t miss 99% of newsletters.
2. Don’t have so many blogs in your feed reader! Or better yet, don’t use one. I do use one, so I can’t really talk about that. But I only read 5 or so blogs. That’s enough.
3. If you email people back immediately, you’ll get more email. It’s like a tennis game. Very few things in life are truly urgent. If you sit on it a bit, most problems resolve themselves.
4. If you have a useful screening question like “will this help me do X” that can help you cut down on information. Everything else can get sidelined. And you can change what X is every week. Just have a focus. Otherwise it’s too easy to get distracted.
5. Newspapers are largely a waste of time. Bad news, hype and recycled fluff. Staying on top of current events is important? Well, what earth shattering events happened last week? And the week before? Trust me, if it’s really important, you’ll hear about it.
6. Try unplugging for an evening. Last week, the internet went down for a two days, and it was great. I got a whole lot of important, but not urgent stuff done. Apart from being a wonderful source of information, the internet is the world’s best source of distraction. Use with caution.
That’s it. Any more points would be too much information. I’m trying to cut down on the pollution myself. Cheers!
