What would you recommend for tips on dealing with the flood of digital information? That's the question from Michael Sampson in his Seven Things:
One of my friends dropped me an email yesterday asking:
If you had a top 7 tips list for managing the flood of digital information, what would it be?
He lists six things (below) and asks for a seventh. I like the question, particularly in this end-of-year period of looking forward and looking backward. What would I recommend for dealing with the flood of digital information?
My addition has to be "create a process" and stick to it. Evaluate your priorities in life, look at your time, and make a decision about how much time to devote to the various information sources. And with all personal effectiveness suggestions, do it for a while and check that it is actually working for you. And part of that process: it is okay to throw out unread newspapers, ignore unread mailing list mail, ignore blog postings, etc... Make it okay to do what you need to do.
This is Michael's starting point. I particularly appreciate his suggestion of a personal knowledge management system. And to his commenter: there isn't a single technological answer.
- Write a blog.
- Don't live in an email client.
- Look for the commonalities.
- Read more deep stuff.
- Get to know the key people who flood you with digital information.
- Build a personal knowledge management system.