How I make handle my daily information overload

We live in the information age. Do you realize what wealth of information you have at your fingertips, every day and everywhere? You have access to unlimited knowledge! You can learn whatever you want, whenever you want! But having access to so much information is also daunting and you need to carefully filter and select. In this post I'll tell you how I try to get the best out of it and organize it all.

1. I minimize energy-wasters

Besides access to information we also have access to unlimited entertainment. There are a million games, social media, there is Netflix, on demand TV, etc. This can all easily zapp your time and energy. Both of them are limited so selected carefully.

How I do it.

- I don't play games on my phone

- I have turned of most of the social media notifications and filter who I follow

- I only watch selective TV and Netflix (meaning I don't just turn on the TV mindlessly)

2. Entertainment vs infotainment

You have limited energy so you need to choose what to focus on. I love to learn about stuff and grow so I consciously direct my energy and focus there. But be careful, it is very easy to flood yourself with "useless information also. Do you find yourself checking the news site more than once a day?

How I do it. I have a few apps that provide me with all kinds of information about stuff that interests me:

- Flipboard. Suggests articles based on my interests and allows me to create magazines of articles I find across the internet.

- Scribd. Instant access to audiobooks, e-books and magazines

- Google! Need I say more?

- Pinterest. Very visual and therefore easy way to fuel your interest

3.Organizing is a bitch!

I absorb insane amounts of information each day and my mind is always racing to make the connections. Therefore it is very important for me to have some kind of system. I use a few apps, each with a different function.

- Todoist. To organize everything I want to do in groups and projects making it more structured

- Wunderlist. To organize my notes and links into groups providing a structured way to save things for later

- Flipboard. To save interesting articles and information found on the internet in magazines based on categories.

- Pocket. Save articles for later reading

- Notes. My go-to app to write blogs, put down ideas, save voices notes, take notes

4. Be mindful of what you choose

In the end it comes all down to choosing. See your time and energy as finite and then select to which you want to give your energy. I find most TV programs to be an absolute waste of my time and energy so that is an easy one for me but maybe you are more into TV. TV can be a huge time consumer without you realizing it. It can easily cost you hours a day and so can social media, candy crush, news and entertainment and one more that I am forgetting...... Mindless chatting and apping! Whatsapp is a very handy tool but it is also a very ineffective way of communicating taking up all your energy and focus. My tip: call, mute and avoid ;)

Hope you liked this inside view of how I go about it. I love to hear how you handle this!