Too Much Information

I think some people get stuck in a loop but that in a way everyone NEEDS to go through it... it's almost like a coming of age/right of passage thing that IM gives you.... but it can be hard to snap out of it...

But it is like everything in life, very easy to see with hindsight but I know I read more than worked for a VERY long time lol!

The main problem is inability to find good information in the flood of essentially worthless (or even bad) info.

Information overload can help you learn a ton, but why do you need to know that much?

I know from personal experience that too much information hurts my business, and I think it's the same for most people/businesses.

Since there's always a new way to make money online, it's extremely easy to get caught up in the latest and greatest. The problem is every time you do this, what you were doing/learning before is not just left in the dirt....not earning money.

There's a thing called paralysis by analysis. It's the same thing with information overload. The mind gets confused with too much choices that it can no longer determine which way to go.

Most people can't handle information overload so I think it's bad for most people. However, there are people who can handle chaos. In those cases, then too much information may even serve as an advantage.

A confused mind ALWAYS says NO. That's what happens with information overload. You get too many things going on in your head and you don't know how to work through them. The key is to FOCUS. If you can focus on one thing and go with that you can work through the overload. After you've mastered the one thing you can go to another one.
If you do 10 things your giving them 10% of you. Do one thing and you can give it 100%. Which one do you think will take you where you want to be?

I Totally agree with you OP. It's like people going to college and saying there is Information Overload. It's not that there is to much information it's what you do with the information that helps or harms you.

I think a sinister reason so many Product Creators scream in their copy that there is Information Overload is because they don't want you/us to get distracted away from their information.

We shouldn't fear the abundance of information we should embrace it and use it to help us reach our goals.

First we need to focus on our goal/plan/purpose and work on that primarily and then the tremendous amount of Information will be there to help us.

For instance, if our goal is to make $1,000 in one week, focus on that project and pull in the information that will help us reach that.

In my college analogy above, an example would be, the student has an assignment to prepare for a group discussion of 150 pages of information.

He could be overwhelmed by the shear volume of information and spend hours and hours reading every word of the material. When he gets to the group discussion he is too exhausted from study to concentrate.

Or the student could spend an hour or so checking out subheadings, noting main points, learning specific points in a few paragraphs and then get a good night's sleep.

During the discussion he will be able to participate fully, getting a good mark for that and he can take notes of the other points made by others, thus having the concentrated benefits of their hard work.

Carrying that to IM, one can have 100 pdf files setting in the folder from which they are working on their product.

You could be overwhelmed by all of the material or you could pick and choose prominent points from some of them. I.E. Titles, Bullet Points, Chapter Titles, Bolded Subheadings and other words, formatting and the "look" of the products etc.

An attempt to read everything could result in brain freeze, proper use of the Information can inspire you and get the creative juices flowing.

The very term Information Overload casts a negative shadow on the abundance of information we have at our fingertips.

George Wright

There is too much information.

There is too little good information.

The trick is knowing the one from the other, and this takes time and practice. It can be sped up with filtering tools, but sometimes one starts to wonder if you may be filtering things you need to know.

The only way to know if your information is good AND complete, is, again, practice. Knowing your market. Learning the deep things about it and being very selective on what you will focus on.

The fact is every one of us does this automatically. Our brains already do this with the plethora of information our body sensors feed us constantly. We have to train ourselves in the same way until we attain a "muscle memory" of how to do this with our online information.

For example - spending too much time on forums!

-DTM

Too much information is never a bad thing. Trying to take in too much information at one time is what paralyzes you.

Like RHert says, you need to focus.

The internet makes information easy to access. The key is to control yourself to access only what you need when you need it. At the very least you can use a timer to control how much time you spend consuming information. This ensures you will have time left to put the information you learn to action, or at least give you space to digest what you've consumed. Or if you're spending too much time reading useless information setting a timer will control the damage.

FOCUS = PRODUCTIVITY!

When you take action with the current knowledge - you automatically pick things up along the way and search for information on a need to know basis, that way your not stuck in this ENDLESS cycle of wanting to "find out more".

That's the problems "Always wanting more" - stick to the plan!

Hope this helps,

Colin

I think it's because nobody actually tells you the truth when you first start, a lot of people just want to sell stuff to get commissions and literally laugh at you when you buy..

Also because there is not an "IM institute" to learn the basics, most internet marketers learn by themselves (or at least I did that way).

depends.

information is like water.

without it you cant survive.
too much of it and you drown.

but i would like to clarify the 2nd part about too much.

too much may not necessarily mean a bad thing.
if you know how to handle it and organize your thoughts.
just like having a good drainage system and irrigation system then it will benefit you.

if not, the over excess water will flood and do you more harm than good.

so it depends on how you deal with it.

All this information is quite helpful

There's only so much space in your memory.
I believe if I let a lot of crap in my head, then I forget a lot of important things.

It's said quite frequently to stay focused on one thing and not to let yourself get side tracked with all the other information available to you. I somewhat disagree when it comes to new Internet Marketers or newbies. I believe that newbies should get a taste of everything that Internet Marketing has to offer. SEO, CPA, Copywriting, Web Design, etc. Knowing a little about everything will help you understand Internet Marketing as a whole. And once you have a good understanding of that then you should focus more on one thing or one money making method. Once you hit that comfort level, is when you should be wary of information overload because it will and can hold you down.

Great info guys .. thanks for all your responses so far.

Usually too much information happens to newbies. Newbies don't know much about internet marketing, of course when they read threads in IM forums, they get information overload. But if you're experienced marketer, when you read threads in IM forums, you say to yourself, "there's nothing new".

In David Allen's book, Getting Things Done, he compares the human brain to a computer. Too much information and your RAM gets used up - sinking your productivity.

The best way to get rid of overwhelm is to get things OUT of your head and onto paper (or some device to help you organize your goals/to do list).

There are a bunch of apps to help you do this for free.

Check out:

TeuxDeux.com

Todoist.com (My favorite - comes with Google Chrome extension)

RememberTheMilk.com

And one of my must have FREE tools: VueMinder.com -- (Calendar/reminder software that ALWAYS works regardless if your email client is open or closed - LOVE IT - Get the Lite version, it's FREE.)