What’s Information Overload and How can it affect your Business
Overcome Paralysis of Analysis to Strengthen your Business
Does information overload have you frozen in your tracks?
Are you paralyzed by analyzing what to do next?
This is a good sign because that means you care enough to make sure you do a good job and you achieve your goals, and you’re getting stuck in the information gathering phase or the execution phase. Keep reading so I can get you over that hump.
Keep moving or die, be a shark.
Paralysis of analysis kills productivity, and it will keep you from starting your business. The 80% solution is better than no solution at all. Figuring out the problem to where you can get started and adjust after you began to moving is better than never starting at all.
I’m an avid seeker of information.
A lot of times, I know too much for my own good. So, I’ve started this series where I question, why do some people that have the potential to start a business never actually get going doing it? My research led me to find five reasons why people get stopped in their tracks, and paralysis analysis information overload is one of them.
Ask yourself how do you know that you’re suffering from paralysis of analysis?
Here are Some Signs:
You feel ambivalent about making a decision.
No decision excites you.
You have difficulty with long term projects.
You keep procrastinating and putting it off or, worse yet, adding new projects that detract you from the old project.
You have a long list of unfinished projects.
I’m guilty of that a lot of the time. You’re actually experiencing information overload. You signed up for a bazillion email chains and newsletters, and you downloaded lead magnets and checklist, and E-books. You’re in a ton of network groups, and you’re sitting there looking at all the information, watching people talk, but you never actually implement any of the ideas.
You never actually put yourself out there to take the advice and do something different. You might be suffering from paralysis of analysis. The worst of all is your multi-tasking at all times. I’ve said this, and I will continue to say this, multi-tasking is a made-up word to make you think you’re being productive when you’re not.
It’s really task switching. You’re moving from one task to the other, to the other and back again, and back again. So, you’re not doing these tasks at the same time, you’re just partially doing all of them, and that’s putting stress on you, not eustress the good stress, the chronic negative stress.
Here’s how you can overcome all of those and reverse the signs of information overload and paralysis of analysis.
Prioritize.
The first thing you can do is, Prioritize.
List everything out in your favorite application or write it down in your journal. Put it in your phone, write it on your tablet, write it on your laptop, and then prioritize. Change their order until you figure out what’s most essential and what’s most urgent.
Cut down your decisions.
The second recommendation I have to prevent paralysis of analysis is, cut down the number of decisions you have to make.
You don’t have to have it all figured out.
I used to think that all the time. I was thinking of this, this, this, everything, my long list of things all had to have an answer. All had to have action. All had to have a plan. All had to have a procedure, that’s not true. Sometimes you need to just get going.
Figure out what the 80% solution is, what you need to start moving forward, and then figure it out along the way. You have time, and don’t be afraid of failure.
Increase the friction of your distractions.
The third recommendation I have is to increase the friction of your distractions. When I say increase the friction, it means to increase the distance between you and the things that are distracting you.
If you are a social media junkie, if you are a Netflix junkie, if you’re a TV junkie, if you’re a junk food junkie, whatever it is, increase the distance. If it’s junk food, don’t bring it to your house. If it’s television or Netflix or whatever you’re watching that on, get it out of your immediate space.
Get it out of your place where you make magic, and you work. Get it out of your office. Get it out of your bedroom because if it’s not there, you can’t do it. You can’t use it.
Reduce the friction on the things you need to be doing.
If you need to be working out more, put your workout clothes right there on the table. If you need to be eating better, have healthy options set out on the counter. You need to be working on your business and your business ideas. Have your journal out, your laptop out, have your planner open to where you’ve allotted, put it on your calendar.
Allot that time to work on yourself and work on your own self-improvement to reach your greatness.
Set out your goals visually.
The fourth recommendation I have for overcoming paralysis of analysis is, set out your goals visually. I just got back to my house, so I know it looks very bland behind me, but you will see that I am a vision board queen when I get my stuff. I love whiteboards. I love glass boards. I love dry erase markers and erasers, and I put it all up there, and I work my vision, and I look at it visually until it looks just the way I needed to do.
It inspires me. It gives me ideas. It connects the dots, and then I move forward from there—the visual expression. I’m a visual learner, and it does so much, you should try it.
Fail forward.
The fifth and final recommendation I have for overcoming paralysis of analysis is to fail forward.
It’s okay to fail. Failure is the Yin to the Yang of success. You can’t have one without the other. Your failures help you to be successful. Your losses help you know what didn’t work, so you know what does work.
Don’t be embarrassed. Forget what other people think about you. Fail forward, use your failures to improve the next time.
Information overload can cause paralysis of analysis. We get too caught up in learning and knowing extraneous information, which prevents us from reaching our goals.
Get the basics. Find the 80% solution and then act. I hope this has inspired you. Now go fail forward. Reach your exponential greatness.