Information overload is everywhere.

Dealing with it is crucial.

Otherwise you run the risk of just running round in circles, getting overwhelmed but not really getting anything done.

These ideas won’t solve your information overload forever but you can come back to this list and apply it whenever you want.

Unsubscribe from unwanted emails

Over time, our email inbox gets more and more cluttered.

And if you’re like most people you simply delete unwanted emails because it’s easier than scrolling down the email, finding the unsubscribe link, clicking that link and then (often) clicking an unsubscribe radio button or pressing a “confirm” button. And that’s the easier ones – some ask you to confirm your email address and generally make you jump through hoops to leave.

Which is why so many people don’t unsubscribe.

It seems too much effort!

But if you count the amount of time you spend deleting those unwanted emails every day, it’s actually well worth it.

And that will automatically trim your inbox and reduce the number of unread messages in there.

In turn, that will help stop you deleting emails you actually wanted to read.

Draw up a plan

Or, more correctly, create a goal.

A simple, one sentence, mission statement style goal can work and if you’ve been used to working towards targets for a while it works nicely.

If you’ve not done this before, brain dump your thoughts onto paper or a word processor document and write or type away for 10 to 20 minutes. Then edit the next day.

You may be wondering how this helps deal with information overload.

The simple answer is that it helps you filter out the stuff that’s overloading you.

If it’s not on your plan and assuming the “thing” that’s taking up your time doesn’t fit with the plan, it gets relegated.

Either relegated to a “maybe” pile.

Or – ideally – just put off completely.

OK. There are some things that you can’t do that with – tax returns, maybe the school run, that kind of thing.

But you’ll be surprised how many things you can do it with.

And you’ll probably be surprised how much of the stuff you’re now ignoring doesn’t really matter. Even though you thought it was important originally.

Each day, do the big things first

This is the opposite way to the way most of us plan our day.

The temptation is to start with the small things – and it is a good feeling to cross lots of stuff off your to-do list – but that usually means that the big thing on your list never gets started. Because by the time you’ve done all the small things it’s too late in the day to start the big thing, so you tell yourself you’ll do it tomorrow.

But the same thing happens tomorrow.

So start the day by spending an hour on that big thing on your list. If need be, break it up into smaller bits – that’s OK in this instance as they’re not really “small”, they’re just a part of the bigger thing you need to do. The thing that’s been nagging you to get started on it but you’ve been procrastinating on.

Prioritise things

Not everything is ultra important.

One of the best – and easiest – ways to classify things is with this simple matrix:

Everything falls into one of those categories.

It’s usually easy to tell if it’s urgent or not. And it’s usually easy to tell whether it’s important or not.

With a bit of practice, you can do that in a split second.

Phone calls are often treated as urgent – that bell or tone tells us they are – but are also often not important.

Nowadays, I tend to let any call from a number I don’t recognise go through to my answering machine. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message. If it isn’t – which is often the case – they don’t leave a message.

Maybe I’m missing out on business. More likely I’m missing out on sales calls that are dressed up as surveys to get around the UK’s cold calling regulations.

Anything that lands in the not urgent, not important decision box can be trashed.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised how many items that includes – including all those emails you’ve been deleting instead of unsubscribing from, the TV programs that you enjoyed the first one or two series but still watch in case they get good again, the websites you visit “just because”, etc, etc, etc.

Take the time to do this in as many places as you can over the coming days and weeks.

You’ll simultaneously deal with information overload and the feeling of overwhelm it causes.

Feel free to share your tips on dealing with information overload in the comments box below.