Mark Benioff’s Solution to Information Overload
by Miki SaxonEveryone complains about information overload.
Playwright Richard Forman has a term for it.
“Pancake people – spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button”.
Psychologist and behavioral neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, author of the upcoming book The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, recommends retraining your brain.
“Our brains are equipped to deal with the world the way it was many thousands of years ago when we were hunter-gatherers. Back then the amount of information that was coming at us was much less and it came at us much more slowly.”
But Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff has a much simpler solution.
“I deleted my Facebook account completely. I found it was just overwhelming me. I’m only on Twitter, I’m on SalesforceOne, which is my internal one for work, I’m on email, and that’s it. And I’m limited to that. I’m trying not to take on more stuff. I was with a friend this weekend, he’s got his Twitter, his Facebook, he has his Snapchat, he’s got all these – too much.”
Of course, part of the overload is work-related, but it’s amazing how much is pure trivia driven by FoMO and/or the need to impress by sounding knowledgeable about a twist in Game of Thrones.
You are the only person who can evaluate just how necessary your various information streams are sooner rather than later.
Because even the smallest stream adds to the river in which it is oh, so easy to drown.
Then you need gather your courage, follow Benioff’s lead and shut down the unnecessary streams.
Your sanity will thank you.
Flickr image credit: Cambodia4kids.org Beth Kanter