Navigating Information Overload 

Managing the onslaught of information that you’re receiving from colleagues, supervisors, emails and social media each day is a challenge unto itself. But now that you’re working remotely, and the majority of communication is exchanged on a virtual platform, it can feel overwhelming. There’s a lot to think about right now and a lot to juggle.

As a professional hero, you’re currently battling a beast of emails, non-stop virtual meetings, texts at all hours of the day, calls that interrupt your flow and daily family demands all while prioritizing what needs to be responded to first. That can feel overwhelming.

To help, here are four suggestions for proactively getting out from under the information overload feeling:

• Agree on communication approaches: You have more power than you think. So, please speak up and get your team and your supervisor (if applicable) to agree on communication frequency and platforms. This should include things like talking by phone if urgent and then by text or email if less urgent. This needs to be understood by everyone so you don’t feel pressured to stay up all night answering emails and texts.
• Don’t commit to over meet: As a group, you should decide how often you will meet as a team. This typically is done once a week as a team and once a week for one-on-ones. Remember, over meeting can cause stress (just as under-meeting can) and it takes time away from important work.
• Establish work priorities versus tasks: Divide your work into critical, functional and task so you know what should be done first and what can be left to low-energy time slots. Better yet, watch the Super Productive Employee Leadership IQ Program to get your priorities straight.

One final, and very important suggestion: Don’t ignore incoming messages.  Ignoring a comment, question, phone call, LinkdIn message, text or email seems easy to do if you’re not interested in providing a response. Perhaps you feel overwhelmed by the constant barrage of incoming messages and you need time to sort through it all. Or maybe you’re struggling to come up with the best response.

But by not saying anything, you are saying a lot. And unfortunately, it’s not very good.

In fact, not responding to communication could ruin your career reputation, relationships and your potential for references. Instead, strive to provide a thoughtful response to keep the communication alive and your reputation in tact. You may even need to let the person know that you’ve heard them but need some time to process their request. And when you do have time to respond, your communication should be positive and professional

How to Be Career Happy? Learn to Navigate Information Overload