The Cure For Information Overload

After studying for a majority of the day I decided to work out and then work on a blog post. Unfortunately, I spent an hour reading personal finance blogs before I even thought about a decent topic for an article. The phenomenon of information overload swept me once again. I consumed more than enough information. I just did not know how to apply this knowledge.

There are so many great personal finance blogs out there covering such a wide variety of topics that you could literally spend all day online (hey it beats watching tv all day).

You can obtain so many great ideas on retirement, emergency funds, extra income, etc. that you absolutely do not know where to begin. This is why I wanted to share/implement my own personal cure for information overload:

1. Do not stop reading any blogs.

I don’t want my fellow personal finance bloggers sending me hate mail because they lost readers. Instead try to understand why you are reading the specific blog. What are your goals? Where are you in your financial journey? Do you want beer money for the weekend or do you want to start saving for retirement?

2. Begin to read and only focus on one & only ONE topic at a time.

When you become successful and comfortable with making your own decisions on that one topic (for example you can select the next week to be your retirement education week) you will realize that in the long run you are getting more done. When you read about retirement, extra income, credit card debt, in the same day you will likely cause information overload.

3. Read many different blogs to gain different perspectives on the one topic.

Once you figure out which topic you will focus on, search for information on the top blogs in that niche. One blogger will tell you this is the best source of retirement income while another will tell you that it is a horrible idea  401k vs Roth Ira). The trick is to factor in all sides of the coin before you decide what works for you.

4. Do something!

The problem often is not that we do not have any information available to us. The problem is that we do not apply enough of the information currently available. I could point you to a million great articles on debt reduction (here, here and here) but what are they worth if you don’t apply the information? The next time you read an inspirational article- do something! Apply something from the article. Don’t worry about the minor details and just do what you can.

5. Become a producer.

Once you start applying more of the new found knowledge to your life, try becoming a producer. How can you become a producer? What I do is I write a blog post on the topic to reinforce the concept and hold myself accountable.  Yes I know that not everyone wants to deal with running a blog, so here are some more suggestions to be a producer:

• Try guest posting on your favorite blog. Most bloggers are more than willing to post an informative article that a reader sends in.
• Join a forum. There is a forum out there for everything. When you join a forum you can ask for FREE advice and share your journey with others.
• Teach others. Once you start excelling at one particular concept you can reinforce it by helping out others.

Please bookmark this article and give it a read whenever you feel like information overload is affecting you.