Managing Information in the Information Age
When it comes to stress it’s useful to consider how physical, emotional and mental strategies can help people to manage their condition. Here Anthony Landale highlights some of the latest developments in stress management.
We live in an era when information is more freely available than ever before. This should be one of the great advantages of living at the beginning of the 21st century. So why is it that not everyone is celebrating?
…80% of executives occasionally or often suffer from information overload…
A recent report suggested that a staggering 80% of executives occasionally or often suffer from information overload…and the problem is getting worse. More books and journals are published than ever before and then there is the World Wide Web and the Internet. It is easy to copy each other on internet or intranet e-mails….and so we do. We know that a seemingly infinite amount of information is available on any (and every) topic and so we expect ourselves and our colleagues to have every conceivable piece of information at our fingertips and rolling off our tongues.
We are forever being told that ‘change is the only constant’. We should expect our companies to change dramatically. We should expect our jobs to change out of all recognition. We should expect to need to retrain and re-skill ourselves.
And yet…there is another constant. Most of us spend little or no time learning how to learn more effectively, how to read faster, how to remember more and how to make and take notes efficiently and effectively. We have the same skills we have always had. As a result, as the pace of change continues to accelerate, we feel overwhelmed - we’re stuck in the slow moving inside lane of the information superhighway.
…little or no time learning how to learn more effectively…
So how do we join those all too few people zooming past at break neck speed, masters of the information that surrounds them, relishing the challenges that the information age brings them, seeing not threats but opportunities?
Investment required…and a few techniques
We need to invest in our ability to manage information. The required investment is not huge; it is not expensive. To continue the analogy of the cars on the motorway - we do not need a faster car, or a better brain. We simply need to learn how to get out of second (or first!) gear!
Read faster
In order to read faster we need to start with an understanding of how the eye and the brain work. The average speed at the beginning of the course is around 260 words per minute. At the end of a speed reading course, that average has usually doubled and very often trebled…with good levels of comprehension. How is that achieved? Watch someone’s eyes as they are reading and you will see that their eyes move jerkily from one word to the next. This is because we can only read a word when our eyes are still. We fix our eyes for a fraction of a second at a time. You may also notice their eyes back skipping and occasionally wandering about the page. All of this information is crucial and forms the basis for all speed reading techniques:
…the eye moves much more quickly to where you want it to go when it is guided…
- spend less time on each fixation
- group words together
- no back skipping
- no wandering
It will take some practice. After all, you have been reading at what you probably regard as a natural speed for many years…and when was your last reading lesson?!
…your brain is not a muscle, but it does behave like one; the more you use it, the more powerful it becomes…
If your education was anything like the majority of people, your last reading lesson was probably when you were perhaps nine or ten years old. You were probably told to stop pointing with your finger. The usual rationale for this ‘advice’ is either that ‘it will slow you down’ or that ‘it looks childish’.
In fact it is probably the worst advice you could have got. The eye moves much more quickly to where you want it to go when it is guided. On our courses, we often see dramatic improvements in both speed and comprehension when people start to run a pen smoothly under the words they are reading. Of course, for many people, this feels very uncomfortable initially. After all, if you change something as fundamental as the way you read, it is bound to feel a little strange for a while.
Try it next time you are trying to get through a journal article. There should be some opportunities in the rest of this journal!
Stretch your memory ‘muscle’
Your brain is not a muscle, but it does behave like one; the more you use it, the more powerful it becomes. Nearly everyone I’ve ever met wishes that they had a better memory. They berate themselves for forgetting all manner of things and take a perverse pride in being ‘hopeless with names’. They know that when they were studying, cramming was a daft way to work….but they did it anyway. And since they got by, they never learnt another way to learn.
…give anyone you meet your full attention and you will find it more difficult to forget them than to remember them…
The good news for every person in every organisation is that there are many better ways to learn and remember than the ‘old-fashioned’ ways of yesteryear. The reason many of us don’t bother to learn more is that our experience is that we are going to forget it pretty quickly anyway, so why bother?
The three questions I am asked most often about memory are:
- How can I remember names and faces?
- How can I remember things that I am not really interested in?
- How can I learn (either formally for exams, or more informally) more efficiently?
The brain is a marvellous organ. It recognises indifference and disinterest. Most of us simply do not pay enough attention when we are trying to remember names… we do not engage our senses and our imagination, we do not make associations nor use the power of repetition. We often simply forget to remember. Give anyone you meet your full attention and you will find it more difficult to forget them than to remember them.
Remembering things you are not interested in is a problem. In fact it cannot be done! Interest and attitude are two of the keys to effective memory. Somehow you will need to turn disinterest and apathy into fascination and wonder - that makes the task fun and you will make the essential connections needed for an effective memory.
For learning anything, any time in our lives, we need to use the natural rhythms of learning and forgetting both during and after learning. We should take frequent short breaks and, after learning something review it after an hour, a day, a week, a month, three months etc. Combined with an efficient way of taking notes and stimulating the WHOLE brain (Mind Maps® are ideal) learning anything becomes a fascinating, fun adventure.
If you want to develop your ability to remember, try the following:
Use Mind Maps
Mind Maps have been around for 30 years now so they are hardly leading edge technology! However in my experience as a manager, director, consultant and running a training company, they are nowhere near as widely used as their effectiveness warrants. It is the only note making and note taking system that is designed to help people to work, think and learn more effectively. As an information management tool they are uniquely effective; especially now that excellent, easy to use Mind Mapping software is available.
How Mind Maps Work
The work of Sperry & Ornstein on the differences between the right and left sides of the brain is well known and of course new discoveries and insights that build on their original findings are being published all of the time. Notwithstanding the simplification inherent in the original model, it is reasonable to suggest that most systems of note making and note taking are predominantly ‘left brain’ systems; they use lists, words, numbers and a simple chronological order. Mind Maps add to these left brain functions, the use of colour, patterns, space, imagination, a global perspective and a hierarchical logic. In fact the whole brain is used together in a synergistic way.
Mind Maps are the brain child of Tony Buzan. In his ground breaking book, ‘Use Your Head’ he introduced Mind Maps as a way of making and taking notes and remembering more. Buzan is an educational psychologist who, in the early 1970s was fascinated by how we learn.
He studied the other key aspect regarding how the brain works is the importance of association. The role of association in both creativity and memory cannot be over stated. Association is the key process by which thoughts are organised and information retained. Again, Mind Maps are designed to accentuate associations through their unique line structure. By clarifying associations of ideas, which are expressed as single words or pictures, Mind Maps help us to put information into our brains in a way that makes it easy for us to access it. Retention is not usually a problem; recall very often is.
For learning and development, the advantages of using Mind Maps should be obvious. Synergistically using skills from both sides of the brain and making associations which would otherwise be weak or unclear, have tremendous advantages. We can add to these the ability to work intuitively and to establish personal styles that suit us best. All of these help us to assimilate information easily and enjoyably. Learning is no longer the chore it all too often seems; it is as it should be, a satisfying, pleasurable and creative experience.
The benefits
Many people feel that the information explosion is still in its infancy. The opportunities are limitless for all of us if we can pull away from the inside lane. There is a virtuous circle in which learning more makes learning easier, which encourages us to learn even more…
There is little doubt that individuals and organisations who know how to learn, know how to think and know how to access their innate creativity and capacity for managing information, are the ones that are going to succeed in the long run.
If you are looking for a public course for yourself or an individual our Advanced Thinking and Learning Workshop (formerly Advanced Information Management Skills) covers Memory Techniques, Mind Mapping and Speed Reading.
Tags: Advanced Thinking and Learning Workshop (Training), Information Overload, Learning and Studying, Memory techniques, Mind Mapping