Coping with overload / Status anxiety /Job opportunities / Chunk and Learn and Learn/ Clever Skills coming

Answers to overload

In the work world of too much information, it doesn't take long before we feel the effects of cognitive overload.

The pace and amount of information isn't slowing down, so we have to adapt to cope. Meetings, conversations, presentations, learning, to do lists, project tasks … there’s just too much to carry. Everyday.

The information deluge is forever incoming. And AI is creating more information to review, make sense of and filter.

Our mind space is limited. And when we don’t use that space well, we experience overload.

Conferences, offsites, team days and information-based events (remote or in person) create the perfect — and challenging — conditions for information overload.

I worked with a team recently who want to make this a focus for development this year.

They’re tackling overload and kind of saying, ‘no more; we need to do something differently.’

And our everyday life isn’t easier. We’re frequently drowning in the deluge of scrolling, reading, listening, shopping, packing, travelling and planning.

But we don’t need to suffer … or give up. There are techniques and practices that help give us a clearer mind and an optimistic outlook about all that information and what to do with it.

My new OPENING KEYNOTE for conferences, events, offsets and team days is a winner. It sets you up to get the most out of the day, 10x your learning takeaways, and makes you feel better at the end of the day.

Enquire now about these vital skills for your team, people and organisation.

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Where the job opportunities are

The short answer is: everywhere.

The longer answer is: jobs will continue to be needed.

As investment, opportunities, ideas and innovations emerge and evolve, new and additional careers will rise to the surface. And keep on emerging and changing.

As we need more and different things in life, we may outsource, delegate, distribute or invite others to help us with those things. To design them, collaborate, create, make or innovate them.

And we may not know what they are right now. But cycles come and go, rise and fall, ebb and flow.

Keep in touch with what’s changing and how it might impact your career — or the path you’re on right now, and where that path may lead.

Read more from the World Economic Forum in this article.

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Do you chunk

Dealing with information overload is a daily battle. Some things are most certainly worth remembering - while others are just … meh. Nope.

To help handle the load, chunking is still right up there with one of our greatest memory tools. Think mobile numbers, account numbers or other memorable details; they’re best recalled in chunks or small blocks.

And while some data doesn’t need remembering these days thanks to facial recognition or fingerprints, there’s some unique-to-you information that is worth retaining. Your expertise.

Don’t be too quick to delegate all of your ideas, information and experience to artificial intelligence.

You have case studies, stories, experiences and know-how that is worth remembering and reincorporating into your work, career and life whenever it’s required. Public speaking, coaching and leading are some situations where being able to draw from your memory could boost results and outcomes. And chunking could help with the recall.

Read more here in this article.

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Learn … and keep on learning

Our ability — and willingness — to learn really is one of our most wonderful capabilities.

Our capability to become more capable!

The world needs us to keep on learning. Don’t stop. It’s about becoming a renaissance person. Read on.

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New book coming - pre order

Clever Skills : How to use your greatest human capabilities for the unfolding future by Lynne Cazaly

Hello. How's it going? As the future arrives faster and faster, with more automation, artificial intelligence and augmentation than ever, how do you plan to adapt?

Do you know … or are you going with whatever happens happens?

While FOMO (fear of missing out) can be strong in life, there is an increasing and real FOBO (fear of being obsolete).

Our desire for relevance, meaning and purpose is strong. But is this default strong enough to handle the dizzying changes as they arrive and unfold?

3 questions for you:

1. How will you stay relevant?

2. How will you adapt your career so you are employable -- yet retain meaning in your work?

3. What will you need to do to stay with (and ahead) of changes in your industry, field and domain?

I am obsessed with picking trends, spotting themes before they are mainstream, and then adapting myself, my business and life to these shifts.

Here’s a project I’ve been gathering and curating over four years : CLEVER SKILLS: How to use your greatest human capabilities for the unfolding future

In Clever Skills I share 25 capabilities that will take you through times of rapid and/or mind blowing change.

With wise counsel and insights and experience from leading in companies, mentoring more than 150 business owners and developing teams and leaders, I’ve curated an in-depth list of clever. It’s presented as an easy-to-follow 'life-side-guide' on what to do now, next and in the unfolding future.

Pre-order at a special pre-order price

🥏 Released May 1, 2024 Unless the future unfolds even faster 😜

🥏🥏 Pre order the paperback here

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NEW SPEAKER KIT

Looking for a speaker for your offsite, team day, conference or event, get my 2024 speaker kit with details on:

• Opening Keynote on Cognitive Load Coping
• Plenary and Masterclass Topics
• Closing Conference Session - The Co-Creation Experience TM

Get it here

So smart ... but making silly decisions

As we try to cope with the overwhelm of daily information, our brains work to protect us ... from ‘over-arousal’. 

When it’s all too much, we create oversimplified ways of thinking. It’s easier. But this means we can slip up in our decision making. 

WATCH OUT for ways of thinking that are: 
1. Binary (yes/no)
2. Intuitive (based on the past)
3. Confirmative (aligned to our biases)
4. Primary Effect (we overlook the ripple effect). 

If we can ‘overwrite’ these easy, existing pathways in our brains, we’ll make better choices and smarter decisions. 

How to ‘overwrite’ the brain? 
🏃‍♀️ Exercise. 
💤 Sleep. 

And this has huge implications for when you’re trying to learn new things

Read more in this great article from Worth Media and work on overwriting those simple pathways to progress towards better thinking and decision making. 

Now, when can I take a nap? 💤 

Thinking we’re not creative enough

Many of us think we're not creative. 

At all. 

Perhaps it's more that we don't feel 'creative enough' to respond in the ways we need to today. 

We all have creative potential in us, but the cry of doubt, ‘I’m not creative’ is enough to make an idea run and hide! 

If we could be a little more creative than we are... if we could achieve a lift in our creative capability, we could tap into the clever solutions we’re truly capable of.

There’s little evidence that brainstorming produces more or better ideas. Group brainstorming in particular is a waste of time. 

So what do we do instead?


Focus on shifting your thinking to be:

🔶 CONFIDENT - From ‘I’m not creative’ to ‘I can be creative’

🔶CLEVER - ‘I can generate creative options’

🔶COMMERCIAL - ‘I can put these ideas into practice’

We have ongoing needs to generate ideas. solve problems and make decisions in more creative ways. 

And being confident, clever and commercial is a great path to take. 

Strange times call for new ideas

When the Institute for the Future called out ‘novel and adaptive thinking’ as one of those skills we’d need right about now ... do ya think they knew just how much we’d need it?

The use of the word ‘novel’ may have become a little tainted (you know, the novel coronavirus and all).

So could we say unique? Or clever? 

The thing is, these strange times call for new and quite different ideas. 

We know the clichéd group brainstorming thing doesn’t work. 

We’re better off keeping an ideas book, capturing flashes of brilliance as they arrive. 

Or getting hands-on with an idea and prototyping it, to see how well it actually works. Although getting as practical as we can as soon as we can is a totally new concept for some people. 

- Part of a team? 
Know how to bring your clever. 

- Leading a team?
Know how to bring the clever out in others. 

- Running your own show? 
Look for opportunities to use your clever .... anywhere, any time. 

Almost anything goes!

These strange times need our unusual ideas and thinking. Be braver about that. 

Hold on the judgement that what you’re thinking isn’t ‘good enough’. 

We won’t know the value of an idea ... until it’s put into practice anyway. 

Too smart for ourselves

We are such clever beasts! 

We solve complex problems, generate ingenious solutions and juggle multiple roles to make our own world work. 

Yet I think we are also SO smart, that we can occasionally sometimes maybe ... over-complicate things. I know I can!

If something appears too straightforward or plain and simple, it couldn’t possibly work well ... could it? 

Isn’t anything worth doing supposed to be a struggle? 

As a mentor, I get to work with, guide and advise many talented people building and growing their own business or practice. 

When we’re all faced with a challenge or conundrum, often there is a simpler solution that we’ve considered, and then ignored or dismissed. 

In times like these, we’re experiencing plenty of overwhelm: both task overwhelm and emotional overwhelm. 

So choosing an easier path consumes less of our energy and effort ... and it’s less likely to add to the overwhelm. 

Conserve energy for the tougher stuff of life. There’s no need to make solutions, decisions and actions even more complicated. 

Choose the easier path. 
Burnout is no prize. 
Take good care.