But you do need to capture something...

I've called out the information overload behaviour we have of writing too much down in a training program, meeting or at a conference. We don’t need to write it ALL down. But we do need to write something.

To all you ‘sponges’ reading this who sit in meetings and conferences thinking you can ‘soak it all up’, without actively capturing any notes... ummm you can't. This is precisely a behaviour that can worsen cognitive overload.

We do nothing, sitting passively, letting information supposedly flow over or through us, thinking we’ll remember it and absorb it. But like all sponges, we fill up - and sooner than we think.

A participant in a workshop sat all day with arms crossed, nothing written down. ‘I can remember it,’ she said, ‘I have a photographic memory.' But she didn't remember it and later showed how she'd missed plenty. Given her leadership role, number of direct reports and her responsibility in the organisation, it was poor role modelling and self-management.

It’s a foolish denial - and a cognitive load coping error - to not write something.

Don’t write everything.

And don’t writing nothing.

But absolutely... write something. 

You don’t need to write (or type) it all

I’m talking cognitive load coping this week; how to handle all the information we’re exposed to.

The times when we need to use cognitive load coping the most include training, meetings, conferences, conversations, coaching; whenever people are thinking and talking together and information is shared.

This information can be:

🌕 written: a report, presentation or a pack of information; or

🌕 spoken: the verbal part of a presentation or conversation.

Plus our own thinking process.

We need to manage our own cognitive load better than we do.

Here’s one of the biggest tips I can give you: You don't need to write (or type) everything down. We can write or type w-a-y too much information in an attempt to ‘catch’ or ’trap' what's happening and what's being covered. But some of the information may not be ‘worth’ catching or trapping! Yet we do it. And it makes our cognitive load worse.

Notice the feeling of wanting or needing to catch and trap so much information. You don’t need it all.

Are you a catcher or 'trapper' of information? Do you want to catch it all?

Lose the list

Most of us are drowning in information, slurping from the firehose, not coping. And in that, lists don’t work. Well not for making sense anyway.

Yes, ok list-lovers, lists are wonderful things, and here’s where and how they work best ... for actions.

📍To do lists

📍Shopping lists

📍Task lists

The list is the ultimate tool for managing, measuring action.

✅ Tick, tick, tick. Done, done, done.

The BIG but: a list is not the best tool for learning, making sense or connecting dots. The only way you can ‘connect the dots’ on a list is down, down the page. It’s tough then to find lateral, horizontal and reverse/upward connections of information when your eyes and mind are drawn down down down. We can find it harder to discover connections, insights and ideas in a list.

Love lists? Great, but keep them for actions, to tick off and track progress.

When it comes to capturing information, making sense, connecting the dots and managing cognitive load, leave lists out of it.

One or two takeaways - are you joking - that’s all!

The cost of attending a conference or training program is significant. There’s the registration fee, perhaps an airfare, accommodation, transfers and the cost of time away from your role, the business and your home and family life.

What’s the ROI, the return on investment you’re going for? Have you thought about it, planned for it?

Most of us are so burned out and overloaded with information that the best we get from conferences or training are:

😩A few bent business cards from networking

😩3 pages of scribbled notes from sessions

😩Swag and merch - a pen, a few brochures and a stress ball, ironically in the shape of a brain!

Back at work, we have just a couple of key points that are tough to put into practice. It’s an underrated experience that we can get so much more out of than we currently do.

'Cognitive load coping' is a skill to learn and apply to achieve a massive ROI on attending a conference or training program.

→ Do you need help with the fuzzy feeling of all that information?

Send me a message and I'll send a link to three options for learning this new way of working in our world that's overflowing with information.

Stop squirrelling information

I'm posting on information overload this week; one of my conference keynote topics, best scheduled at the start of the conference! Why? We're faced with so much information yet we haven’t evolved our abilities to process and cope with it all. We still get overloaded. Daily.

An issue is how we squirrel away information intent on working on it 'later’, reviewing it, keeping it, having it. Think... at a conference where a tonne of information is presented via PowerPoint.

How often have you got your phone out and taken a photo of a slide? We're creating a 'rework' problem though, collecting information we think we may possibly need, perhaps, maybe.

'It looks valuable; I'll capture it.' It’s inefficient and delays the sensemaking task until 'later'. That's yet another thing for 'later'!

Recent research confirms our memories and recall are NOT enhanced by these photos. We’re better off working with the information (listening, reading, thinking, writing) at the time, in the moment, even though it feels good to take photos.

We think we feel calmer capturing the moment, but we're actually adding to the big problem that is our cognitive overload. Forget the photo. Make sense in the moment.