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?

The 2 things for better cognitive load management

In their prediction for the skills we’d be needing now, by 2020, the Institute for the Future identified Cognitive Load Management in the Top 10.

It's about how we cope with all that information.

But it’s not one thing; I see Cognitive Load Management involving 2 capabilities:

🔹 To discriminate + filter information for importance, and

🔸To understand how to maximize our cognitive function (using a variety of tools and techniques.)

The answer is not about having a new app to manage, store or retrieve our own information better. We need to be able to firstly identify what’s important in the information we’re exposed to. And then we need to work with our own thinking, listening and sensemaking capabilities to handle that information better than we currently do.

I’m helping teams (via 1/2 day workshops) and individuals (via 1:1 skills sessions online) to build skill and change the way they cope with information.

It could be the best value session of your development program this year - being able to handle information better. What’s that worth to you? 

We can make information overload worse

To handle the never-ending flow of information we face, it’s useful realising that the way we currently do things could be making it harder for us to take in information with ease.

We can be so wedded to the automated and habitual way we do tasks: thinking, prioritizing, decision making, listening, note taking and learning, that we’re often blinded to the benefits and potential of newer ways.

This is why some newer ways of working are known as ... new ways of working. Of course!

I see this when I'm working with people, helping them manage their cognitive load. We’re used to our preferences (and we defend them), when we’re reading a document or listening to a presentation for example, yet we struggle with information overload and its effects. The devil you know, right?

We tolerate the inefficiency and discomfort of overload. Many people wrongly believe it would be too hard to learn a new way or the benefits wouldn't be worth the effort.

But newer ways of working are revealing better, easier and more effective ways of tackling all that information. 

 Would you be willing to try some new techniques to handle information overload? 

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. 

Attention and focus

Reporting in from Agile 2019 in Washington DC ... Author Chris Bailey kicked off the conference keynoting on how to manage your attention in a world of distraction. I

t turns out we don't need to fit more content in, we need to create more space. Productivity he says, is a combination of time, energy and attention.

We'd do well to take care of our energy. It was funny when he said that having a coffee now is borrowing our energy from later in the day. (Alcohol is borrowing energy and happiness from tomorrow!)

But the key message is, we crave distraction - lasting just 40 seconds on a task before we get distracted - lapping up the dopamine hits we get from checking devices and drowning in screen-time. We need to let our messy minds wander; to rediscover boredom. It's over-stimulation which is the enemy of focus.

As Chris spoke, I captured these rapid fire notes in this visual one-pager. Lots of information there and better than a list of boring writing that won't get looked at again. (I use visual notes like this to manage my cognitive load at conferences. It's only Day 1 of 5 - it's a marathon not a sprint!)  

Yawn! How could you rediscover boredom ?