Dealing With Idea and Information Overload

This is one of your best videos yet, Jim! You really hit home with this one… I find myself inundated with email newsletters that I often don’t have time to read when they first come in, so I “save” them for later, only later never comes and I have to spend more valuable time cleaning out my inbox.

I’m going to cancel at least half of them (but not yours!)

Wow. That sure sounded familiar. I guess I’m not the only one who struggles with both of these conditions. Thanks for a great video Jim.

I’m surprised that so many “internet business” people HAVEN’T learned this yet. They like to BOMBARD you, not only with product, but with pages and pages of info on their product. Recently, I bought a course (no name mentioned here), and the guy gave me so many “bonuses” with my course that by the time I was half way thru them, I became paralyzed – and by the end of a couple of weeks or so, I asked for a refund. This is BAD for business! If I could have just gotten thru ONE thing at a time, I may have stayed with him . . . Yes – this is a good concept that everyone should learn. Thanks!

Excellent video, Jim! I found myself nodding and laughing in agreement with some of your key points.

Two things that seem to work for me (in addition to your weeding-out suggestions and keeping an idea journal, both of which I do):

1) I ask myself whether I would ENJOY pursuing the idea; and

2) I look for a simple way to TEST the idea in some form before throwing myself into it too much.

Testing may be nothing more than starting to write an article, or playing around with audio or video, and seeing how I’m reacting to it in the early stages. If it “feels right,” I’ll take it a step further. If not, I’ll set it aside for possible review at another time.

Some ideas that seem like they’d be perfect for me end up draining me the most. Other ideas that take a lot of effort and energy — and would appear at first to be “too much” for me in some manner — end up being the best to fit with what I enjoy.

Thanks for the great primer in today’s video. Looking forward to more from you soon!

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AWESOME comments from everyone… thank you!

Michael… thanks for the thought on testing an idea before diving in full force… I do that subconsciously as a self-defense (from myself sometimes ) mechanism… great point!

Jim!

Jim,

This advice doesn’t just apply to Internet marketers. It applies to writers, speakers … everyone!

I linked to this in Your Information Center’s blog because your advice is so on-target to anyone who wants to accomplish anything.

Thanks!

Excellent video, Jim. I’ve suffered from both overloads at different times. Here’s a couple of things that help me…

Instead of the notebook, I use the old filebox and notecard system. When these idea blizzards hit, I simply jot the idea down on a notecard and file it.

As for getting too many newsletters, etc., I don’t usually unsubscribe– if the info is usually useful. If I din’t have time, or the subject isn’t related to what I’m working on at the moment, I save it in an archive folder. Then, if the need for that type of info comes up, I can search the archives and find all the stuff I’ve saved.

Keep the good stuff coming…

Excellent video quality, by the way.

John McCabe

Hey Jim,

Man does that ever hit home! Even though Mike Litman publicly called me a SCHMUCK from the stage at a recent Big Seminar, he may have been CORRECT!

Mike argued that if you have ONE big idea that’s already profitable, why would you WANT to divert your attention elsewhere to a “MAYBE” project instead of milking ALL ASPECTS of your main business, website or venture. That “most” who attempt “multiple streams of income” FAIL, or make a little money here and there.

I argued that there IS such a thing as a “SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR” that’s agile enough to launch one profitable business or project after the next.

He called me a SCHMUCK!

But you notice I never used the word “SIMULTANEOUSLY”…I said: “AFTER”, meaning AFTER 18 years of perfecting my BLINDS SALES SYSTEM, I started on CRUISES. Now it’s 8 years later and BOTH are profitable. But you know what? For each $1,000 I earn in the cruise biz, I’m probably leaving/losing $2,000 or more on the table in the blind biz. I KNOW I am.

There’s only so many hours in a day and you can’t be everywhere at the same time.

I’ve spoken with my mistress / future ex-wife Phyllis about this. She suggests I close down ONE or BOTH businesses, take six months to develop ONE new HIGH TICKET, BIG PROFIT project, such as. TRAVEL AGENT TRAINING SYSTEMS, INSTANT INFOMERCIAL, TOLL-FREE TELECENTER, CRUISE MARKETING MAGIC, or even the (this part deleted for fear of being ripped off)..

OR…niche out my cruise biz to go after HIGH END luxury segement that pay’s $1,000 coms. instead of $100 to $200.

OR…increase my offline advertising in the BLIND BIZ, expand product line and HIRE and train 2 new salesmen.

The point I’m making here is that I need to concentrate on any ONE of these MILLION DOLLAR IDEAS to truly make my next million dollars. NOT spread myself too thin amongst a FEW things and hoping I get around to the rest.

Final thought. Is my MONEY (savings) working for me as hard as I do? Absolutely NOT.

I don’t have quite enough to RETIRE and live comfortably YET, but maybe if I focused a real block of time on my investments, I could yield more than the 2% I’m probably earning. The condo we bought last year is up $100,000 in 13 months. I can easily get a home equity line to purchase 2 more units with 50k down on each. Why don’t I. Why dont I just dump all my losing stocks and mutual funds from years ago?

Why do we take the long and hard road to get to the financial freedom and world travel we all desire?

It IS because of the IDEA AVALANCHE and not enough hours in each day.

I’ve written this in betwen answering SIX calls at my office.

what a great little video Jim! great picture, great sound, and great advice…I especially like the ideaq about “testing” first…I`ll try it!

Thanks Jim
Your Best Video Yet and much needed by one who late in life (53) got help with overload by getting a doctor’s prescription for stratera. I guess we are all a little ADHD with media in overdrive 24/7. It takes valient and sustained effort to filter the distractions and to use all tools available to focus our actions. The Idea Notebook is a great organizer and an automatic Best Ideas Generator when put to daily use, a kind of K-Mart Simpleology if you will. Why don’t You and Tellman get with Mark Joyner and launch a SUPER FOCUS TELESEMINAR that actually pre-screens pathologic scatterbrains and administers organizing targeting tools as well as medical assessments for recommended medications and natural herbs for focus and concentration. If yall ever do something that I would promote the bejesus out of it!
Your Pal
Bill

Great video Jim… I found myself nodding and applauding you on everything you were saying.Man have you hit the nail on the head Jim.

I spent a small fortune on how-to everything and have small mountains of material in my office to prove it.

I will cancel half of my newsletters and keep yours of coarse.

Thank you for providing this video Jim and look forward for the next series of vids.

Gary

I guess I’m waiting for all these manual, tapes etc. to jump down off the shelves and pummel me into submission or do it for me.

Focus, Focus, Fucus to many projects started none finished. Can you chain me in your backyard and not feed me until I finish one.

The video was great and very timely. I always appreciate you cutting edge technology. Do you ever sleep. One of your “biggest” Fans.

Jim,
you must be a carpenter. Cuzz you hit the
nail on the head. This is the situation I
find myself in now. One question. How do I
decide which newsletters to keep?
Thanks Richard Schieck

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Trust the ones that have delivered quality content in the past… not just pitches. Also, ask yourself, does this newsletter help me move closer to my goals?

Jim

you burped..twice

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That is true…

I thought it added to the authenticity of the video

Jim

Wow, talk about timely. I just setup my own system 2 days ago. Simply a 3 ring binder, notepaper and dividers. I’m keeping my short/long term goals, daily todo list, ideas and thoughts.

I also appreciate the comment about only having one or two “mentors” that you follow. Saves a lot of time.

Thanks Jim!

Chris

As always you right on target with this stuff.

Thanks Jim, I really like your video, It was right on with me!!. In fact I killed off four Newsletters already this morning & a couple of guru’s. Thanks again!Gods Blessings

Hi Jim,

Your videos speak the truth. I find my emails and all the offers waste so much time. You end up opening one email, out of curiousity I go to read the sales page and 100 clicks later, wasted time.

Great advice to delete the emails. The best technique is to use Mark Joyners simpleology the law of staight lines with focused attention.

Robert Reuter, BS
http://www.education-homepage.com

Only one small complaint about the video, Jim, the screen was too small to see YOU well. Funny, about a week or so ago, I was just blogging on a similar thought about information overload. In fact, I believe my newsletter had similar advice in it. Yes, in Issue 2, I said,

“Practice discernment–not every “guru” is going to be right for you. It took me about 6 months of buying and downloading to figure out which of the huge group of them I’ll “listen” to.

“They promote and cross-promote each other’s products. Examine each offer and ask yourself if you are ready for it now?

“If not, pass it up. It is probable you’ll see the same thing, or something better, in six months or a year–when you might be more prepared to use it.”

Great minds and all that…. I keep journals of ideas and info I get from the “gurus” I DO follow (including you, of course) and keep them in notebooks by my desk. Thanks for a very succinct video and more great ideas!

D’oh! Looking through my email address setup for just my ‘guru’ newsletters I see that I have 20 messages from just today alone!

That video was great by the way. Great way to verbalize that not so good feeling I have and have had for years now.

No time for more, have to go down to big lots!

Jason

Jim,

Great advice in a super, short video! Ties right in with David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” methods, which advise getting everything in your head recorded on paper/computer so that you can focus on what you’re doing without worrying about what you’re forgetting.

Thanks!
Nancy Klarman

Dear Jim,

I would like to give you a link in which you and your other subscribers will get little more info about the concept you want to convey..here the link…

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/print/0,2361,305150,00.html

All the best to all of us.

Murtaza.

OMGosh-I thought I was the ONLY one on the face of the earth to have 40 guru’s telling me what I needed to hear/see/buy/use and not really understanding what I needed to be doing. Being a woman of a certain age “58″ and the mother of adopted children with disabilities I need Money Honey but my ADD brain flits from one thing to another. So, after unsubscribing to 35 of the guru’s I shall wait with baited breath the next step from the uncoming seminar. Thanks for the awakening. MoonDancingNana

OMGosh-I thought I was the ONLY one on the face of the earth to have 40 guru’s telling me what I needed to hear/see/buy/use and not really understanding what I needed to be doing. Being a woman of a certain age “58″ and the mother of adopted children with disabilities I need Money Honey but my ADD brain flits from one thing to another. So, after unsubscribing to 35 of the guru’s I shall wait with baited breath the next step from the uncoming seminar. Thanks for the awakening. MoonDancingNana

Jim,

Great video. I’m at the same crossroads.

How do you know when it’s time to end one idea and pursue another idea? I always think to myself “if I tried this, or that, or learned ____, it could still work”.

-RD

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Greta question!

I think it really comes down to diminishing returns.

If you’re putting in $1 worth of effort and only getting back $.05 in return, it’s time to move on.

If another idea will revitalize the effort, then try that new idea… if not, then it may be time to move on completely.

Hope that makes sense

Jim

Great free Info,
I cant think of anyone who isn’t overload with a ton of “what to do and how to do it ” emails.
On my way to the local Wal-Mart to pick up an idea not pad as I’ve never heard of Big Lot

Cheers

Hi Jim,

Usually I really enjoy your videos, and find them to be very profitable. I have never run into one where I felt you were way off base.

Until now.

I’m not just being a devil’s advocate here with what I have to say either.

Yes, it’s very true that the point you make in this video “hits home”, but simply identifying a common issue faced by so many people (information overload) doesn’t make it “one of your best” videos. In fact, I would have to say that I disagree with 2 rather big aspects of your approach in this video.

First, on info overload…

Certainly there is a point where info overload gets a bit extreme. But your video may be doing a HUGE disservice to the person who is struggling to understand a ton of information by immersion. The reasons someone is ‘immersed’ in trying to learn as much as possible may be multiple. So, rather than advising someone to disengage from that activity by cutting down on their subscriptions – maybe what you could do is help that person find a good way to continue embracing their immersion, only give them some insight into ways they could productively CHANNEL that activity?

Like perhaps work with a team of like-minded ‘immersionists’ to create products?

Let me tell you – I would MUCH RATHER work with a team of people who have been immersed in a subject (or several related subjects) than I would work with someone who didn’t have much of a clue, or didn’t have THAT KIND of intensity, ambition, or knowledge.

If I had a team of people like that, we could EXPLODE the marketplace with great products.

Secondly, I was surprised that you advise people to keep their journal (a good idea) in a handwritten book (a not-so-good idea). Think about this…

Jane writes down her thoughts about widgets on page 23 of her journal. A few days later, she has MORE thoughts to add to her original idea, and she does so on page 36. A month later, she has even MORE ideas, and records them on page 52.

Three months later, she wants to review her notes.

Can she easily find them? Heck no. It takes her 30 minutes just to do that simple task because she has to search her entire journal (or,journalS) just to find her thoughts.

But, if she had recorded her ideas in a Word document (or any other simple text editor), she could have found ALL her ideas instantly just by doing a keyword search.

So no – I do NOT think this was one of your best videos, in fact, I think it was – unfortunately – one of your most misguided.

-=-=-=- JIM’S RESPONSE -=-=-=-

I could spend and hour rebutting this, but I won’t.

Suffice it to say that everyone is entitled to their opinion.

However, I will make 2 comments:

1. Immersion learning is very different than signing up for 40 newsletters and trying to absorb it all… it’s impossible (yet many people try, burn out, and give up completely).

This problem is further exacerbated by the fact that, in doing so, they try to follow at leat 2 (if not 5 or 6) or more methods / paths / patterns / gurus at the same time… making it impossible to get the results they seek.

2. Handwriting your goals enables you to engage in the more permanent creation of associations in your subconsious mind… mainly because putting pen to paper and forming ideas “by hand” engages more of the senses than just typing them.

PLUS, doing it in the manner I describe — on the medium I describe — takes one back to a time in younger years when more things were “possible” and we weren’t nearly as caught up in whether or not we could do them.

As for the rest, thanks for sharing… I disagree with you… but thanks for sharing

Jim

Hi Jim,

Bingo… bingo… bingo!!!

I am 100% sure that you have been thinking about me while recording that video!

Thanks a lot for another great video.

Regards,

Frank Bauer

Hi Jim,

Bingo… bingo… bingo!!!

I am 100% sure that you have been thinking about me while recording that video!

Thanks a lot for another great video.

Regards,

Frank Bauer

Everytime I have an idea, I get excited and register a domain name.

This is getting expensive and time consuming.

Thanks For the good info.

Hi Jim,
Please, please don’t start putting all your info on video email. Really. Jim, I need your advice and input far too much to have it devalued by amateur t.v psuedo media hyper wet presentation. I know what you look like!…your 20 years older than your photo, but man, its your mind and your writing thats important…the ability to refer to profound ideas on the writen page..clarity of instruction and argument not ” hey look at me ” psuedo nice tv….
Apart from that…..not bad…..Thanks…Jon Francis…definitely not on cam

Jim,

Ouch….
Sorry if my previous comment seemed a bit rude. Actually, the video is really good. I like the fact that it combines being homespun with very good production. The ‘real dog’ arrow adds humour and you could never have planned the small dog launch. I look forward to the fireside chats keeping coming and yes we are on complete information overload.
My problem is that I hope people don’t think that video email will replace the written word. Ease of reference is the key.
I have one mentor in one program who puts everything on audio. It takes a dickens of a time to sort through. Might it be possible to combine audio to transcript technology so that we could have the best of both worlds.
Thanks again
Jon Francis

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FROM JIM:

Hi Jon,

I have no problem with what you said… I agree that there should be balance… people will tend to go all one way or the other.

I guess you didn’t notice that I also published a 500 word article this week on my blog on “Open Office” — a free alternative to Microsoft Office.

I do not think that video will replace anything… what I do think is that it will improve a lot of things when used in tandem with print and audio

Jim

Jim, someone saw your blog and rushed over got all of the black-cover composition notebooks at my local Big Lots. But I did get one.

I used to be a fan, of doing everything on computer, including jotting ideas. I figured, like the earlier poster, that it was easy to search for things later.

But the thing is, your brain tends to lop your idea-logging in the same category with the rest of the computer work you do, including the boring wordtracker stuff, or other tedious work. And somehow I’ve noticed how it affects how loosely I’m allowed to let ideas flow.

I love writing on paper – there’s about writing with the hand, and you made a good point about the connection between hand and brain. And it’s something that is SEPARATE from the keyboard.

It’s sad to think of how many people who viewed that particular response, and who just brushed quikcly over your reminder to everyone, that writing is something we all did as a kid when we had no scarcity principle conditioned into us, and we tapped into the creator within us, with abandon and bliss. This is so true.

Here’s that reminder again for everyone:

“PLUS, doing it in the manner I describe — on the medium I describe — takes one back to a time in younger years when more things were “possible” and we weren’t nearly as caught up in whether or not we could do them.” – J.E.

Thanks for the video blog entry.

Thanks for the advice. Just starting out and I’m already overloadeded w/emails from various gurus, most of which waste my time with their latest sales offers. I appreciate those like you that offer advice and content rather than just another sales offer.
I also appreciate the idea journal that I can use anytime of the day. It will help me stay more focused on what I really need to be doing instead of using valuable time thinking about how the new idea may/may not be better than the present idea.