Is Foraging for Information Stressing You Out?

“Knowledge is power,” you’ve heard it. You may even act on it.

But is it true? Is that new bit of information going to put you ahead, at the top of the game, in the winning zone? Or is it going to stress you out, send you spinning out of control? Is that one more thing—the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back. Only this time, it’s your back!

How can you gather the information you really need?

Are our habits for gathering information similar to the way we gather food? Think about it. When you’re hungry, are you really particular or are you just ready to grab something? When you’re full, isn’t there a point where the same morsel that excited you, doesn’t really matter so much. The thrill is gone. The magnetism is over. Isn’t it similar with new information?

How can you develop a new and strategic information gathering habit? Here are four principles to help you get the information nourishment you really need.

Field tested principles for getting the information that you need

Principle One: Use the Pyramid

No, not the food pyramid. I’m talking about the information pyramid. This is really where you can see at a glance what’s happens to data and information.

Draw a triangle for yourself. Now add horizontal lines for each layer.

At the base of the pyramid is data. Input. Little bits of stuff but it’s not information yet. The next layer up is information. One layer higher is knowledge. And at the peak, wisdom. As move up the pyramid, the value to you increases.

What happens between each layer of the pyramid? You get involved! What do you have to do to turn data into information into knowledge and ultimately into wisdom? You have to get involved, define what’s valuable, engage with it, and experience it.

As you look at your own information strategies, sort out where you are spending your time. Are you hanging out in data gathering? You know what that feels like—the search for more. Just one more website. Another book. Another magazine—gathering the data.

Are you spending time only in the information zone—this can be more specific, focused research that ties in with something closer to your own experience. Also potentially a vast zone. Watch out for this one as it can be compelling to continue to gather information, but it can leave you empty handed—with many theories that you haven’t tested and shaped for yourself.
As you move up from information to knowledge, the key change is your experience. You experiment. You apply the information to real life situations. You learn what works and what doesn’t. It’s no longer distant information. You own it. It’s yours and you know it. But don’t stop there.

Continue up to wisdom. Keep examining because here, higher on the pyramid it’s immensely more valuable. Your experience, insight and understanding have mellowed knowledge. You can speak now from the depth of yourself, the knowledge is ripe and purely yours.

Use this pyramid to find out where you’re spending your time and energy.

Principle Two: Be ruthless: Does it matter to you?

In his wonderful book on web-useability, Don’t Make me Think, Steve Krug quotes a favorite passage from a Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet where…”Dr. Watson is shocked to learn that Sherlock Holmes doesn’t know that the earth travels around the sun. Given the finite capacity of the human brain, Holmes explains, he can’t afford to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones: “What the deuce is it to me? You say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”

To put this into practice, keep asking yourself, “Does this matter to me?” With this sword of decision, you’ll keep focusing on that matters most to you in your life and your work.

Principle Three: Identify the investment: What’s it worth to you?

This is the information equivalent of the calorie count. How much energy does it take to get the information? What kind of value will it give you? Instead of prescribed calorie tables, you can use a value equation to define how much effort and time it will take to get the information. Again, this is not high-speed calculus, it’s an effort in/value out scale.

Ask yourself, “What’s it worth?” Make an estimate of the effort and time you have to put in. How much effort is it to gather the information? How much time will it take to get it? And ultimately, what’s the value to you?

Principle Four: Take smaller bites– Keep the cycle small

Just like tasting a particularly delicious chocolate, savor the information you gather. Keep experiencing it in small bites. Investigate, capture, record and reflect. Each round of the cycle keeps you focused on what you are doing.

Yes, that means slowing down. Slowing down to taste what you are doing at every stage of the cycle. Investigate could be reading books, magazines, websites or research papers. Make time for that wide, expansive activity. Then, capture—actually notice what is valuable for you to “capture.” Notice how this is more targeting. Record—either in writing, organizing and filing, journaling and/or mapping out the information. And Reflect—where can you apply this? How can you use it in your own work and life?

Gathering information is nourishing. It’s rewarding. As you forage for information that matters to you, you’ll get the nourishment you want because you’ll pick the information that matters to you!

Strategic Storyboarding

How can you gather the information you really need?

Principle One: Use the Pyramid

Principle Two: Be ruthless: Does it matter to you?

Principle Three: Identify the investment: What’s it worth to you?

Principle Four: Take smaller bites– Keep the cycle small

If you’re saying, “I could have used this yesterday!” you’ll find more easy-to-implement tools to use today in the just released e-book, SOS.

In SOS: Stress Options and Solutions you’ll find practical tips and techniques

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