Do you like to be well informed? Do you like to be in on everything? Perhaps you feel like you can’t miss out on anything. I’m not just talking about FOMO here. I’m talking about the pressures you might feel about what’s going on at work, maybe with a volunteer group you belong to. Maybe you’re a news junkie or you like to follow celebrities. Perhaps like me, you just have an insatiable curiosity.
Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, except . . . it’s probably contributing to your burnout. Why? Because this appetite for information requires time and energy to process. One of the most effective ways to beat burnout is to simply reduce the number of daily decisions you make. One strategy for doing so is to become “selectively ignorant.” The more information your brain has to process, the more blood glucose it uses to do so. The more it uses, the more tired and unfocused you feel.
The world exploded with information with the introduction of digital technology. Older individuals remember the effort it took to research information for work, for a college paper, perhaps to develop a hobby. If you wanted to find out about what was happening in the sports world or with certain celebrities, you read about it in a newspaper or watched the evening news. If you have come of age in the past 30 years, you’ve been immersed in information from birth. Older individuals have learned to adapt to this. But regardless of age, the brain reacts the same way. It still has to process every bit of information you see and hear. Ever feel tired after immersing yourself in a particular topic? That’s the reason why.
Researchers have found that 95% of those conducting online searches never used to go past the first page. In response, Google has now adjusted the first search page results from 10 entries per page to more than 100. This has just increased the temptation to scroll and scroll the way you do on social media. These hundreds of micro decisions are draining your energy every day.
So how do you manage this information onslaught? Begin by developing a habit of asking, “Do I really need to know that?” when scanning online searches, social media, and news sites. Remember that pretty much every post, link, and image is designed to get you to click on it. With few exceptions, titles and subjects are designed to be “click bait.” Instead of informing you there was an accident on the freeway, the headline reads “9 People and one Dog Hospitalized After Gruesome Wreck.” Of course, eight of those nine people sustained a couple of cuts and were released. The dog had to go to the hospital because she belonged to one of the people! Bottom line, turn on your crap detector full blast when seeing this stuff and you’ll spend a lot less time getting consumed with useless information.
Second, put a clock to it. I have been reading the Wall Street Journal for more than 40 years. I pride myself on being well informed about business since I work with a number of industries. But I can also get lost in fascinating yet irrelevant details if I’m not careful. So I give myself a maximum of 30 minutes to read the Journal every day, typically over lunch. Knowing that I am “on the clock” compels me to focus on the stories that count rather than information that simply fills my mind.
Finally, stop worrying about knowing everything. Think about the last time you asked someone a question and they said, “I don’t know, but I can find out.” Did you think any less of them because they did not have an immediate answer? Of course not! You don’t need to know what you need to know! If, sometime, you do need it, you can always look it up or ask someone. That’s what the best thinkers do. And they don’t suffer from burnout.