FXP @ Tazz One

It is without a doubt one of the sneakiest and craftiest moves in a war like no other that has gone before it on this planet.

You are under attack - continuously, without you even realizing it.

Your Opponent? Information!

Facebook updates, twitter feeds, rss feeds, text messages and email messages the weapons of choice. Unfortunately both, used by all of us and attacking all of us at such an unprecedented rate that most of us are drowning in the attack without even realizing it.

Technology in purest form was supposed to free us all from the shackles of having to live and work through this life the way that we used to. Instead most of us find ourselves still having to go into the office eight to ten hours a day and are being deluged with the very technology that was supposed to help our quality of our life.

Of course switching off is not really an option for most of us - you may as well just quit the workforce if that is the case.

However, there are certain forms of ammunition that you can incorporate into your war strategy that may alleviate some of the casualties of this war and perhaps bring it back under control with you, the human back in charge of the technological information beast.

Let us begin with:

Priorities
The most effective use of prioritization is to learn how to prioritize your prioritization's!

To begin with, ensure that you have clear goals in mind. Without them you will quickly lose your way and be consumed by the information beast.

Like any other task or achievement in life that you wish to attain, learn to visualize, conceptualize and have a clear vision of where the final destination lies.

Remember, if you cannot articulate your final goal in a matter of 60 seconds then you do not really have a clear understanding of where you want to be at that point.

A simple to-do list to kick start your brain in the morning is all it takes to ensure that you achieve your goals.

Email
Time to take charge!

Think about this one carefully.

How many of us must log in to our email accounts to see what messages are waiting for us as the very first thing you do in the morning? I would wager most!

For some reason it appears that our brains are hard-wired to not deal with uncertainty very well and with that in mind, we must get the information that is waiting for us in our inbox as the very first thing - every day.

It is time to tame this information beast! Fortunately, it is not that hard to do.

Email is a great communication tool and most people out there may well disagree with this, however you do NOT need to answer every email you receive within 5 minutes.

If there is a great dilemma or urgent support required then I would wager large sums of money that the people involved will not be taking the time to write things down in an email.

Best believe that these people will be directly on the phone to you.

Learn to prioritize how you check your inbox and make it a habit of choice. Perhaps only check it once in a set period of time.

Obviously if your position within your company of employ states that you must be logged into your inbox to manage incoming mail then you will not be able to do the above, as for the rest of us, choose wisely!

Knowledge Is Power

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree that knowledge is power.

The difference these days is that a lot of people feel that they must have every little piece of information regarding every little piece of everything in their lives before they can even make a decision!

It is time to start truly delegating again. You need only get brief outlines and briefings to ensure that your own mind is working at achieving the end goal of the project.

Do not allow yourself to get inundated and involved in every little decision that needs to be made - you might as well sack everyone else and do the work yourself.

It is tempting to think that having every piece of information will make for better decisions but alas this has not proven to be the case.

Switching Off

I know that this one is very impractical for most of us. I do believe however, that it can be achieved.

Your brain needs silence and recovery time to be at its most creative and useful.

Learn to switch off from the information attack once in a while to get the creative juices happening and allow your brain to actually synthesize and analyze the information the it is being bombarded with.

At the end of day it is not the information that you receive that will help you achieve but rather how you choose to use that information to your benefit.