Digital Overwhelm: 4 Problems and How to Fix Them

Tyler Regehr is a 22-year-old entrepreneur and writer residing in Washington, D.C. He is the publisher of On Top The Cage where he encourages others to follow their passions by being themselves and ignoring the critics.

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The biggest problem with the Internet is the sheer volume of content. You could spend your entire life exploring the web without making a noticeable dent.

Here are four areas where you’ll run into problems and what you can do to fix them.

RSS Subscriptions

The problem: Information overwhelm and regurgitated ideas. You browse the web, stumble upon a compelling blog, click the neat little orange Subscribe button, and before you know it you’re subscribed to 20, 30, maybe 40 blogs. Next thing you know, you’re spending hours a day just bringing the Unread count back down to zero. All the while you find yourself constantly disappointed that most the blogs you’re subscribed to merely repeat one another and you’re no longer gaining any value from them.

The fix: Quality is better than quantity. To eliminate overwhelm and recycled conversations, only subscribe to blogs that produce well written, articulate, and original content. Narrow your choices down to those you would truly miss if you didn’t read every day. You’ll find 80% of the blogs you’re subscribed to are producing no real value. I’d recommend getting your subscription count to below 15–10 if possibly. I’m still working at this. Right now I’m subscribed to 12 blogs, but it can get as high as 15-17 depending on what cool new sites I’ve discovered.

Social Media

The problem: Overwhelm and overlap. Many social media sites accomplish the same things: you can post pictures on Flickr or Facebook or MySpace, or stream updates on Twitter or Facebook or Buzz. So on and so forth. Being on too many social media sites leads to overwhelm due to the constant flow of information, as well as overlap between sites as people make duplicate posts on each of their social media outposts.

The fix: Pick one or two which you’ll be most prevalent on. Pick a site where you’ll be most active and stick to it; most are capable of fulfilling whatever your need is. I currently use Twitter (mostly to share interesting links) and Facebook (for the Discussions area) for my blog and only Facebook for my personal life.

Bookmarks

The problem: There is an infinite amount of possibilities. There are so many interesting, informative, and useful sites out there that you could spend 24 hours a day for the rest of your life and not discover them all. We quickly find ourselves overwhelmed with the amount of content on the web and end up paralyzed trying to keep up with it all.

The fix: Pick one site per need. This is best explained by using myself as an example. I use the Daily Beast’s Cheat Sheet to stay on top of the latest news stories. It’s a cool little page where they write a small blurb about each of the top 30 or so stories of the day. It’s super easy to skim and is a quick read. I’m a huge sports fan so, naturally, I use ESPN to get my sports fix. Google is my homepage from which I can access my RSS Reader as well as everything pertinent to my blog. Find a website that fills a need and stick to it. You don’t need to visit CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC to get all sides of every story. I only have eight sites bookmarked that I visit regularly. I also have a folder titled “Miscellaneous” where I bookmark sites that are used sparingly.

Email

The problem: Major time drain and junk mail. I’m not sure if there is a scientific study out on this, but I’d venture a guess that email is the number one time drain online. It can be used as a legitimately productive tool, or it can also be used as a means of procrastination. With all the spam and junk mail we receive, it’s nearly impossible to navigate our way towards what’s important anyway.

The fix: Multiple email accounts. I know this is contradictory for an article about simplifying your digital life, but hear me out. I have three email accounts: one for my personal life, one for my blog, one for junk mail. I mostly use my personal account to give to family and friends and for receiving online bill notifications. The blog account is used for anything related to the blog: contacting me through the blog, commenting, accounts that have to do with the blog, etc. I give the junk email out to sites that aren’t important, that I’ll use sparingly, and that I’m sure will send plenty of spam. On top of that, I use Apple’s Mail program through which only my personal and blog accounts are managed. I don’t need to be constantly reminded of the junk email I receive, so that account hang out in the ether, and I only check it every few weeks.

The Internet can become a huge waste of time if you let it. For everything you do online, determine what it is you’re trying to accomplish. Eliminate everything that’s unnecessary and focus only on what moves your goals forward.

What do you do to reduce overwhelm and keep your digital life organized? I would love to hear your  strategies.

Photo by …storrao…