Latest / Silver FM 100.6 / Free yourself from 'information overload'

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Free yourself from 'information overload' · Silver FM 100.6

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  Speaker 1: The midterms are coming, and if you think the news
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  Speaker 1: why summer is a perfect time to make sure your
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• 0:25
  Speaker 2: My internet went out this weekend.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Oh I'm sorry.
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  Speaker 4: It was actually possibly a blessing. It went out like
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  Speaker 4: it can't be fixed until tomorrow, so truly nothing, nothing
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  Speaker 4: could be done.
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  Speaker 3: Oh like out out.
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know what happened. It was out since
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  Speaker 4: Saturday morning. So suddenly this spigot was turned off of
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  Speaker 4: information right Like I was like, what will become of me?
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: Like my home suddenly seemed like a much different place too,
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  Speaker 4: you know.
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  Speaker 3: Less avoid where you park your meat bag so that
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: you can enter the vortex of your phone and other
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: virtual worlds.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: That was Manuche Samarodi, host of Ted Radio Hour, and
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: I'm Mary el Sagara. You're listening to life Kid. So
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: I was telling Manush about my analog weekend and it
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  Speaker 4: was like, oh, usually I have the TV on as
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  Speaker 4: a companion, or usually I'll also have my laptop in
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  Speaker 4: my lap and be like just browsing, just browsing things
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  Speaker 4: while I'm looking online.
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  Speaker 2: And now I can't do any of that.
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  Speaker 4: So quickly I took down my prose translation of Shakespeare.
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  Speaker 3: No, come on, you did not, I did? You were like,
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  Speaker 3: if we're going analog, we are going all analog.
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  Speaker 4: All the way in. Yeah, and uh, I started reading Othello.
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  Speaker 4: It didn't take long for me to fill in the
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  Speaker 4: blanks and look for more information. But what was nice
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  Speaker 4: is it was a limited type of information. It's like
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  Speaker 4: from this book, I can get information about Shakespeare.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm impressed that you still have Shakespeare on
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  Speaker 3: your shelves, first of all, and that you knew where
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  Speaker 3: it was. And did you find that you were able
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  Speaker 3: to sort of relax with the book in a way
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  Speaker 3: that perhaps you might not have been had your phone
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  Speaker 3: been sitting there pinging alongside you.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, there wasn't too much for me and my partner
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  Speaker 4: to do, so I was actually reading him Shakespeare.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, that's really romantic.
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  Speaker 2: It was really sweet.
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  Speaker 3: Also, it means that you weren't doing something that you know,
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  Speaker 3: researchers call that where you're multimedia tasking. Yeah, like switching
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  Speaker 3: from screen to different screen to another screen if you're
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  Speaker 3: chilling and that's fun for you, great. Just don't think
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  Speaker 3: that you're actually taking in information properly from any one
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  Speaker 3: of the screens that you are flitting to and fro from.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: There's a chapter of the book where you talk about
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  Speaker 4: avoiding information overload. Yeah, and that feels really important to
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  Speaker 4: me in my personal life because I feel like I'm
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  Speaker 4: almost getting sick on information, Like I'm a little nauseous
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  Speaker 4: on information.
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  Speaker 3: You know, so much candy?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's too much? Y'all ever feel like this?
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  Speaker 4: Lucky for us, Minush has done a lot of reporting
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  Speaker 4: on well being in the digital age, and she has.
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  Speaker 2: Advice for us.
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  Speaker 4: On this episode of Life Kit, we talk about a
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: chapter of her new book, Body Electric, and it's all
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  Speaker 4: about information overload. How would you define information overload?
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  Speaker 3: This is something that I too, have struggled with immensely.
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  Speaker 3: So I really went down a rabbit hole to try
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  Speaker 3: to understand what was going on in my brain? Was
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  Speaker 3: this actually something new? And was there anything bad about
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  Speaker 3: trying to get all this information into my brain? And
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  Speaker 3: it turns out the word for it is infomania, sort
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  Speaker 3: of compulsion to take in more information. And it goes
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  Speaker 3: back centuries to the thirteenth century, and there was worries
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  Speaker 3: that people would try to put too much information into
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  Speaker 3: their brains.
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  Speaker 4: I'm picturing like Belle in the library in the castle
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  Speaker 4: with the beast, so many.
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  Speaker 3: Books, so many books, and could I actually because what
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  Speaker 3: I felt like I was doing, and maybe this sounds
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  Speaker 3: familiar to you, is like, sure, I could read all
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  Speaker 3: of these things, or watch all these things, or take.
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  Speaker 5: It all in.
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  Speaker 3: But then I was like, what am I actually doing
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  Speaker 3: with it? Like do I remember what I've read? Am
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  Speaker 3: I making connections between them? Am I processing it in
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  Speaker 3: a way that it's like getting stored in my memory?
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  Speaker 3: And also I'm therefore applying it in my life. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: And it just made me realize like, well, no, because
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  Speaker 3: I'm not a computer. My brain is not infinite with
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  Speaker 3: ram and I can't reboot to like when things go scrambled.
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  Speaker 3: So for me it turned into sort of an understanding
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  Speaker 3: of biologically and cognitively and physiologically over the last ten years,
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  Speaker 3: like what is the human body capable of? But I
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  Speaker 3: think we need to be smarter about how we take
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  Speaker 3: it in, how we synthesize it, and what our expectations
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  Speaker 3: are in terms of actually using all of this information.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I wonder if there are any symptoms of information overload,
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  Speaker 4: like what to watch out for when you've been taking
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  Speaker 4: in too much today.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So this was again a while back, but there was
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  Speaker 3: a podcast that I did where we asked people what
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  Speaker 3: their symptoms were, and some of the things they mentioned
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: were the eye twitch, inability to sleep because you feel
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  Speaker 3: like your head is spinning and you've been looking at
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  Speaker 3: screens for so long that you can't just sort of
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  Speaker 3: like settle down. Also feeling like you can't concentrate. Having
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: spoken to researchers like Gloria Mark at UC Irvine who
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: have studied how we switch our attention, one of the
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  Speaker 3: things that she has seen is that if you have
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  Speaker 3: an hour where you're switching from screen to screen and
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  Speaker 3: checking you know X, and then going over to Instagram
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  Speaker 3: and going over to email, switching, switching, even if the
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: next hour everything sort of calms down and you want
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: to sit down with like a single article or something
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  Speaker 3: like that, you will start switching tasks yourself. She observed
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  Speaker 3: that in the lab that people will suddenly look up
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: and go to their email, and she estimated that up
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  Speaker 3: to around half of the interruptions that happened to us
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: during the day actually are because of self interruptions. So
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  Speaker 3: even if nobody else is interrupting you, you will start
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  Speaker 3: interrupting yourself. You will start switching task trying to get
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  Speaker 3: in information in different ways. It takes time to sort
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  Speaker 3: of slow down Marinade, get into the rhythm that is
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  Speaker 3: required for reading something carefully, cautiously, and just sort of
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  Speaker 3: juice it for what it's worth.
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  Speaker 4: Take away one. Some signs that you might be experiencing
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  Speaker 4: information overload. Your eyes start twitching, you're having trouble sleeping,
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  Speaker 4: you feel like your head is spinning with words and
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  Speaker 4: numbers and you can't settle down. Also, if you're having
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: trouble concentrating, or you keep interrupting yourself. Many of these
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  Speaker 4: signs are anecdotal and yours might be different.
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  Speaker 2: The point is pay.
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  Speaker 4: Attention to your body. It's easy to forget they have
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: one when you've been glued to a screen all day.
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  Speaker 4: When we're back, Minusia and I talk through what to
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: do if you are dealing with information overload.
• 7:40
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• 8:02
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  Speaker 1: It seems like everything is being called a recession indicator
• 8:29
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• 9:15
  Speaker 4: I think part of the reason that I end up
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: with information overload is because I feel like the default
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  Speaker 4: is to be on your phone all the time and
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: to be just guzzling information from it even when you're
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  Speaker 4: not intending to.
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  Speaker 2: So I'd love to walk through some solutions for that.
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  Speaker 3: Let's do it.
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  Speaker 4: One of them you talk about is to prioritize.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's not so boring though. Yeah, let's call it
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  Speaker 3: set an information goal is how I like to think
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  Speaker 3: of it. I like to think of people thinking of
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  Speaker 3: themselves as information athletes and they have information goals. For example,
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: all that switching that we talked about, you're switching contexts right, like, oh,
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: you're looking at I is ebola still happening? That dog
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: is so cute? Oh, that looks like a delicious recipe.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: All of the switching context, right, It's like an emotional
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: roller coaster and it's exhausting and it's burning through your
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  Speaker 3: cognitive resources really fast. So you have to think about
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  Speaker 3: it this way. What is it that you want to
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: get out of the time that you are convening with
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  Speaker 3: your phone or with the Googles or wherever you go,
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: and if you can, as much as possible, try to
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: choose something that you want to get out of it.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: So if you are looking for something for dinner, great,
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  Speaker 3: that's your goal. You are going to go to trusted
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: sources like you know, places that you know have good recipes,
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: or an influencer who you love their stuff that they
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  Speaker 3: have and guess what, You've saved some of her stuff
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  Speaker 3: for exactly this occasion. Right, You're setting the goal to
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  Speaker 3: get the information and then once you've achieved it.
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  Speaker 2: Stop, Yeah, get in and get out.
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  Speaker 4: That's the change that I'm hoping to make to be
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  Speaker 4: more specific and intention about the information I take in
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  Speaker 4: because we only have this one life, right, Yeah, And
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  Speaker 4: it's like, why am I feeling my brain with stuff
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  Speaker 4: that I absolutely don't care about and turning that into
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: a job.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: It's so true. I'm turning it and the job is
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  Speaker 3: called being a human in the world. Yeah, we feel
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  Speaker 3: like it means consuming NonStop information about absolutely everything.
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  Speaker 2: Takeaway too.
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  Speaker 4: One way to prevent information overload is to set information goals.
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  Speaker 4: Think about why you're opening your phone or logging into
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  Speaker 4: your computer. What information are you hoping to take in?
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  Speaker 4: What info do you really not need? Once you've met
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: your goal for the moment or the day, stop, Do
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  Speaker 4: you think it helps to try to ask yourself why
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  Speaker 4: am I going on my phone right now?
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  Speaker 3: Yes? And that is not easy because there is like
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  Speaker 3: what I don't know a tenth of a second between
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: that moment of like yeah, before you gonna look because
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: I'm bored, gonna look because didn't I need to check something,
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  Speaker 3: Gonna look because I actually need something, Gonna look because
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  Speaker 3: that's what I always do the minute I have a
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  Speaker 3: free minute.
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  Speaker 5: Right.
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  Speaker 3: Think of it as like you don't walk into a room,
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  Speaker 3: you're like looking for something, and sometimes you're like, wait, almost,
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: why did I come in here? And then you're like, oh,
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: I can't remember you leave same thing has to be
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: with the phone. It is a big room, you know,
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: ultimately an infinite room, but like, go in, know what
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: you're there for, enjoy what you find, and get out.
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  Speaker 3: And if you don't, if you're like, actually I am
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: not looking for anything and that doesn't feel right to
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: you in the moment, then okay, put it down, walk.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Out of the room.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: You're making me wonder if time boxing is another good
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: solution for this, because often we have so many different
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: things and we can be getting pings from people on
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: Slack like hey can it?
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, can you do this? Can you do that?
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: Oh? Can you just answer this real quick? And at
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: least for me, I get overwhelmed by that. I'm like,
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: if I'm supposed to be writing, I really need to
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: be in the writing zone and like close slack completely
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: me too.
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  Speaker 3: Again, that comes back to the earlier discussion about deciding
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  Speaker 3: like that, switching between tasks and setting information goals. If
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: your goal is to generate information, that takes a lot
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: of cognitive work, and it means it's something that you
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: want to do earlier in the day because that is
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: when that part of your brain is firing, the one
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: that really is coming up with the creative ideas right,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: if you can set aside the time for the hardest,
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: deepest mental labor that you need to do earlier in
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: the day, and then you leave it till later when
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  Speaker 3: you're tired out and you're kind of just answering emails,
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: et cetera. That uses a different part of the brain
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: that goes on to sort of autopilot. That is a
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: more sort of neurologically beneficial way to structure your day.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: But you know, you're also dealing with teams and coworkers
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: and dogs that need to get walked, and your mom
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: wants to ask you a quick question, and coworkers that
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: only have time between eleven and one to talk to
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: you about something else. And so it is that constant
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: balancing of like who needs what and what do I
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: need to get this done, if I'm going to meet
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: my deadline, if I'm going to eventually cross this off
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: my list. I mean, I see some people pretty successfully
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: use the little icons and slack to indicate like not available,
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: I'm on a call, don't take it personally when I
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: don't respond to you immediately. Somebody said to me the
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: other day, You train people around you how they should
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: respond to you, and I thought that was really funny,
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: and I thought about it. She only responds to emails
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: the next day, and I know never to expect any
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: quick response from her because she has I know her
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: rhythm right.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but then there's also maintaining your own boundaries around that,
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: Like if you put stop and then someone messages you
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: and you answer them right away even though you don't
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: need to answer them right away, then your system is broke.
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: Game over.
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, take away three. Minimize task switching. You can try
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: time boxing, where you say, Okay, I'm going to be
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: writing from ten am to noon, and then i'll eat lunch,
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: and then i'll be available to chat with my team
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: from noon to one, and then i'll listen to a
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: podcast mix. The details will change depending on your job.
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: When you timebox, you can also signal your availability to
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: co workers. Block certain times on your calendar even if
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: you're not in meetings. If you use slack, put up
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: a status that explains what you're doing in person. You
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: could close your door if you have a door or
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: an office yeah.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Most of us don't. Or you could make a little
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: flag or a sign.
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: Red means heads down, yellow means approach but only with
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: something small or pressing, or if you have a little
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: piece of cookie that you want to share with me.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Green means talk to me please. We'll have more life.
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: Kit after the break.
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  Speaker 4: So these are interruptions from other people, but you also
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: say that a lot of us are just interrupting ourselves. Yes,
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: how do we try to not interrupt ourselves?
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: I love this idea that I'm like, hey, you what
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: don't bother me? Wait?
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: No you?
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: I see it in myself right And for me it's
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: about making a plan, because why do you interrupt yourself? Well,
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: a like we talked about earlier, if you get into
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: sort of the zone where you're constantly switching, switching, switching,
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: your brain and gets used to that rhythm and then
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: continues to want to be in that rhythm. So what
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: it's looking for is something to hook on to.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: So for me, I am obsessed with my to do list,
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: but it's multiple things. It is the to do list,
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: not only is the minute I think of something, is
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: it jotted down? Because technically you can only hold about
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: four to seven things in your brain that you have
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: to remember to do. Then I prioritize. There's color coding
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: as to what are the things that absolutely have to
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: get done, and then if they're really important, they get
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: slotted into the calendar, right like this is actually when
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: you are going to fill that And I try to
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: have my calendar be filled with things that need to
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: be done, not because I like to be busy, but
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: because that way I don't have to think throughout the day.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: It's ten thirty.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: What did I decide I was going to do next?
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: From now until twelve, I am writing great, I can
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: complete it, I can feel successful and then move on
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: through my day. It's about really thinking through like where
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: am I going to be? When does that work with me?
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: With my colleagues? Am I going to need a snack
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: at that point? Be real, trying to think of your
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: own rhythms, your colleagues rhythm, and making sure that you've
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: give yourself time and space to do it, and then
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: deciding like, and if these things don't make it onto
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: the list or they don't get done, that's fine, they
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: can roll over.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Take Away four.
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: Try to stop interrupting yourself when you find that you
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: just abruptly looked up from a task in order to
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: check Instagram or your email, for instance. Pause, decide if
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: you actually need to switch tasks at this moment. You
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: talk about multitasking in the book. It reminded me of
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: when I was in high school. I used to run
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: track and cross country, and I was also I just
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: was studying all the time. So I would literally be
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: doing sit ups with my textbook right above me, or
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: I would be on the treadmill, come on the textbook,
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: or in the shower with the clear shower curtain holding
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: the textbook or the notebook outside the shower to get
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: a little more studying.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: Oh girl, you were serious about high school. Okay, I
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: was very serious about it. I was very serious about it.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: But now that I have this smartphone and the laptop
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: and the TV and everything all at once, it's like, yeah,
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: I feel like, I'm especially inclined to try to do
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: everything at the same time.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: Multitasking is actually just switching between tasks very rapidly, and
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: every time you switch a task, you use glucose, right Like,
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: that is what happens. And every time you use glucose
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: in your brain, you're burning through a finite amount of it,
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: as well as the oxygen that it takes to burn
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: said glucose in your brain. Your brain is a beautiful system.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: It has the ability to clear out the CO two
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: that's the remnants from burning all that glucose and oxygen.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: But at a certain point it starts to build up
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: there if you overload yourself, right, So, that is when
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: you start to feel tired and foggy, mentally fatigued, maybe
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: even feel it in your body. And so what is
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: the best way to regain your ability to focus. It's
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: to take a break. It's to move. Not take a
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: break on your phone because that's burning glucose again, but
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: to literally get up and walk around the room. That
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: stimulates your muscles. Your muscles can then pump in more blood,
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: which has oxygen and glucose back up to your brain
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: so that you can go back to doing all that
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: task switching that you're doing. But you know, if you
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: think about it, like that moment in the afternoon where
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: you're like, oh, I just really need chocolate so bad, Well,
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: of course you do, like literally you are light on
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: glucose in your brain. That makes total sense. But if
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: you take a walk, you actually will refresh your cognitive
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: capacity and of course protect your physical health as well.
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and standing up and doing just a little bit
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: of movement, it gives you a sort of reset.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: Right totally, And it doesn't have to be burpies or
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: sprints or anything crazy. So in the clinical trial that
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: we did, it's five minutes of walking at two miles
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: per hour. Two miles per hour of walking, so you
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: can like go get the mail, or go pick up
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: all the dirty glasses that are in the apartment and
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: bring them to the kitchen, or vacuum the kitchen because
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: boy does it need it. Or if you're at the office,
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: go refill your water bottle and take one extra lap around.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: Just that reset is not only good for your circulation.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: What it's been shown to do is if you take
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: those often enough, it also improves your mood, your ability
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: to focus. We saw drops of up to twenty eight
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: percent less fatigue levels. Like imagine ending the day feeling
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: actually good and not drained and exhausted. Did and really
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: it takes four to five five minute breaks throughout the
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: day to get those benefits.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: Take away five Beware the double or triple screening. It
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: can burn you out on information quick and when you
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: do start to feel that burnout, get up and move around.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: These are all good tips.
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: There was a quote I really liked in the book,
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: by the way, It's like your brain is a part
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: of your body that you need to take care of.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think you know, like you said, other
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: professions like a surgeon is certainly going to pay close
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: attention to how they care for themselves. Pilots can't work
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: a certain number of hours, And so why are we
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: like us information workers. Why don't we think of ourselves
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: the same way, Like I am only optimizing and able
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: to do the work I need to do for a
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: certain number of hours before I need a break. I
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: would also say that, like, it's not just a nice metaphor,
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: Like we're going into this era of AI where human
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: judgment is going to be the thing that we are
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: learning the most. If anything, information overload is going to
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: get even worse. And so instead of collecting information, what
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: we're going to be doing is parsing that information. Is
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: it good information? Is it misinformation? Is it oh wait,
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: that sentence actually makes no sense kind of information? Right,
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: it's as constant judgments that we're going to have to
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: be making and then deciding do I use that information
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: in some way? So judgment, decision making, discernment, these are
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: the human skills that we are going to be leaning on,
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: I think, even more heavily as we go forward. And
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: so we need to make sure we treat our brain
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: with the respect that it deserves, because otherwise relying on
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: the floor scrolling and not even looking at what we're
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: scrolling out.
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, menush, thank you so much for this.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: It was my absolute pleasure. I am now going to
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: go for a walk and think about all the things
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: we discussed. Yay, yay, all right, folks, time for a recap.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Take away one.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: Some signs that you might be experiencing information overload. Your
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: eye starts twitching, you have trouble sleeping, You feel like
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: your head is spinning with words and numbers and you
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: can't settle down. Also, if you're having trouble concentrating or
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: you keep interrupting yourself.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Take Away two.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: Set information goals. Think about why you're opening your phone
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: or logging onto your computer. What information are you hoping
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: to get out of it? What information do you really
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: not need right now. Once you've met your goal, stop
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: take away three. Minimize task switching and try time boxing.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: Also signal your availability to coworkers with your calendar with
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: a status on Slack with a closed door.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Take Away four.
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: Try to stop interrupting yourself. When you do feel the
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: urge to say, stop what you're doing and just go
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: on social media, move your body instead and take away five.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: Beware the double or triple screening, and when you do
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: it and your brain gets tired again, try moving. If
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: you love life Kit and you want even more, follow
• 25:10
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• 25:13
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• 25:16
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• 25:20
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• 25:21
  Speaker 4: You can find those by following at NPR Lifekit. This
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: episode of Life Kit was produced by Margaret Serino. Our
• 25:28
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• 25:35
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• 25:38
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• 25:43
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• 25:47
  Speaker 4: I'm Mariel Sagara, Thanks for listening.
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• 26:13
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