Don’t Get Overwhelmed with Information Overload

Information overload can come in many forms. There is to much information from taking too many classes at school in one semester. Or maybe taking too many classes on the same basic subject from different teachers. There is the information you get from various news stations, all reporting the same basic news with their own unique twist.

And there is the information overload that comes from surfing the internet, reading email and all of the other various ways we “gather information” on a daily basis.

If you have been “researching” something for awhile you may have heard of something commonly referred to as analysis paralysis. Believe it or not there is such a thing as too much information.

The type of information I am specifically referring to is information on how to market your business.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a believer in education. In fact there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t have 20 tabs open in my browser, reading posts or watching videos on marketing tactics so I can see what is going on in the world. But if I spent hours and hours watching and reading and never DID anything with it, that would be a waste.

And if I didn’t have a basic foundation to start from I would very easily learn myself into a corner. I would be so busy trying to learn the best way to do something that I would do nothing. I would be so worried I was not doing the right thing first that I would again do nothing.

At a certain point you have to stop, take a deep breath and dive in head first.

One of the things we tell our students is to look at the material or the training completely. Try to start out by mainly following the teachings of one person. And then choose the thing that makes your creativity go crazy when you hear about it.Because that is the place to start.

Here is what I mean…

Last year we had two full day workshops that we put together. We held one or the other of them at least once a month all year long. In each workshop we taught in depth details about the what, why and how of about 4 marketing tactics. One was called “Social Media Extreme!” and the other was called “Marketing Yourself Online: Even If You Don’t Have a Website of Your Own“. Now these were each full day workshops like I said. We shoved a TON of information into each class.

And now they are both available as home study courses.

But one question was asked during every single class. And that was “Okay so I get it, but now where do I start?” The answer is “Think about the training. Was their one part of the day where as soon as you learned about it your brain went crazy? Was there one section where you suddenly had a bunch of ideas like I could do this, or this, or that? Then that is where you start!”

We told them to file away the other information (file it, not forget it ) and start with that one thing. Get it going. Start using that one tactic a minimum of weekly, preferably daily. Put it on your to do list or your calendar or in your planner, whatever you have to do to remember to do it. At first you will have to be reminded. At first it will take you longer than expected to complete that task each day. But eventually you will realize that you are just doing it and it is easy and you can’t really remember not doing it everyday.

Then it is time to add another task. It is time to open that file cabinet in your head and pull out the next bit of training that “spoke” to you and start the process over again.

By the KEY is to not get overwhelmed with all of the information available. Not get so busy learning, researching and looking for the “best” way to do something. You can have all of the information and knowledge in the world but if you don’t use that knowledge it does you no good at all.

So remember, close your eyes, take a deep breath, close the tabs on your browser, turn off the DVD on the TV and pick something (even if you use the eenie, meenie, minnie, mo game)…go on…get started…

(P.S. A great way to do this is by joining a 30 Day Blog Challenge )

About The Author:
Cindy Clemens is a mom, author, speaker, marketing consultant and Co-Founder of Your Marketing University. Her goal is to teach marketing in a simple easy to understand format that businesses can use to help gain marketing ideas & market their businesses to boost sales.

Are you marketing in sequence? Are you following a strategy or focusing on tactics? Claim your copy of our free “Small Business Marketing Roadmap Report” by my partner Ely Delaney to find out.