Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Is Information Really Power?
When I was young there was an idea that information was power. To that end smart, efficient people employed nifty cutting tools and clipping services to gather that information into files, binders and books. This was time- and space-consuming, but it seemed worth it- because then this ephemeral information from newspapers and magazines had been captured and categorized. Even today, in the age of Pinterest, I still have many clients, who try to capture information, as though by having the piece of paper, they possess that knowledge. But I’m dubious.
Is information power? From a professional organizer’s perspective, it often seems that too much information is just that: too much. When information is so copious, so bountiful you can’t keep up with the influx from newspapers, periodicals, the Internet and stuff your friends post on their Facebook pages, then you can’t keep up with sorting it, digitally or physically! And it’s lost in that magic black hole of good intentions. So what is the point? The truth, dears, is that information is just like sugar; it was something that was hard for our predecessors to get, so it became highly valued, but now is cheap and even unhealthy in its plentitude.
In BLINK author Malcolm Gladwell makes the point that sometimes too much information overwhelms us and clouds our judgment. I find that BLINK is really about decision making, which I have come to see as a major stumbling block for many of my clients. Often the easy access to huge amounts of information, whether on the computer or on paper, can be debilitating. People feel that “research” is just a click away. Doctors, shredders and cell phone plans are vetted endlessly. The Internet is a perfectionist’s playground and sadly, anyone’s Waterloo.
So how can you limit your information? I’ve shared with many of you that I only receive the Sunday, New York Times. I savour the paper all week, and 15 minutes of NPR in the morning tells me what I need to know about what is going on in the world on any given day. Limit your Internet surfing. Much of the so-called information out there is just advertising; and even good information changes so quickly nowadays that what you carefully downloaded last week may soon be obsolete.
So, sometimes it is a question of faith. People have anxiety about letting go of things, (even when I prove to them that I can find the same data on the computer faster than they can access a paper file). Sometimes people think that by letting go of that issue of Consumer Reports or that editorial from the New York Times, they will never ‘possess’ the knowledge that is in those pages. In these cases, I try to cultivate an attitude of faith: the universe is bountiful, there will always be more. Or, for the more cynical clients –even newspapers recycle stories.
Here’s the good news and the bad news: Information is not be as valuable as it once was. Time, your time, is the commodity here. Safeguard it. So the next time you want to note something to reference, either an article your zillionth bookmark to your search-engine, just scrunch it up or hit delete. Then chant with me: easy come, easy go.