I distinctly remember the first time I visited Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. When I walked to the rim of the crater and gazed out across the lake in the center, it was visually overwhelming. I couldn’t get my head around what I was seeing. It was too beautiful; too vast. It was simply too much to take in.

The world is awash in information. So why do so many people seem clueless today? Precisely because we have so much information that it becomes difficult to digest it. Information overload, also known as infobesity or information anxiety, refers to the difficulty in understanding an issue and making decisions when faced with too much information. It’s a state of being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data and information available.

In his book, “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload,” neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin highlights the problem this deluge of information has on modern society: We are expected to make decisions faster and more often every day. How can we screen out excess information and effectively process what’s relevant in a world where the sea of information is constantly expanding?

Levitin explains the attentional awareness system, basically how your brain keeps you safe while walking or driving without taking in every detail of every car and building you pass along the way. He also describes the cost of multi-tasking.

Information overload is stressful. Information overload was cited as one of the most frequent stressors by 22.5% of respondents in a representative German sample. The COVID-19 pandemic can be seen as a catalyst for these developments, and it seems likely that the resulting increased use of mobile working patterns, virtual meetings and collaborative digital software will be permanent.

Every day, the problem gets worse as we are pulled into LinkedIn conversations, distracted by Tik Toks and preoccupied by the latest on our Instagram and Facebook feeds. It is hard to discern what actually matters and what doesn’t.

Not all the blame should be heaped on technology. Ultimately, sorting through this information is your job and you need to train yourself to filter out the static and focus on meaningful messages. What you cannot do is throw up your hands and give up or say that there’s just too much information so you’re going to ignore it all.

It’s a shame, because our access to useful information continues to increase as well. We just need to figure out what matters and what doesn’t.

It angers me when people tell me they don’t have time to listen to industry podcasts or read industry publications and research. Hogwash. We all have time for professional development. And if you feel you don’t, perhaps it’s time to audit what you are spending time doing otherwise.

It doesn’t take long to read the latest issue of officeinsight or viewpoint magazine, yet people unsubscribe and tell us they don’t have time, even though the information found in those publications can help you do your job better. The same is true for industry podcasts and research papers. You can’t afford to not keep up to date on your profession and what’s going on in the industry you are a part of.

Here’s something that might help: I recently looked at the email I was receiving (and it was too much), so I actively began unsubscribing from the emails that didn’t really matter to me. I don’t need to know when Levi’s jeans go on sale, so I clicked the unsubscribe button. I enjoy the New York Times Cooking section, but I don’t need daily recipes sent to my inbox. I found that getting rid of all the emails I don’t really need reduced the amount of time I spend sorting through them. I’m spending less time on junk email and more time on the information and emails that really matter.