Information Overload 101

{3:54 minutes to read} Depending on which statistical analysis you’ve heard or read, the prevailing wisdom is that we 21st century, technology driven, heads down/hands poised on cell phones/tablets/computers generation, now absorb more information in one single day than our great, great, great grandparents did in their entire lifetimes! Wow. That’s a whole lotta, lotta, LOTTA stuff comin’ at us second by second, minute by minute – getting to our ancestor’s lifetime of information in one 24-hour period.

Yet, we don’t seem to think about it much. And if we do, we slough it off to “hey, that’s life in the fast lane.” We’re sort of like the proverbial frog placed in cold water as the heat is turned up to the boiling point. By the time that little froggy is cooked it’s too late to jump out of the pot.

A few weeks ago, my cell phone took its next to the last gasp and let me know it was time to pony up and upgrade. That wake-up call took the form of not being able to send or receive emails through my phone. “Arrrgggghh.” While I spent a few days hoping I could locate and fix the problem, it meant that when I was on the road, in transit, or anywhere else I had my phone with me… it was NIX on the emails.

After the initial freak out, I calmed down. In fact, I started to feel so relieved. It didn’t occur to me until I no longer could access those emails, how many times I check my phone during the day. At a red light, in the parking lot, at the checkout line at the supermarket. You get the picture. We all do it despite our promises to ourselves to stop checking, checking, checking. After a short while, ahhhh, it felt so good to let it go. It’s not like I wasn’t able to get to my computer any time soon. What was an hour or so – even a little longer?

This brings me to how this relates to mediation. (You knew I was going to get there eventually, right?) Okay here it is. When I work with my clients in mediation, I used to give them “The List” at the beginning of the mediation. This is the list of things to start to pull together for the work we’re going to be doing. Most of my clients are already feeling overwhelmed as it is and this “homework” just puts them over the edge. Information overload!

So I stopped doing that. We now take things one step at a time, and as we progress through each stage of the process I let them know what they need to bring in for the next session to make it productive. For those who want “The List” – I’ll provide it. But in my experience, it’s kind of like checking those emails constantly. Just how much information can you, or do you even want to, absorb at one time? In mediation – the choice is yours.