As creatives in this info era, it’s hardly uncommon to suffer from information overwhelm. If you’re anything like me, the constant influx of TMI can leave you stuck on stupid trying to figure out what to do with all of it. Like, where to begin?

Well, I was in a bit of a rut trying to get a blog post done, myself, when I did a little brainstorming to try to get myself on task and I came up with these four steps to help get those wheels spinning when you’re paralyzed with information overload.

1. Detox
   Sometimes you have to just stop taking stuff in. You’ve got to drown out the other voices cluttering your mental space to make room for your own. There are so many things in this world fighting for your attention, so sometimes you’ve just got to throw up the deuces to the outside world (especially social media) and focus on what’s inside of you. When you have all this stimuli berating your senses constantly, it can be difficult to organize your thoughts. So, take a break from social media, going out, ride in silence if you have to. Just get in the zone.
2. Minimize
   Embrace minimalism in as many areas of your life as you can. Declutter your space. Then, create boundaries for the content you consume. Instead of reading eeeeeeeevery blogger’s and infopreneuer’s tweets about everything, decide to only read the articles that are specifically dealing with your goals. Of course you need to have goals to do this, so go ahead and check out my post on setting and breaking down your goals for this year. ;)Give yourself some sort of time limit. Pick a day of the week, or a certain hour of the day to ingest content and then shut it down when time’s up. And lastly, allow yourself an amount of time (week, month, quarter,etc.) to SOLELY take in information without being responsible for taking action and applying it. After your time is up, pick ONE thing to start applying to your life and see how that works for you. Don’t try to add more until you see yourself making adequate progress in that one area. While you’re applying, do not allow yourself to take in more stuff. And while you’re taking in stuff, do not try to apply it immediately. Balance.
3. Explore
   Do something you haven’t done before to get your blood pumping. Break out of your routine and make your brain have to think differently about things. Shake it up a little bit. It can be like hitting a reset button on your fatigued mental. Treat yourself to an adventure to light that spark in you. It doesn’t have to be anything big either. The smallest things can trigger you and get you out of that funk. Legit, I bought Italian parsley for the first time the other day and I was way excited.
4. Get Creative
   We were all designed with the ability to create something. Whatever your thing is, get busy doing it. Stop worrying about using all this new stuff and appreciate what you already have. Take some time to cultivate your gifts, talents, and passions. Sure, it’s great and necessary to learn new things, but nothing boosts your confidence like doing something you’re already great at. Let yourself succeed in what you succeed at.I think it’s important to always be growing and evolving, but there’s nothing wrong with doing what already works for you. I read a book once that talked about how we focus too much on our weaknesses instead of our strengths. We can choose to put all our focus into our weaknesses and get them above average maybe, or we can choose to focus on our strengths and make them great.Either way, it’s a choice.
   xoxo Kaisha