I can't process the information that is coming at me I'm a well-educated man yet I find it very difficult to process the information that is coming at me. The number of issues that hit me every day just makes me want to hide in a foxhole until it's all over like some soldier. Yet I know it will not be over. In fact, I know it will be progressively worse. I'm educated and aware and I can't cope. How can anyone cope? |
And that was professionally. That wasn't trying to keep up with the news, and your friends' every social media post.
So cut yourself some slack. Nobody can keep up with everything. You aren't broken, you aren't incompetent, you're just human, and humans have limited bandwidth. I think that's where the answer starts: Stop expecting that you can keep up. Stop thinking that it's reasonable that you can keep up. It's not a reasonable expectation; there's too much for that.
The next step, as others have said, is limiting what you try to keep up with. See, the news outfits make more money if they get you to consume more of their stuff. So does Facebook. There are very smart people trying very hard to make you want to consume their spew, for their benefit, regardless of whether it harms you or not. You have to deliberately defend yourself. Consciously choose how much you're going to take in, and of what. And then fight to maintain that, because they're going to tempt you to make an exception... and another... and a whole bunch more... and then your limits are gone. If and when that happens, recognize that it happened, remember why you put limits on, and go back to the limits.
This.
But I only learned this kind of self-compassion after having my pride eroded to a nub. :3
Also, embracing the futility and meaninglessness and briefness of life helps. Reflect on your mortality, and how it might come sooner than you think. AND NOT IN A SAD WAY; more like in a humorous way, salted with the gratitude to have been (and still be) a part of everything. xD
Q: Where's my phone? A: I think it's on the shelf somewhere. Honestly I don't know.
Q: How many tabs do I have open. A: Currently 5 and never more than 10.
Q: How many times do I watch the news on TV. A: Never, I use youtube and I get the news from various sources on the topics that I want to hear.
Q: How many IM apps do I have open. A: Just one, Skype and is reserved for friends only.
Q: How many forums do I go to. A: Just two, HN and Reddit and on Reddit, I only browse the topics that I want to. I almost never go to the front page.
Q: How many social media sites have I joined. A: None. Not on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other apps. Accounts created in the past were for test applications.
Q: How much unread mail do I have. A: None, I have 1 inbox for friends and family and another for spam / anything I opt-into.
It all starts with you. You have control over what you do and don't do. If you reduce your surface area, the number of issues will diminish daily.
TIL Reddit has a frontpage.
Q: What emails did you read with no actionable task inside? A: Every email with no task is another two minutes of lost time. Use GDPR if companies keep spamming you with nonsense.
As for the rest, deal with issues in a sequential manner. Don't deal with multiple things at once. Be stubborn: pick one thing, kill it dead, move to another.
And consider adopting a GTD-like system. If you deal with information, you will benefit from having a clear distinction between actionable information (tasks) and non-actionable information (reference). See a task? Put in on a task list. Not a task? File it into notes and forget about it.
Yet I empathize greatly with OP. It takes massive energy and time to deal with the sifting.
I've started trying to develop mental filters and guidelines for things I went let myself dig into, like opinion pieces and their comments. It helps a little. I suspect I need to do more though but don't want to risk being out of the loop on major global and local happenings.
I also deliberately avoid WhatsApp and force people to email or SMS me. This massively reduced the amount of noise I had to deal with. Sure, I hear off fewer people but I actually get stuff done and if people can't be bothered to write an email, it's probably not important in the slightest.
This might not be an option for you but in any case it is reducing the amount of time you're on your phone and/or distracted, coupled with exerting a bit of control over when and how people can contact you. Your phone is for your convenience, not theirs.
For me that means cutting out hyperbolic news sources like twitter, Reddit, definitely any cable news network or daily news broadcast of any kind. Apple News is also terrible in this regard; no matter how hard I try to curate, they’re always shoving celebrity gossip and MSNBC or Fox News headlines at me.
So it’s a daily struggle, but on my good days I check the New York Times and Hacker News once in the morning and in the evening. I have a couple of non-news blogs I subscribe to that I check via RSS feed, and then that’s it.
I donate what I can to political and charitable organizations. It’s important to stay informed, but unless you’re a reporter or working in crisis management for a political campaign, I don’t think there’s a purpose served by becoming outraged by every public statement by every dingaling politician or pundit.
I do 100% have a dog in this fight and care deeply about what’s happening in the world right now both in terms of the pandemic and in the shift toward far-right populism, but for me the strategy has to be: keep an eye on the general gist and direction of things and then act accordingly. Who needs help right now? Is there and action you can take?
This is obviously a “your mileage may vary” situation. Some folks are no doubt able to keep one eye on their Twitter feed and stay perfectly sane and productive, and more power to them, but I’m not one of them.
I am not quite sure if you meant this post from a general "world at large", or from a "professional having a hard time with work" perspective. Or both? So the things I am about to say are from the "professional having a hard time with work" perspective as it's the one I personally struggle with. I'm sure some of this is applicable to the other category too.
1) Form routines, especially for stuff that generally spikes some anxiety for you. Figure out a process and just do it each and every day. I find that this helps with confidence.
2) Learn to say "fck it". Weird as it sounds, but learning to let go is an amazing tool. "You know, this situation could be better. But you know, fck it! It could be worse, so It can't be that bad"
3) Organize and plan things out. Prioritize things. Accept that you can't always tackle all issues. Use a todo app and list out everything you have going on for the day. As new things come up, add them as a todo. Keep the list prioritized and just focus on the highest priority item at the moment.
4) Learn to tell people you can't help them right now if it's not a higher priority than something you are currently doing. I struggle the most with this one. I always end up feeling really bad if I don't immediately drop everything and do whatever I can to help.
5) Close all those dang browser tabs. I'm sure you meant to come back to X thing 3 days ago... but honestly, it's just a distraction. Close all your random applications down. Open a fresh browser window and only have the stuff you need to focus on for the day. If something is really important, use a bookmark or otherwise take note of the page so you can come back to it later.
6) Medications are often useful tools and can help with improving your quality of life. It could be worth talking to your doctor. Medications generally don't solve problems, but if it can help improve your quality of life, it can be worth considering. It's also worth pointing out that it can potentially take a very long time to work out which medications are best for you. I take medication for high blood pressure for example. Having a lower blood pressure has also helped with my anxiety and just generally feeling better. This has also helped with my anxiety.
My first-line coping strategy is to close my eyes. That seems to help significantly, as if visual processing consumes a limited mental resource that I can free up to apply to structuring my thoughts. I have no idea if there is any science to back that up - but I also don’t care. Coping is about developing useful mental models for dealing with the world around you, not necessarily about being technically correct.
I also careful control my facial expressions when I’m around others and do this. My goal is to have them think that I’m concentrating on something (which, really, I am) and not upset or distressed. This also provides them a cue that usually results in their pausing or slowing down further information for a moment, which helps.
If you're like me, you pick up your phone 1000x per day, so it's a constant interruption. I have lots of notifications on, so as soon as I get a new email, I see the notification and then read it. All of these little things seem insignificant on their own, but they add up.
If you're interested in doing some observation of your habits to get a more nuanced sense of what you like and don't like about your current digital life, I recommend the first couple of chapters of this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25246881-mindful-tech
Look for the 20% of effort that will get you 80% of the results.
What helps is not trying to read the news everyday. Go for a week without reading news, you'll feel much more in tune with your local surroundings and be able to focus on what you care about more.
Arron Swartz has a good article on this.
by cutting unecessary information out. Instead of reading the news everyday subscribe to some high quality weekly newspaper like the economist, deinstall all the social media apps or reduce your usage to an amount of time that is more reasonable, and replace that activity with stuff that's healthy like working out, getting some sun, whatever.
There's no real mystery here, just remove the things that stress you out and replace them with habbits that are conducive to your well-being.
People will say that you are watching too many news etc. I think there's a deeper issue. Education has absolutely 0 to do with it, this phenomena is not related to the conscious level of the mind.
That alone can go a long way towards fighting the instinct to open up the laptop or phone and surf idly; a terrible habit that we've likely all developed.
Now, if only I could put my phone down while I'm eating meals...
Have you thought about running it past a therapist? They can help you size up the situation (eg are you anxious, and finding yourself avoiding work?), and think about options, or just help track how things are going.
Like OP, I'm looking for strategies to help self-cope, as that's the only way forward for many of us for now.
I won't argue against medically prescribed drugs for people who need them, but "commenters" here who are talking about therapeutic modalities (CBT and NLP are great) and mindfulness (slow down, see things as they are, tackle the things you can) aren't off-base, and these are more than short-term solutions. They can be the keystone to true transformation.
Overwhelm is reasonable, but also addressable. By many different ways.
Starting your day with a shot of endorphins is a better way to go. Check out the book 'Convict Conditioning' by Paul Wade.
Abstain from it if it involves people other than your family
Once you reach boredom, meditate.