Information Overload
Do you often feel stressed and overwhelmed by the relentless barrage of information and email overload?
Have the lines between work and leisure fused together into a swirling orbit of never-ending texts, messages and tasks?
Like the mythological Sisyphus––sentenced to an eternity of pushing a boulder up a hill only to watch it roll back down again––many of us are resigned to never being done, condemned to a lifetime of unending struggle. We live in constant reaction. Just as we answer one email, two more come in. We barely complete one project when we remember that another is behind schedule.
The exponential growth in emails and other technical distractions happened gradually, over a number of years, until we begin to get a gnawing sense that we've become the tools of our tools.
The results of living at the beck-and-call of instant communication and the unrelenting demand of 24-hour availability is causing health costs to sore, stress levels to rise and individual productivity to plummet.
• Up to 80% of all visits to primary care physicians are caused by stress.
• Information-overload costs the U.S. economy over a trillion dollars a year.
• Studies show that multitasking results in a 50% increase in errors and a 40% reduction in productivity.
By learning how to take control of time and information––and by making these new controls effortless new habits––you'll not only reduce your levels of stress, but you'll discover many hours of free time and levels of productivity you never imagined.
By understanding how to wield the powerful tools of modern communication, you’ll learn ...
• how to reduce stress and increase your health, memory and cognition.
If you feel like your trapped in a continuously overloaded state, if it feels like you’re living at the whim of technology and the random demands of all those about you then consider asking yourself these questions;
• Are you achieving what you truly desire?
• Do you have the relationships and the satisfaction of accomplishment that comes with a fulfilling life?
• Are the financial, social, and emotional returns worth the cost?”
Take Action Now!
Why take this program?
You don't know how it happened, but somehow you feel like you’ve lost control. The great advancements like the Internet, email and easy access to information were supposed to make our lives more productive, easier and more enjoyable ... instead they've left us feeling overwhelmed and burnt out.
Stress is caused by a feeling of a lack of control. This modern "new" environment doesn’t foster slowing down, stepping back, and taking strategic control. Instead our days are all too frequently an endless series of reactions ... we respond to the "thing" that’s screaming the loudest.
People mistake being stressed out and busy with productivity and accomplishment because they haven’t been shown how to effectively manage technology and time.
In just twenty-nine days you can learn how to live in this frenetic world at a perfectly comfortable pace. You’ll learn how to accomplish far more with less effort. Because you’ll be more productive, you’ll no longer blur the lines of work and leisure.
How does it work?
By learning simple new habits. You’re going to learn how to take control of your day and determine exactly when you’ll do what you set out to do. You’ll schedule your day so that it’s no longer an endless series of “urgent” issues and interruptions.
Most people overlook the simple logic that we can only do one thing at a time, and as a result they squander their days with multitasking madness that produces far less than than their capabilities.
This program will help you to take complete control of your time and accessibility, and by doing so you’ll drastically reduce your levels of stress while defining your life, whether you’re working or playing.
How is that possible?
Because your mind will work completely differently than it used to. You’re going to see things differently. You'll be encountering the same problems – the same deluge of emails, the same demanding boss, the same snarling traffic jams – but with a new understanding you'll experience those events in completely different ways.
You'll have changed the method your mind uses to look at the situation because the techniques you'll have learned open up new neuron tracks and pathways, encourage and develop new thought processes, and help you build healthier habits when you engage with the same old situations.
The happiest and most successful people have learned to live by the simple, unassailable logic that they can’t know everything and they can’t do everything ... nor do they wish to try. They live with a calm, purposefulness. They accomplish a great deal with a minimal amount of effort.
In twenty-nine days you’re going to learn the same principles. You’re going to take complete control of your time and accessibility, and by doing so you’ll drastically reduce your levels of stress while defining your life, whether you’re working or playing.
The 29 DAYS program breaks down into four easy weeks, each starting on a Monday.
You'll receive two emails every day from your virtual online coach so that you have the support you need, right there with you. Your online coach will help you keep on track so that you can actively build new patterns in your mind through repetition.
Week One: Commitment and Awareness Week
If you aren't committed to your goal, you won't succeed. In this first week, we'll help you commit to your communication and stress managment goals with a strong foundation that supports and encourages you when you fall prey to those old destructive routines.
You'll learn observation and awareness techniques that help you understand your current habits, such as when you're most likely to fall victim to them and what triggers the desire to give in.
Week Two: Preparation Week
After you've committed to your goal you can start to prepare for the change ahead.
This is where the 29DAYS program really sets itself apart from all the rest – you develop your very own ideas on how to make permanent changes.
It's important that you take control of your own personal changes. We'll help you build powerful new neuron tracks and thought processes, and you'll feel empowered to change by being in full control of how those changes happen.
Week Three: Taking Action
Enough planning; it's time to get to work. By developing awareness of your current habits and tailoring your plans for change to your personal weak spots and desires, you'll be more than prepared to put your plan to good use.
Our daily lessons, reminders, and your personal discoveries have helped you develop the strong neural changes that make it easy for you to replace those bad behaviors with your planned good ones. Your take-action steps may be small, but you'll be able to put them in place knowing they're here to stay. For good.
Week Four: Staying the Course
You've probably tried to change your habits before – but slipped back into your old destructive routines. That's why this final week is so important, because this is when you cement those new habits into place and learn to stay the course.
And by this point, you're nearly at the end! If you stick with your program through the final week, it will be nearly impossible for you to go back to your old habits.
Developing new habits is a process, and you'll already be reaping the rewards of the small changes you've made.
The best news is that these changes happen permanently. You won't ever go back. You won't ever slip back into your old ways again.
In just twenty-nine days, you'll have a new lease on life. A new way of experiencing your day.
Introduction
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.~ Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)
There once was a little forest village that held an annual wood-chopping contest to determine who would be the year’s champion lumberjack. After many matches it was down to the last two undefeated contestants: a seasoned pro who had seen a great many years in the forest, and a young, strong upstart who was determined to be the new king of the woodpile.The event was an hour long, and the object was simply to chop as much wood as possible during that time.Both lumberjacks got off to a fast start, swinging away with chips flying all over the place. Then, after about 20 minutes, the older man suddenly walked away, only to reappear a short time afterward. Then, much to everyone’s surprise, about 15 minutes later he did the same thing again. He stopped chopping and disappeared into the woods.By now, the younger competitor was sensing victory. Surely the old-boy was running out of steam and was too embarrassed to rest in front the villagers. Although the younger man’s legs and arms burned from the strain, his lungs and muscles screaming for mercy, he drove himself to fight through the pain, secure in the knowledge that if he never relented victory was assured.However, when the judges added up all the wood that had been cut, amazingly the more experienced woodcutter had won.The younger man couldn’t believe what he was hearing and seeing, and he openly challenged his opponent. “How is this even remotely possible? I worked like crazy and never let up for one second for the entire hour. And you! You took two breaks! How could you have possibly beaten me? What in the world did you do when you walked away on your breaks?”The wise champion looked him straight in the eye and said, “I sharpened my axe.”
29 DAYS ... to managing
information-overload and stress!
Table of Contents
WEEK ONE: COMMITMENT AND AWARENESS
DAY 1:
a.m. Why 29 Days? What’s Going to Happen?
p.m. How We Learn and How We Remember: The Science of Thinking Smarter
DAY 2:
a.m. What Is Information-Overload?
p.m. Understanding the Difference between Information and Information-overload
DAY 3:
a.m. The Simple Logic of Effective Time Management
p.m. What Is Effective Time Management
DAY 4:
a.m. Multitasking: The Grand Delusion: (Part One)
p.m. What Is Stress?
DAY 5:
a.m. Multitasking: The Grand Delusion (Part Two): Why It’s Impossible!
p.m. The “Modern” History of Stress
DAY 6:
a.m. Multitasking: The Grand Delusion (Part Three): An Expensive Folly
p.m. Stress and Your Heart: The Perils of Chronic Stress
DAY 7:
a.m. Multitasking: The Grand Delusion (Part Four): The High Cost of Workplace Multitasking
p.m. Unhappy with Your Weight? Then Stop Stressing!
WEEK TWO: PREPARATION FOR ACTION
DAY 8:
a.m. Setting Your Goals
p.m. Apples, Pears, and Fat Storage
DAY 9:
a.m. The Irresistible Call of Email
p.m. Ulcers! Not Guilty as Charged
DAY 10:
a.m. Have You Fallen Victim to ADT (Attention Deficit Trait)?
p.m. Immunity, Stress, and Disease
DAY 11:
a.m. Email!: What Hath God Wrought?
p.m. How Valuable Are Your Memories?
DAY 12:
a.m. Understanding Email - Why Does it Create Stress? (Part One)
p.m. Do We Have Different Kinds of Memory?
DAY 13:
a.m. Understanding Email: Why Does It Create Stress? (Part Two)
p.m. How Are Long-Term Memories Retrieved?
DAY 14:
a.m. The High Cost of “Free” Email
p.m. Thinking and Stress
WEEK THREE: TAKING ACTION
DAY 15:
a.m. Is It Multitasking or Is It Task Avoidance?
p.m. Working toward Your New Habit
DAY 16:
a.m. You’re Not Paid to Do Email!
p.m. The Simple Facts of Stress
DAY 17:
a.m. Placing a Call to 1-800-Email-Dumpster
p.m. Coping with Stress: Outlets
DAY 18:
a.m. You’ve Achieved an Empty Inbox ... Now What?
p.m. Coping with Stress: Social Support
DAY 19:
a.m. Email Is NOT a Communication Tool (Part One)
p.m. Unpredictability and Stress
DAY 20:
a.m. Email Is NOT a Communication Tool (Part Two)
p.m. The Power of Belief
DAY 21:
a.m. Becoming an Email Minimalist
p.m. Stress: A Perception That Things Are Getting Worse
WEEK FOUR: STAYING THE COURSE