The Dangers of Information Addiction

(Transcript edited for clarity.)

Hi, I'm Wes. Welcome to The Dangers of Information Addiction.

Now, before we go very far into this, I want to be completely up front about this so that you understand exactly what I'm covering today.

Addiction of any sort can be very serious, and I want to make sure you understand what I'm talking about when I say the dangers of information addiction.

What I'm talking about is the danger to the success systems or success plans or goal plans or workflows that I talk about creating all the time to help you become more successful.

The name of this channel, my business, is Your Life Systems.

We talk about creating systems for your life to help you be more successful in every area of your life, whether it's health, family, business, whatever.

So when I talk about the dangers of information addiction, I'm talking about the dangers to your success, not the dangers to your health or mental health or anything like that.

So I just wanted to make sure that was clear before we got started so you didn't expect something here that you aren't going to get.

So again, I'm Wes. The Dangers of Information Addiction. Please subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes.

I always like to lead with a question, so keep this question in mind as we're going through today's episode: What do you need to stop learning and start doing?

Because the danger, the first danger of information addiction to your success, is you become so addicted to gathering information and creating systems and making plans and creating workflows and coming up with new goals that all you ever do is gather information and you never actually take action and reach any of your goals or create any of the success systems that you need to create to get the success you want in your life.

That's the number one danger of information addiction.

Now, let me say that again, and I know all about this because I have fallen into this trap many times in my life.

Over the last several decades, I've been on a never-ending quest for more success.

I've created all kinds of systems and plans and always have goals that I'm working towards.

I've created systems for every area of my life and my businesses that I can, and I love to gather information.

So I've had to stop myself several times because I can easily become addicted to gathering more information.

But once I realized that that was something that could keep me from achieving the success or reaching the goals that I've wanted to reach, I've intentionally put things into my life to help me not get stuck or addicted to information-gathering mode.

So that's really the number one thing to do.

First, recognize that it's possible.

See if it's something you've done in the past, and then intentionally try to create systems to keep information gathering from keeping you from achieving the success you want.

Now, here's a simple system you can put into your life right now that will help you avoid becoming addicted to gathering information, no matter how big the plan is or how big your goal is that you want to accomplish.

No matter how complicated or big this system you're trying to create, or plan you're creating, or workflow you're creating is, or how big what you want to reach is, set a time limit for information gathering before you decide on a first action step.

Here's what I do, and I do change it based on how big the goal is.

Let's say it's a fairly simple goal.

Doesn't mean it's necessarily a small goal, but it's fairly simple, fairly straightforward.

I will set a time limit.

Let's say I will say I'm going to gather information for exactly one hour, then I'm going to decide what my first action step is going to be.

Now, I'm not going to cover it in depth here.

I cover it in many other episodes, but when I talk about action steps, what I'm talking about is the smallest first step you could possibly take.

I'm not talking about a huge, complicated step.

I'm talking about figuring out what the exact first, smallest thing you can do is.

So I'll set a timer, I'll gather information for one hour, then I won't go ahead and take the first action step, but I will decide what the first action step is, the first, smallest step I can do.

Then I quickly evaluate that, and I decide: Do I have enough information that I can take this first, smallest step, learn how it goes, and get some feedback without it hurting anything too badly?

Now, most of the time, I can take this smallest step immediately, and no matter what happens, it's not going to kill me, it's not going to kill the business, it's not going to kill the system.

It could just be a test.

So then I'll go ahead and do it.

But every once in a while, I'll do my time limit, in this example, I'll gather information for an hour, then I'll decide, well, this would be the first, smallest step I could take, and then I'll evaluate that step quickly, and I'll say, no, this is too important, I need to gather more information, because this could kill me, or this could kill the business, or could kill the idea.

Here's the thing about everything I talk about.

You're in control, and you get to make these decisions.

What I'm talking about here is protecting yourself.

Sometimes you need to protect yourself from becoming addicted to gathering information, but sometimes you need to protect yourself by realizing you need to gather more information before you do something that could kill the business, or the idea, or the system.

Now, that would be for a simple thing.

Some things I work on are very complicated, huge goals, and I know that I can't gather all the information I need in an hour, sometimes not even in a day.

Sometimes it takes, I have to research things for days, or a week, or longer before I even know what the first, smallest step might be that I need to do, and that's fine.

I've learned over the years, and a lot of trial and error through all this, that sometimes I'll need more than an hour.

Sometimes I'll say, I'm going to research, I'm going to go into information gathering for two days, and then at the beginning of the third day, I'm going to evaluate and see if I can safely take the smallest, first step.

And that's how I've intentionally put things in place so that I don't ever fall into the trap of being addicted to gathering information.

I always predetermine a time when I want to take my first action towards the goal, or whatever it is, after gathering information.

You can do this the next time you're working on a goal, or creating a system, or something.

You can do the same thing.

Set a time for gathering information, and then at the end of that time, create the first, smallest action step you can take, then evaluate and see if you can safely take whatever that action step is, without killing you, or killing the business, or the system, or whatever.

And if you can, then you go ahead and take it.

If you decide you can't, then set another specific time to gather more information, and then do it again.

What you'll find after you learn how to do this, and you'll adjust over time as you get feedback from experience and taking action, is you'll get to a point where you automatically set time limits.

You don't even have to set a timer once you get good at it.

And in your mind, you'll gather information, and then something will happen, and you'll be like, I have enough information to take the next step.

And then here's the magic of taking action, is once you take the first step, then you have even more information.

You've learned information from taking that step that now you can evaluate, and you can use that information to plan your next step.

Okay, a few important things about this.

Constant input can make decisions harder instead of easier.

So you gather information, you're not sure about something, so you gather more information, and you gather more information, and you start to become addicted to gathering information.

And the more information you gather, sometimes it makes things more complicated, which makes it harder to take the action step.

Sometimes you just need to stop, take a small action step, because when you go from information gathering to taking action, it changes something in your mind, or at least in mine it does.

It's like two different steps.

Information-gathering mode, my mind's in one level or action or whatever, but as soon as I go into action mode, it's something different.

It's a different level, or a different piece of my mind that works.

Now, with experience, you learn to go from one to the other and back fairly quickly.

But there's something about taking action that once you see it and gather more information from that, you take the next step and it becomes a loop, and it's a self-feeding loop, but it's a good loop.

You can become dependent on finding one more answer before taking action.

Sometimes, and not everybody's like this, but I do have this problem, is I'll be in information-gathering mode, and it releases a chemical in my brain.

I'll learn something else, and I'll get a little hit, and it feels good, and then I'll learn something else, and it feels good.

So that'll lead me to just wanting to learn more.

But I've also learned that I get another different type of hit, rush, whatever, when I start taking action, because then I know I'm getting closer to the goal.

So I've replaced one kind of dependency with something else.

Information addiction can look respectable because learning is usually a good thing.

I'm not saying you shouldn't learn, but don't fool yourself into thinking that you're just gathering information forever, and it's a good thing, because when you do that, you're never getting closer to your actual goal because you're never taking action.

There is a point of diminishing returns in research.

You need to do enough research, and every project, every system, every plan, every goal has different levels, different layers. Some are smaller, some are bigger.

But you've got to learn through experience that there's a point where if you learn more, if you continue to gather more information without taking action, it actually is diminishing returns.

So you're always trying to find the correct amount of information to gather, no more than that, then take action, gather that information, more information if you need, learn where to stop, and to take action again.

Don't go over into diminishing returns if you can help it.

Alternate learning with implementation, which is what I've been talking about.

Learn something, use it, evaluate it, then learn what you need to do next.

I hope this helps.

I'm Wes. This is Your Life Systems. Please subscribe.

What's Next?

·        Choose one goal or project where research has been continuing without a clear action point.

·        Set a specific limit for the next information-gathering block.

·        At the end of that block, define the smallest safe action you could take.

·        If the action carries unacceptable risk, set another defined research period instead of returning to open-ended research.

·        If the action is safe enough, take it and treat the result as new information.

·        Repeat the cycle: learn, act, evaluate, then learn only what the next step requires.

If you found this helpful:

• Download the free Small Wins Success System Worksheet.

• Subscribe on YouTube for new videos each week.

• Explore more articles and videos from Your Life Systems.