Watch your Intake


Everyone is on some sort of diet nowadays. People try to control the foods they eat, the water they drink etc. However just like food we also consume information in large amounts, daily. We all want to have healthy, good looking bodies, but more than often neglect the mind. The concept of information diet has been popping out more often lately. Unnecessary information attacks us from everywhere. Everyone is trying to catch your attention and tell you something. This creates a massive impact on our performance in life and work. This noise sometimes gets so loud that we loose the sense of direction and get lost in the modern jungles. How to always stay focused? How to protect yourself from distractions? How to thrive in the world of information overload?

To achieve anything in life and work setting clear goals and expectations are crucial. Especially when it comes to team work, everyone should be on the same page and have a clear vision. Once the expected outcome of work has been defined, we let everyone go back to their desks and do their job. Seems like we’re on the same page, in similar conditions but still we see significant difference in people’s performances. I am not considering such subjective factors as laziness and lack of motivation, but assume that everyone is striving to achieve the goal. Why there is such a difference in teammates performance, given the same amount of time and tools? What is the one most important external thing that differentiate ones from another?


Watch your intake

Information intake is what makes a difference. Every human is a “black box”, meaning that we don’t know what happens inside. All we see is what goes in and comes out. One way to predict the outcomes of the person’s life and work is to asses what goes into the black box. What person eats, drinks, hears and sees if controlled, can deliver predictable results.

Going back to the workplace, daily information intake is what makes significant difference in people’s performances. The meetings you attend; people you meet and surround yourself with; emails you get or Slack channels you subscribed to — it all combined creates the information intake you consume on a daily basis. Often unconsciously we feed our minds with crappy stuff, but still expect to perform at the top level. How could you expect to have great performance and achieve your goals if all you take in is just a noise of unimportant things? Watch your intake, keep the log of the things other people ask you to do. Also determine the potential of each to move you closer to your personal goal or the goals of your organization.


Medium.com
https://medium.com/@oleksandr.tereshchuk1/watch-you-intake-504c4b6aaa1b