Information overload is an easy trap to fall into. On the surface it seems as if the problem comes from the world around you, but on closer inspection it becomes clear that all the world is offering you is information. It’s what you do with that information that determines how overloaded you are.

Information can strengthen and secure our position at work; if you feel overloaded with information, you are taking in too much, attaching too much importance to it or doing too little with it.

It is better to do a lot with a small amount of information than to try to move forward on the inconsequential or the irrelevant, which can lead to these symptoms of overload:

Memory difficulties: Small things slip your mind. You get through the day but can’t recall at the end of the day what you did at the beginning of it. You forget the names of people you have just met. You have difficulty recalling details, facts and figures.

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Easily distracted: Your mind leaps from one subject to another at random. You start sentences, conversations and projects but don’t finish them. Everything gets your attention and you find it difficult to concentrate for long periods.

Worry: You worry about what other people are doing and about how what you’re not doing will affect them and about what people think of your competence. You become uncomfortable during meetings because you feel you’re behind everyone.

Overcompensation: You know that you can’t keep up but you take on more in the belief that you will give the illusion of being in control. You talk a lot but deliver little. You might start a series of conversations intended to delay delivery by shifting blame to others.

Stress: This leads to overeating, undereating, too much sleep, too little sleep, extremes of everything and is a key indicator of overload.

Procrastination: You have so much to do that you can’t decide what to do and instead do nothing until a situation becomes critical. This is not only a symptom of overload, it is one of the direct causes. But not all procrastination is bad. Sometimes it is a signal from your brain that you’ve missed something important and you shouldn’t take another step until you’ve identified it and dealt with it.

Frozen: This happens when you feel so overloaded that you can’t cope. When you reach this stage you become incapable of doing anything. You don’t think, you don’t act, you don’t respond to what’s going on around you. You feel numb and apparently oblivious to the consequences of your inaction.

This is an edited extract from Instant Manager: Overcoming Information Overload, by Tina Konstant and Morris Taylor. Readers can order this and other books in the Chartered Management Institute’s Instant Manager series, published with Hodder Education, for £6.99 with free postage and packing (RRP: £8.99) at pressoffers.co.uk/thetimes.

Next week: How to avoid information overload at work

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