Information Equity: 8 Ways to Maximize Your ROI From It
Let's now cover 8 ways of increasing equity & value you get from your information consumption, including task batching, mental segregation and using memory triggers.
How to increase information equity Practice Task Batching in Combination w/Passive Information Consumption Separate your work into 2 categories
While you are doing this consume information passively.
Here are my 3 favorite forms of passive information consumption
Example: Sometime within the next month you are going to be having a conversation with someone about blogging and you are going to use the phrase information equity (it's going to make you seem really smart & progressive).
Here's the memory trigger you are going to use.
Memory Trigger: the word blog Association Stream: every time you hear the word blog think blah > Then imagine a person's mouth making an 'O' shape as they say blah-blah-blah > Now imagine a fraction sign inside their mouth (which is making a zero shape) > That zero represents the amount of information equity their blogging creates.
Reinforce the mental association: Mentally say the word blog, then mentally yell at yourselfBLAH! BLAH! BLAH!(while visualizing the mouth).
Do this 3 times (should take about 30 seconds) Initially forming these memory triggers will feel a little odd and will take some mental energy and creativity but as you do them for often it will become natural and automatic.
Application Based Information Consumption I highly recommend a top down approach to your information consumption.
Start with the end in mind, clearly identify a problem or issue you are having.
Determine first whether it's a definitive solution problem or an ambiguous solution problem.
Here are some examples to illustrate the difference Definitive Solution Problem: How do I set up a Facebook fanpage? Ambiguous Solution Problem: How do improve my online presence for my small business? For an ambiguous solution problem I would use a forum or consultant and describe your problem specifically so you can get answers tailored to your specific situation.
LinkedIn Answers LinkedIn is the social networking website for professionals, its full of business people, doctors, lawyers, authors and consultants of all types.
LinkedIn Answers is a forum style area where you can post questions about a wide variety of business topic.
You will be amazed at the speed and volume of responses you get to your question from very well educated people with years of relevant experience.
Its seems to me I usually get 3-5 responses within the first day of putting up a question.
I prefer to use forums like LinkedIn Answers to let information I need come to me as opposed to chasing it.
This saves a lot of time over searching blogs for what you need.
Mental segregation between infotainment & learning We spend an increasing amount of time consuming information for pleasure.
It's important to put up a mental wall between the times of the day and hours that are spent on productive activities and the time that's spent enjoying the life you are working so damn hard for.
Infotainment during work hours will distract you getting things done.
So make sure that information consumption during work hours is directly related to improving work.
Do It, Delegate It, Dump It We all have dozens of activities on our mental to do list.
It's important put these activities into 3 categories Do It - You should ideally have under 5 activities that you are going to definitely going to accomplish in a day.
Schedule committed time to these activities Delegate It - Pass this activity off to an to someone who works for you or a colleague Dump It - What's the worst that could happen if you don't do this activity? If it's not that bad, dump it Accountability Find a partner who holds you accountable to following through on finishing the things you start.
Let your accountability partner know you have invested your time in information consumption and commit to them that you will do whatever it takes to follow through.
Practice Discipline & Persistence! You thought this blog was all about clever ways of hacking life? Nope! Whenever you consume knowledge make a mental commitment to yourself that you will put this knowledge to valuable use.
Make sure you have a specific plan to do so and then follow through!
How to increase information equity Practice Task Batching in Combination w/Passive Information Consumption Separate your work into 2 categories
- creative/high mental energy consuming tasks (Examples: blogging, negotiating, sales calls, designing, meetings, strategizing, planning, communicating with other people, etc)
- monotonous or repetitive tasks which require little mental energy (Examples: responding to emails, organizing paperwork, data entry, etc)
While you are doing this consume information passively.
Here are my 3 favorite forms of passive information consumption
- Listening to audio books - I recommend a membership with Audible.
com. - Listening to podcasts - Which you download free from the Apple iTunes Store.
- Listening to documentary films - Top Documentary Films (Google it) has at the time of this writing +1400 documentary films which you can watch for free.
Example: Sometime within the next month you are going to be having a conversation with someone about blogging and you are going to use the phrase information equity (it's going to make you seem really smart & progressive).
Here's the memory trigger you are going to use.
Memory Trigger: the word blog Association Stream: every time you hear the word blog think blah > Then imagine a person's mouth making an 'O' shape as they say blah-blah-blah > Now imagine a fraction sign inside their mouth (which is making a zero shape) > That zero represents the amount of information equity their blogging creates.
Reinforce the mental association: Mentally say the word blog, then mentally yell at yourselfBLAH! BLAH! BLAH!(while visualizing the mouth).
Do this 3 times (should take about 30 seconds) Initially forming these memory triggers will feel a little odd and will take some mental energy and creativity but as you do them for often it will become natural and automatic.
Application Based Information Consumption I highly recommend a top down approach to your information consumption.
Start with the end in mind, clearly identify a problem or issue you are having.
Determine first whether it's a definitive solution problem or an ambiguous solution problem.
Here are some examples to illustrate the difference Definitive Solution Problem: How do I set up a Facebook fanpage? Ambiguous Solution Problem: How do improve my online presence for my small business? For an ambiguous solution problem I would use a forum or consultant and describe your problem specifically so you can get answers tailored to your specific situation.
LinkedIn Answers LinkedIn is the social networking website for professionals, its full of business people, doctors, lawyers, authors and consultants of all types.
LinkedIn Answers is a forum style area where you can post questions about a wide variety of business topic.
You will be amazed at the speed and volume of responses you get to your question from very well educated people with years of relevant experience.
Its seems to me I usually get 3-5 responses within the first day of putting up a question.
I prefer to use forums like LinkedIn Answers to let information I need come to me as opposed to chasing it.
This saves a lot of time over searching blogs for what you need.
Mental segregation between infotainment & learning We spend an increasing amount of time consuming information for pleasure.
It's important to put up a mental wall between the times of the day and hours that are spent on productive activities and the time that's spent enjoying the life you are working so damn hard for.
Infotainment during work hours will distract you getting things done.
So make sure that information consumption during work hours is directly related to improving work.
Do It, Delegate It, Dump It We all have dozens of activities on our mental to do list.
It's important put these activities into 3 categories Do It - You should ideally have under 5 activities that you are going to definitely going to accomplish in a day.
Schedule committed time to these activities Delegate It - Pass this activity off to an to someone who works for you or a colleague Dump It - What's the worst that could happen if you don't do this activity? If it's not that bad, dump it Accountability Find a partner who holds you accountable to following through on finishing the things you start.
Let your accountability partner know you have invested your time in information consumption and commit to them that you will do whatever it takes to follow through.
Practice Discipline & Persistence! You thought this blog was all about clever ways of hacking life? Nope! Whenever you consume knowledge make a mental commitment to yourself that you will put this knowledge to valuable use.
Make sure you have a specific plan to do so and then follow through!
