What programmers should do to tackle information overload?

Question

Any suggestions for concentrating on the relevant topics?

Answer 1

Seeing this from a Customer -> Producer perspective, i'd tell the Customer how I like my requirements and that i want everything structured in a specific way.

Having good documentation such as: Analysis, Requirements and Design ( all from UML ), will help providing a good understanding of a system for both the Customer(s) and the Producer(s).

Answer 2

• keep a finite number of feeds in Google reader, say 15 to 30, keep reviewing what's in there every 2-3 weeks

• search your mailing lists/google groups/ comp.lang.* by specific users or keywords

• find which sets of 2 delicious tags are most relevant to your work

• find good planets or portal/ summary websites for your topics, e.g. rubyinside.com or ajaxian.com

Answer 3

I use a bastardized 'Getting Things Done' approach. If something comes in that I can complete in a couple of minutes, I'll do it right then and there so it doesn't end up nagging at the back of my mind. However, other tasks are saved away in a simple store (I use Google Notebooks), organised by required response time, i.e. I'd separate long term goals from short-term project requirements.

The key is to get everything out of your head and onto paper or into another storage system. This means that you can concentrate on one thing at a time instead of having everything cluttering up your thought process. When you've got a free moment from your 'two minutes or less' tasks, you can look through your 'short term' folder, then check your longer-term items periodically, all the time knowing that you haven't forgotten anything. It sounds simple, but it takes quite a lot of self discipline to make it work. You may also find that delegation is a useful skill to practice if you're getting overloaded with work-related tasks.

I've also tried only checking work email twice a day, but my current job won't allow that sort of freedom :(

If this is a personal thing, and not necessarily work-related, I can really recommend just staying away from the net for a week, cold turkey style. It's refreshing to come back from not having read your RSS feeds, your email and your Facebook friend updates, to realise that the world hasn't ended.

The Getting Things Done approach is described on Wikipedia here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_things_done

There are also whole websites devoted to time management and personal development, like 43folders and lifehacker.