I recently received an e-mail from an industry friend who asked, “When is information too much?” Here is what he said:

I am truly wondering at what point—if we haven’t reached it already—the collection of information is just that—a collection that will most likely not be used. It’s like the stuff you keep in your attic, garage, or basement, thinking that maybe someday you’ll need it.

I realize that memory is relatively cheap, but when does it stop making sense to keep collecting? And do we really need all the information that agencies can collect?

It reminds me of the old IBM System/34, 36, and 38 days when managers would “freeze” instead of make a decision because they still needed more reports. J.P. Morgan, John Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, etc. made decisions on the information at hand.

Could they have made better decisions if computers had been available to collect and sort information for them? Somewhere along the line we have to include the human element as the deciding factor. Maybe we should have sessions that teach us when to drop the high tech stuff and just talk—face to face.

So, how much information is enough? The Internet has made vast amounts of information available to anyone at any time. Google (and other search engines) have given us the ability to find any scrap of information at any time we desire.

But do we really need more information? As I thought through this question, I came to several conclusions. As a result, I am making some changes in how I interact with information.

A big part of my day-to-day activities is spent sifting through information about technology and determining how it will impact an insurance agency. I make decisions about what I think is important to review and possibly pass along to subscribers of my newsletter, The Anderson Agency Report (TAAR).

I review information that is delivered to me in multiple ways: electronic newsletters, print magazines and other publications, blogs posts written by people inside and outside the industry, and other sources of information.

I’ve created processes that help me sort through this vast stream of information and decide what to keep and what to discard. I currently use Evernote to store what I keep. It allows me to capture things from various sources and find what I need when I sit down to write. But even for me, information overload is significant. Here are some steps I’ve taken to help better manage the information I review:

• I have unsubscribed from electronic newsletters that I truly don’t really read anymore.
• I have started to become more selective about the blogs I follow.
• I have taken time to think through categories of information that help me better organize it. For example, when I read something, I now ask: 1) Do I need access to this information later, or is it just interesting? 2) Who is the audience—TAAR subscribers, people at a conference? 3) Do I really need to store it for later retrieval?

Ask yourself this: “Will more information help me make a better decision?” Or do you just need to take the information available at the time, make the decision, and move forward? Of course, you must be willing to adjust when new information becomes available.

Chris Brogan wrote in a recent blog post (one I do still follow), “I’m looking at execution as the deciding factor in what makes one successful. Sure we can plan, but if we don’t do, we’re just thinking.” (I wrote about this a few days ago in another blog post: A Healthy Reminder — Are You Addicted?)

Be sure that information overload doesn’t put a “freeze” on you, stopping you from executing your next big plan.