Are you using your information to its full potential? Here are 6 tips that will help you improve your information management, and also make the best use of your time.

It’s obvious that an information junkie cannot cut off all sources of information; we do need to keep learning and be aware of what is going on around us. In The Healthy Information Junkie we had an example of an information diet, which will reduce our intake of information, but we still need to manage it properly to get the full benefit.

Not All Information Is Bad

It’s an obvious statement, but we could perhaps find ourselves thinking information is our enemy, when really it is our friend. We need to keep our eyes open to what is going on around us in our chosen markets; if there’s a new technology we want to know about it and we should also know what information products are being sold, to help us plan our own products and services in the future.

In drawing up my Information Junkie Diet the aim is to limit the information I take in for a certain period of time and instead study some of the information products I already have. After all, I bought/downloaded them for a reason: I thought they would help me with my journey to create a successful blog, and ultimately an online business. I just need to give them a chance to do that – by taking the time to read them and put into action any advice I think will work.

At the same time I am still allowing for new information to come across my desk, just not as much as before.

An Information Junkie Management System

• Choose blogs to read that you find most useful;
• If they have a series of posts on one subject handily linked, perhaps work through them over a week;
• Read an information product sales page and analyse what it’s really selling. Do you know anything about the subject? Is it going to tell you something you don’t know?;
• Jot down any ideas that come to you when you’re reading posts/sales copy, they might make good posts, or a product of your own;
• Read everything with a critical eye; try to keep emotion out of it because you’re not there to buy;
• Limit the time for reading informational posts/products, so that you can be focussed on producing your own great content;
• Stick with an idea or topic until you feel you have exhausted it. Skipping back and forth means that the information isn’t staying with you; it has to have time to root and become part of what you do.

These tips, combined with an Information Junkie’s Diet, gives us greater control over the information gathering process. We’ll also be providing an atmosphere of learning by working through those products, or posts, that teach us how to become better bloggers, better marketers, better writers etc.

The rewards may not be instant, but that brings us back to something we often forget: to be a successful blogger takes time. Everyone we see as successful now started at the same place we are, and worked hard even when there were no measurable results.

I know it’s only been a week, but I’ve been following the diet and using these 6 tips and I have been amazed at the amount of work I’ve got done. I have draft posts, rough sketches of other post ideas, and I have picked out a chapter of Blog Post Engineering to read every day. (Blog Post Engineering is an affiliate link.)

Working for just one hour every day in this focused way has completely changed my – I want to say life, but that sounds too dramatic! – attitude, productivity, and enthusiasm for blogging. I’ll write more about this turnaround in another post, and share some results, because I’m sure there will be results to see fairly soon.

InfoJunkiesAnon Discussion

Are you squeezing everything you can out of the posts you read, or the information products you already have? Do you have any workable tips for managing information?