At long last, my revamped website is “live.” It really has been a bigger, more time-consuming project than I envisioned, but it’s done. I have a confession to make, however. I started working on it three years ago, got side-tracked, and it’s taken me this long to complete it. Since I’m a Professional Organizer and really truly do like to cross things off my To Do List, you may ask why it took me so long.

Well, for starters I knew it would be a big project, having done my original website back in 2003. Part of the problem now was that I wasn’t totally ignorant. In fact, I had amassed a wealth of information about what a good website should be like. I wanted it to be perfect and it felt overwhelming and confusing. I could completely emphasize with the feelings of my clients who felt overwhelmed and paralyzed. I finally reached the conclusion that I couldn’t complete this project on my own without support and accountability.

Part of my support was hiring a fellow professional organizer who helps other organizers with marketing tasks. Sara Pedersen with Time to Organize helped me whittle down my wordy text and tweak it so it makes sense. My web designer, Todd Withrow with NicheLabs has been patient with my many revisions and dumb questions. I want to thank Sara and Todd for helping me overcome what felt like a huge hurdle so I could reach my goal of a new, greatly improved website. In the end it’s all been worthwhile. Still, I don’t want to do this again anytime soon! Feel free to poke around the site and let me know what you think. Constructive comments are welcome.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about information overload and how it causes our brains to freeze when we have to make decisions. Newsweek had an excellent article recently entitled “I Can’t Think!”  that attributes the anxiety we feel when making decisions to information overload. I totally understand because I’ve felt that way many times myself. It’s as if there’s a firehouse of information blasting at us full throttle without a turn-off valve.

There’s Twitter and Facebook and countless apps for smart phones. Just look around when you’re at a restaurant or out shopping – at the number of people who are texting and tweeting and talking. The flow of information and facts never stops, Research has shown that when we get so overwhelmed with information we tend to become paralyzed, make poorer decisions or do nothing at all. If it’s true that our brain can hold roughly seven units of information at a time, anything else must be processed into long-term memory and that takes conscious effort. So our brain struggles to figure out what to keep and what to discard.

The article goes on to say that creative decision-making is more likely when our brain applies unconscious thought to a problem. In other words, when we’ve turned off the constant influx of new information. This allows our brains to rest a bit and subconsciously work just below conscious awareness in ways that spark smart decisions. It allows gut-level, emotional decision making, which usually produces better results. Interesting stuff and so true.

Here are some ways you can protect your brain from information overload:

Deal with emails and texts in batches, rather than real time
Take a technology break – turn off your smart phone or computer – at predetermined times
Go on a restricted media diet for a month – set daily limits on TV, social media and the internet – be ruthless and break the addiction!
Only read or study information you can take definitive action on
Spend time on activities that engage you – exercise, time with family and friends, hobbies