Each day, the business community is facing a challenge to view, understand and process multiple information inflows at the same time. As vast amounts of data continually compete for our attention, we find that something has to budge.

It is estimated that more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created each day. As employees and individuals, we must sift through it all and make sense of it in the best manner possible. The amount of data available is increasing exponentially, putting us on the verge of information overload.

Much like the unbridled ingestion of food, we become inundated with excess bytes leading to unusable facts and figures within our RSS feeds and the like. It’s time to curb our insatiable hunger for statistics by seeking only the healthy balance of data using any one of many filtering techniques. The best way to manage the situation is to start with an information diet. It begins as a total elimination regimen, similar to food diets, allowing a person to start with a clean palate.

For one day, all information inflows should be avoided while a list is kept to note what data is absolutely necessary to get through the day. It is not unusual to find that only 40 to 60 percent of current information inflows are actually needed for daily consumption. Once it is clear which healthy data inflows are necessary, it is time to clear out the “junk food” of information. To accomplish this, purge and permanently delete inflows by unsubscribing to unneeded apps, RSS feeds and bookmarks.

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