Putting information overload in perspective
There is simply too much information out there and not enough time to absorb or process it. We are hit with thousands of messages every day and don’t even realise it. So when we start to feel overwhelmed, just imagine how much information we must have taken in to get to that point.

Technology’s promise to speed up our lives and give us more spare time has not eventuated. What it has done is increase our capacity to receive and send more and more information. Hand-held and mobile phones, fax machines, email, the web, cable television, text messaging and more - even during our leisure time our brains are being bombarded with unsolicited messages.

The pace of our lives at work and home is accelerating, leaving us limited time to slow down, relax or reflect. Increasingly we long for more balance in our lives: more time to finish that project, more “quality” time with our loved ones, more time to play sport, get fit, watch sport, go on a holiday – or just to escape from having to produce and our insatiable need to consume.

Why is the velocity of our lives escalating and how can we change it? And how can we find more balance between all these competing demands. Can it really be as simple as just being more efficiently organised?

What is cognitive overload?
Cognitive overload is an escalating global phenomenon: a direct symptom of living in a complex, information intense, digital world. Put simply, it is what results when, at any given point in time, the brain has absorbed so much information that it cannot process anything further and cognitive performance begins to diminish.

As David Kirsch of the University of California’s Department of Cognitive Science points out: Cognitive overload is the overload that arises from multi-tasking, interruption and information overload.

Dr Barney Casey in The Australian says: Everyone experiences brain inefficiencies due to the distractions of everyday life. Overload, stress, doing several things at once and poor organisation are prevalent.

Cognitive overload is an unavoidable, natural physiological response to the effects of trying to process an unrelenting barrage of information and interruptions in our daily lives. Cognitive overload is not stress, it is a primary cause of stress.