Processing Information - Simply Put!

In the Marstan Guide Introduction to Personal Development, we said that processing information was one of the four core skills that can be applied to all aspects of your life.

Information is now much more readily available than it has been in the past. In the present age it is no longer a question of “how do I get information to make a decision”. Neither is it as simple as saying “money is power”.

The problem today is that there is so much information available; the difficulty is knowing how to process all the information.

There are 6 core skills which can help:

1. Assessing the value of information

With so much information available and coming through your email system, it is invaluable to learn the skills of assessing the value of information. There are usually 4 things you should do with information:

• Throw it! It is not useful or relevant to you, so dispose of it as quickly as possible.
• Refer it to colleagues. It is useful, but not to you. The trick is to pass it to the appropriate colleague.
• Act upon it. There are 3 things to consider. What action should you take? Should you do it now? It not, what time should you allocate in your diary and when?
• File it. It has been acted upon and/or it will be useful to refer to it later. If so, file it in a well structured system and make sure it is entered as soon as possible.

 2. Effective reading

With so much information coming in during a typical day, effective reading has become a key skill; one which few people spend the time improving. If you can read quickly and understand information it is a considerable advantage.

3. Keyboard skills

With so much information being entered in computers it is now an important part of your skills armoury to be competent at using computer keyboards and shortcuts.

4. Improving memory

This is a useful skill even if there is a lot of information available online, because you may not always have the right tools to hand and it can save you time.

5. Thinking

Too few people allocate time in their day to think and plan. It can be anywhere; it is up to you to choose your time and place.

Many people fail to bring their sub-conscious mind into play. Random thoughts when you wake up or you are driving can be invaluable. Always have a notepad or a digital recorder by your side.

6. Problem solving

Many people seem to have some aversion to the word “problem”. They think it is more positive to use the word “challenge”. We do not feel too ideological about it but a problem is defined as:

Any thing, matter, person etc. that is difficult to deal with.

That makes it a word worth using. If your business is going under, it’s a problem; if a member of staff is abusing another, it’s a problem and if your building just caught fire, it doesn’t matter if you call it a challenge or a problem.

To solve a problem there are 4 simple steps:

1. Define the problem
2. Ascertain the cause of the problem
3. List the possible solutions to the problem
4. Analyse the solutions and choose the preferred solution