When you notice information overload (a headache, fatigue, frustration, mood swing), don’t ignore it and don’t panic.Say to yourself, “I’m in a new job and there is plenty to learn here. It’s okay to feel this way.”This self-talk helps normalize the situation and makes the emotions easier to handle

Manage yourself

The goal here is to do what you can to help your brain help you. The more juice you reserve for processing information, the less likely you will be to experience overload.Choose carefully how you expend your energy and avoid doing things that make your brain work harder than it has to. Here are a few ways to you can do this:

Manage your brain

Our brain keeps what it needs more immediately in our short-term memory and blends together information we may need to use in the future to store in our long-term memory. For the information that’s not needed, our brain acts like garbage disposal, sorting, recycling, and deleting it. You can help your brain sort and store information better to avoid overload.

Sort your information

Organizations often have digital knowledge management systems to store and retrieve important information. You can do the same to reduce brain clutter.Create a Word or Google document in which you write down information that your brain doesn’t need to remember or store.

Use technology to store what you don’t need right away

<img src="https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2021/09/A_Sep21_21_115824353.jpg" width="630" height="354"><div class="caption" dir="ltr">
				HBR Staff/Getty Images/Peter Stark
		</div><div more-caption="more" close-caption="close" dir="ltr">
		Summary.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
		Starting a new job is exciting. But with it comes the big task of understanding, assimilating, and digesting tons of new information. It can overload your brain and&nbsp;if not managed, make your shiny new role much less enjoyable.

Information overwhelm can...<button dir="ltr">more</button>
	</div><img src="https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2020/10/Ascend_Logo_2020_2x.png" alt="Ascend logo" width="105" height="25">Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend <a href="https://hbr.org/insight-center/ascend" dir="ltr">here</a>.It’s always exciting to begin a new job. But among the frenzy of meeting new colleagues, starting new projects, and building new skills, there can be an equally stressful <a href="https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/statistics/mental-health-statistics-stress" dir="ltr">pressure to succeed</a>. A big part of your success is determined by how quickly you are able to digest lots of information, including, but not limited to new names, processes, systems, software, and responsibilities.This can be incredibly overwhelming, and if not managed, make your shiny new role <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297174233_Information_Overload_effects_on_work_satisfaction_of_knowledge_workers" dir="ltr">much less enjoyable</a>. When our brains are overloaded with too much data from the outside world, we can struggle to absorb, process, and make sense of it — hampering our ability to make smart decisions and perform at our best. The <a href="https://iorgforum.org/" dir="ltr">Information Overload Research Group</a> (yes, this exists) has a word for this feeling: infoxication (also known as data smog).There are a couple of different ways this can happen:Rapidly: In attempt to learn as much as possible in your new role you spend the majority of your time viewing presentation after presentation or reading long, complex reports. Boom! Overload. In the middle of an important meeting, you suddenly feel full, like you can’t take in another thing in that moment.Gradually: You spend your first few days on the job scanning reports, meeting new people, and reading about the various organizational goals with little breaks in between. At the end of each day, you feel dull and unable to absorb anything else.Both experiences are annoying. But if you can push your frustrations to the side and recognize that the fullness or dullness you’re feeling is actually information overload (a normal part of starting a job) then you can better manage it — and you should. When left unchecked, infoxication not only impacts your performance, but can cause stress-related problems, like headaches, irritable moods, sleeplessness, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/088915918790002X" dir="ltr">a weakened immune system</a>, an inability to focus, and <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/02/how-the-pandemic-exacerbated-burnout" dir="ltr">burnout</a>.&nbsp;<h2>How to Respond to the Overwhelm</h2>Take heart that everybody experiences information overload from time to time, especially when starting something brand new. To outsmart overwhelm, there are two things you need to manage: yourself and your brain.<h3>Manage yourself</h3><div dir="ltr"> 
When you notice information overload (a headache, fatigue, frustration, mood swing), don’t ignore it and don’t panic. “Strong emotions aren’t bad, and they don’t need to be pushed down or controlled,” <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/11/how-to-manage-your-emotions-without-fighting-them" dir="ltr">writes</a> Dr Susan David, the author of <a href="https://www.susandavid.com/about-the-book/" dir="ltr">Emotional Agility</a>. Say to yourself, “I’m in a new job and there is plenty to learn here. It’s okay to feel this way.” 
</div>This self-talk helps normalize the situation and makes the emotions easier to handle. Remember that emotions evolved as a signaling system. They are <a href="https://hbr.org/2014/05/emotions-are-data-too" dir="ltr">data</a> points that can help you better understand yourself and your values. In this the case of overload, they can clarify what is happening around you that is making you feel overwhelmed and the best way to handle it.The trick to overcoming information overload is distancing yourself enough from your feelings to acknowledge this. I recommend practicing what psychologists call <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/11/3-ways-to-better-understand-your-emotions" dir="ltr">emotional labelling</a>. It involves naming the emotion that you’re experiencing to help you take a step back and simply notice the feeling rather than letting it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/business/dealbook/the-importance-of-naming-your-emotions.html" dir="ltr">impact</a> you mentally and physically.For example, the next time you’re feeling overwhelmed, rather than stressing yourself out by thinking something vague like, “I’m so STRESSED OUT,” consider whether your stress is <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/11/3-ways-to-better-understand-your-emotions" dir="ltr">manifesting in the form of more specific feelings</a> like anger, sadness, anxiety, or embarrassment. As you name these feelings, try to distance yourself from them and observe what comes up for you. You might, for instance, realize you are angered by how long it’s taking you to learn a new system at work. On closer inspection, you may realize that your anger is the result of impatience and confusion.Now you can take your initial response of “I’m so overwhelmed!” and reframe it as “I’m too impatient to learn this system and that makes it harder to learn. As a result, I feel confused by it and that makes me feel angry.” That problem is much easier to understand and solve.The last step is to brainstorm potential solutions to the issue you have identified:<UL><LI>Impatience: Take a short break, go for a walk, and reset your attention and focus when you return. Remind yourself that all systems take time to learn and you’re doing just that — learning.</LI><LI>Confusion: Identify the top three things you find difficult to decode. Seek support from your boss or a team member, or search for online tutorials to guide you.</LI></UL>Importantly, if you don’t do the work to acknowledge and address your emotions, you’re more likely to experience <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0963721414550708" dir="ltr">lower wellbeing</a> and stress-related symptoms.<h3>Manage your brain</h3><div dir="ltr"> 
The goal here is to do what you can to help your brain help you. The more juice you reserve for processing information, the less likely you will be to experience overload. 
</div>Choose carefully how you expend your energy and avoid doing things that make your brain work harder than it has to. Here are a few ways to you can do this:Sort your information.&nbsp;CEO of NeuroBusiness Group and psychiatrist&nbsp;<a href="https://drsrinipillay.com/meet-srini/" dir="ltr">Srini Pillay</a>, says your brain is like a clever piece of equipment that “<a href="https://hbr.org/2017/06/the-ways-your-brain-manages-overload-and-how-to-improve-them" dir="ltr">that sucks up information</a>.” Our brain keeps what it needs more immediately in our short-term memory and blends together information we may need to use in the future to store in our long-term memory. For the information that’s not needed, our brain acts like a garbage disposal, sorting, recycling, and deleting it. You can help your brain sort and store information better to avoid overload.For example, if you’re watching a presentation and the data presented will be available to look at after the session, you don’t have to remember it all in the moment. Instead, give the presentation your full attention so that you can make sense of what is being said. Working to understand the main points of a presentation is good use of your brain’s summarizing and distilling functions.Alternatively, if your colleague is giving you instructions or advice, that information may be worth consciously taking note of, integrating, and storing for the future. Your colleague has already done the work of summarizing and sorting what you need to know, so why waste your time and energy seeking it out again later?Use technology to store what you don’t need right away. Organizations often have digital knowledge management systems to store and retrieve important information. You can do the same to reduce <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-organized-mind-9780241965788" dir="ltr">brain clutter</a>.I recommend creating a Word or Google document in which you write down information that your brain doesn’t need to remember or store. In the early days of a new job, this is a clever way to offload the overload.For instance, a colleague, upon being hired, began her own type of Wikipedia page for the people, roles, products, and insights she needed to know in her new role. She reviewed the document every few days, adding information, emptying her brain and deliberately externalizing information into this self-made knowledge system.Make sense as you go.&nbsp;If you’re a note-taker in meetings, check that you’re not transcribing notes like a court reporter on your laptop.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret-don-t-take-notes-with-a-laptop/" dir="ltr">Handwritten notes</a> that summarize help with greater understanding, retention and recall than tapping away typing up pages and pages of details. Quality information that you’ve sorted, synthesized and summarized is more meaningful and useful.Techniques like handwriting lists of key points, writing up two columns of contrasting information, sketching a mind map of points related to each other, or doodling hand-drawn icons all help reduce the load your brain is under. At the end of a meeting, review your notes and store them in your own Wikipedia or external knowledge system.Reduce task-switching.&nbsp;Juggling or multi-tasking isn’t good for you physically or mentally and is worse for your productivity and cognition. <a href="https://hbr.org/2010/05/how-and-why-to-stop-multitaski" dir="ltr">Research</a> shows that doing too much of it can cause your IQ to drop and impact your brain like going without sleep. That’s not a good state to be in when you’re in a new role!For greater control, progress and results, <a href="https://hbr.org/2010/12/you-cant-multi-task-so-stop-tr" dir="ltr">focus in on one task</a> for around 25 minutes (based on the efficiency of <a href="https://hbr.org/2014/02/the-surprising-power-of-impulse-control" dir="ltr">the Pomodoro technique</a>). You can go for longer than that, but be sure to take a break. Focused activity is less taxing than multitasking, but you can’t keep working endlessly.<div>
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Help your brain sort and store what it needs.

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Problem Solving

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/insight-center/ascend">here </a>.

It’s always exciting to begin a new job. But among the frenzy of meeting new colleagues, starting new projects, and building new skills, there can be an equally stressful <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/statistics/mental-health-statistics-stress">pressure to succeed </a>. A big part of your success is determined by how quickly you are able to digest lots of information, including, but not limited to new names, processes, systems, software, and responsibilities.

This can be incredibly overwhelming, and if not managed, make your shiny new role <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297174233_Information_Overload_effects_on_work_satisfaction_of_knowledge_workers">much less enjoyable </a>. When our brains are overloaded with too much data from the outside world, we can struggle to absorb, process, and make sense of it — hampering our ability to make smart decisions and perform at our best. The <a dir="ltr" href="https://iorgforum.org/">Information Overload Research Group </a>(yes, this exists) has a word for this feeling: infoxication (also known as data smog).

There are a couple of different ways this can happen:

Rapidly : In attempt to learn as much as possible in your new role you spend the majority of your time viewing presentation after presentation or reading long, complex reports. Boom! Overload. In the middle of an important meeting, you suddenly feel full, like you can’t take in another thing in that moment.

Gradually : You spend your first few days on the job scanning reports, meeting new people, and reading about the various organizational goals with little breaks in between. At the end of each day, you feel dull and unable to absorb anything else.

Both experiences are annoying. But if you can push your frustrations to the side and recognize that thefullness or dullness you’re feeling is actually information overload (a normal part of starting a job) then you can better manage it — and you should. When left unchecked, infoxication not only impacts your performance, but can cause stress-related problems, like headaches, irritable moods, sleeplessness, <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/088915918790002X">a weakened immune system </a>, an inability to focus, and <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/2021/02/how-the-pandemic-exacerbated-burnout">burnout </a>.

Take heart that everybody experiences information overload from time to time, especially when starting something brand new. To outsmart overwhelm, there are two things you need to manage: yourself and your brain.

When you notice information overload (a headache, fatigue, frustration, mood swing), don’t ignore it and don’t panic. “Strong emotions aren’t bad, and they don’t need to be pushed down or controlled,” <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/2016/11/how-to-manage-your-emotions-without-fighting-them">writes </a>Dr Susan David, the author of <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.susandavid.com/about-the-book/">Emotional Agility </a> . Say to yourself, “I’m in a new job and there is plenty to learn here. It’s okay to feel this way.”

This self-talk helps normalize the situation and makes the emotions easier to handle. Remember that emotions evolved as a signaling system. They are <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/2014/05/emotions-are-data-too">data </a>points that can help you better understand yourself and your values. In this the case of overload, they can clarify what is happening around you that is making you feel overwhelmed and the best way to handle it.

The trick to overcoming information overload is distancing yourself enough from your feelings to acknowledge this. I recommend practicing what psychologists call <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/2016/11/3-ways-to-better-understand-your-emotions">emotional labelling </a>. It involves naming the emotion that you’re experiencing to help you take a step back and simply notice the feeling rather than letting it <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/business/dealbook/the-importance-of-naming-your-emotions.html">impact </a>you mentally and physically.

For example, the next time you’re feeling overwhelmed, rather than stressing yourself out by thinking something vague like, “I’m so STRESSED OUT,” consider whether your stress is <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/2016/11/3-ways-to-better-understand-your-emotions">manifesting in the form of more specific feelings </a>like anger, sadness, anxiety, or embarrassment. As you name these feelings, try to distance yourself from them and observe what comes up for you. You might, for instance, realize you are angered by how long it’s taking you to learn a new system at work. On closer inspection, you may realize that your anger is the result of impatience and confusion.

Now you can take your initial response of “I’m so overwhelmed!” and reframe it as “I’m too impatient to learn this system and that makes it harder to learn. As a result, I feel confused by it and that makes me feel angry.” That problem is much easier to understand and solve.

The last step is to brainstorm potential solutions to the issue you have identified:

<ul><li>Impatience: Take a short break, go for a walk, and reset your attention and focus when you return. Remind yourself that all systems take time to learn and you’re doing just that — learning. </li><li>Confusion: Identify the top three things you find difficult to decode. Seek support from your boss or a team member, or search for online tutorials to guide you. </li> </ul>

Importantly, if you don’t do the work to acknowledge and address your emotions, you’re more likely to experience <a dir="ltr" href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0963721414550708">lower wellbeing </a>and stress-related symptoms.

The goal here is to do what you can to help your brain help you. The more juice you reserve for processing information, the less likely you will be to experience overload.

Choose carefully how you expend your energy and avoid doing things that make your brain work harder than it has to. Here are a few ways to you can do this:

Sort your information.  CEO of NeuroBusiness Group and psychiatrist <a dir="ltr" href="https://drsrinipillay.com/meet-srini/">Srini Pillay </a>, says your brain is like a clever piece of equipment that “<a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/2017/06/the-ways-your-brain-manages-overload-and-how-to-improve-them">that sucks up information </a>.” Our brain keeps what it needs more immediately in our short-term memory and blends together information we may need to use in the future to store in our long-term memory. For the information that’s not needed, our brain acts like a garbage disposal, sorting, recycling, and deleting it. You can help your brain sort and store information better to avoid overload.

For example, if you’re watching a presentation and the data presented will be available to look at after the session, you don’t have to remember it all in the moment. Instead, give the presentation your full attention so that you can make sense of what is being said. Working to understand the main points of a presentation is good use of your brain’s summarizing and distilling functions.

Alternatively, if your colleague is giving you instructions or advice, that information may be worth consciously taking note of, integrating, and storing for the future. Your colleague has already done the work of summarizing and sorting what you need to know, so why waste your time and energy seeking it out again later?

Use technology to store what you don’t need right away. Organizations often have digital knowledge management systems to store and retrieve important information. You can do the same to reduce <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-organized-mind-9780241965788">brain clutter </a>.

I recommend creating a Word or Google document in which you write down information that your brain doesn’t need to remember or store. In the early days of a new job, this is a clever way to offload the overload.

For instance, a colleague, upon being hired, began her own type of Wikipedia page for the people, roles, products, and insights she needed to know in her new role. She reviewed the document every few days, adding information, emptying her brain and deliberately externalizing information into this self-made knowledge system.

Make sense as you go.  If you’re a note-taker in meetings, check that you’re not transcribing notes like a court reporter on your laptop.  <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret-don-t-take-notes-with-a-laptop/">Handwritten notes </a>that summarize help with greater understanding, retention and recall than tapping away typing up pages and pages of details. Quality information that you’ve sorted, synthesized and summarized is more meaningful and useful.

Techniques like handwriting lists of key points, writing up two columns of contrasting information, sketching a mind map of points related to each other, or doodling hand-drawn icons all help reduce the load your brain is under. At the end of a meeting, review your notes and store them in your own Wikipedia or external knowledge system.

Reduce task-switching.  Juggling or multi-tasking isn’t good for you physically or mentally and is worse for your productivity and cognition. <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/2010/05/how-and-why-to-stop-multitaski">Research </a>shows that doing too much of it can cause your IQ to drop and impact your brain like going without sleep. That’s not a good state to be in when you’re in a new role!

For greater control, progress and results, <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/2010/12/you-cant-multi-task-so-stop-tr">focus in on one task </a>for around 25 minutes (based on the efficiency of <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/2014/02/the-surprising-power-of-impulse-control">the Pomodoro technique </a>). You can go for longer than that, but be sure to take a break. Focused activity is less taxing than multitasking, but you can’t keep working endlessly.

How to Save Yourself From “Information Overload”

Manage yourself

Manage your brain

Sort your information

Use technology to store what you don’t need right away

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