In, Out, Too Hard: How We Deal with Information.

I once saw a New Yorker cartoon that had a guy sitting at a desk with three file trays. One was labeled "In," another was labeled "Out," and a third, containing by far the biggest stack of papers, was labeled "Too Hard."


I always thought of that as an apt analogy for what we do with the information we get. It piles up so fast in our modern-day "In" box, a deluge of messages: emails and phone calls and even snail mail letters addressed to us. So much information coming at us, every day.


Enough!


But of course we know it's not enough. Just because we can't figure out how to deal with it, the info keeps coming. There are also text messages and Instant Messaging (if we've signed on to all that), not to mention memos from a boss.

We all have way too much information to process all the time. Not to mention verbal feedback from our kids, spouses, co-workers, etc. People aren't just constantly messaging us but also talking to us, on the phone and even in person, as often as they can. We're swamped with communications all day long!

The key, of course, is to prioritze. But how?

Imagine that box system: In, Out, Too Hard.

When you hear from someone -- via whatever medium -- decide, right away, if it's something you need to respond to immediately or if it can wait. If it's something from your boss, with a deadline attached, put it in the In box and deal with it right away. If it's from a customer asking for more information about something, put it in the In box but underneath the boss's request. If it's from the teacher of your child, asking for a meeting, put it above the customer but just below the boss. Deal with them in that order.

Your Inbox should only have things you need to do soon, if not right away, organized by place in the pile: most important/urgent on top but all demanding attention.

If an email or message is something you can deal with right away, without having to file it, then by all means do -- via email or a phone call or even a personal visit. You're done with it. If that person isn't happy with what you've said, it will come back to your In file later, and you can deal with it anew. In the meantime, put it in your Out file, with a date noting when you dealt with it.

If it's something you can't make right or can't figure out -- and you're getting no guidance from a boss or a spouse or a friend -- put it in the Too Hard file. You know you have to deal with it sooner or later, but there may be a day down the line when you aren't so busy or so frazzled and can tackle it with a clearer mind. Don't forget it -- never forget anything you need to do -- but put it off to another day. For now.

Try to keep a balance among your boxes: as many in the In as the Out, not so many in the Too Hard. And don't hesitate to ask for help about the Too Hards. Someone you know may have a suggestion you never thought of but should have. We're all in this together.

I remember a time when if you were in your car, no one could contact you. Also if you were at the lake cabin, where there wasn't a phone. Granted the information might pile up so you had to deal with it when you came back to the office, but at least for a while it didn't exist.

Goodbye to all that, as the saying goes. Nowadays you're always on call, always responsible for any and all messages, in whatever format. Welcome to the Age of Constant Communication.

The real test of character is what we end up doing with that "Too Hard" tray on our desk -- or in our minds. All that stuff we just don't want to deal with right now, whether it's a bad review of our performance or some customer's unreasonable request or even a kid's impossible dilemma.

The successful business types among us grit their teeth and go through it, ruthlessly throwing out anything that doesn't mean more money or a promotion or peace of mind. They're focused and purposeful and not about to let anything "sentimental" get in their way. Sorry, kids, but I've got a job to do. The mid-level generalist types, most of us, work methodically through the "Too Hard" stack, evaluating each piece -- each letter, email, phone call -- on its own merits, not so quick to get rid of anything. Something we were too busy to read might actually turn out to be important. We're hoping to hold onto, or get again, a job like the one we just had to leave. We're twenty-two and really nervous about what it's like to be a grown-up in a world where almost everyone else has been a grown-up a lot longer. Or we're sixty and trying to help our grown kids cope with life. It's all hard -- too hard -- but we're going to try to deal with it. We wish we didn't have to, but we know we do. So we will.

We all recieve enormous amounts of information each day, from people and from media and from our senses, and we, knowingly or not, categorize it. Being an effective employee or spouse or parent or just person often depends on how well we sort out the messages we receive every day and how we prioritize them.

It's not a God-given ability. It's a skill. Worth learning.

It's just a (big) part of being human. We're all flying blind. Lord help us.