Information Cholesterol: that what I call all the emails, SMSes, Facebook requests, phone calls and voice mails we receive every day. It’s killing us and our businesses. Instead of speeding us up, it’s slowing us down. For every one important message (in any incarnation) there are fifteen that are either completely superfluous or, at best, interesting but inappropriate.

We are all required to take on a leadership role of sorts, no matter what we do. A large component of good leadership is the ability to make decisions and then stick with them. Fifty years ago, most decisions were given the luxury of time and information. Today, in a world abundant with free and easy information, the timelines for making decisions have shrunk considerably. It is not uncommon for an email to arrive, laden with a ticking clock, little or no information, and a crucial decision to be made. While reading this email, Outlook notifies you that three other emails have arrived, your mom calls on your cell to find out if you still don’t eat fish and your best friend sends an SMS to tell you that he broke up with his girlfriend.

You need Information Lipitor (a drug used to control cholesterol) which constitutes two molecules:

Unsubscribe – Unsubscribe to everything that is not necessary. In the early days of the internet I subscribed to newsletters, breaking news, and whatever other funky information I thought I needed (Including daily quotes and word of the day). Unread emails started piling up. I always convinced myself that I would find time to read these on a weekend or late one night, but that never happened. One day I had enough and went on a mission to unsubscribe from everything. Those emails that did not have an unsubscribe button, were called personally to get me off the list.

Scan and Prioritise – scan information, don’t read it. If it appears important then try deal with it immediately. If it is garbage, delete it immediately, don’t bother finishing the scan. If it’s something you might need to deal with later, then keep it in your Inbox, and dedicate some time to cleaning the Inbox out. It’s as simple as prioritising. You don’t have to read the whole email that tells you that you have won the Spanish Lottery, surely you know you did not enter? At “Congratulation you have won $55 Million…..” you should hit the delete button. Rather use the time on an email that reads “Please could you send through a quote for….”  or “ I wish to lodge a complaint about…”

Every few months will require another dose of your Information Lipitor. Take the time to do it, your life depends on it.