[PODCAST 298]: Let’s Solve “Communication Overload”

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[PODCAST 298]: Let’s Solve “Communication Overload”

4d ago 35:10

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Most of us have WAY too much coming into our lives…emails, texts, messages through a variety of apps…it can feel overwhelming, for sure. But there are some things we can do to alleviate the pain, and that’s what I’m covering today!

I asked our LearnDoBecome Community group what, exactly, was contributing to their communication overload. (I’ll link to the full conversation at the bottom!)

Here Are the Main Challenges

(1) Too many communication channels: This leads to overwhelm and fragmentation of information. For example…

Donna told me, “I’m part of a performance group and we have a Facebook messenger group list and a WhatsApp group mailing list and a text message group list and an email list. Each of those started as a way to send critical information to the members. But it’s so hard to find the critical information, because they always turn in to a “reply all” situation. The important stuff is buried under a pile of–thumbs-up…smileyface…lol…emoji”

April shared “Text messages from friends and family with general chitchat, but also trying to organize plans, group messages from other parents with kids in the same class as my son, group messages from the school parent team. WhatsApp messages from a broader group of parents at school, and Signal messages from another group I’m involved in. Not to mention all the emails coming in about medical appointments, medical information, and emails with more details than the group chat messages from text, WhatsApp, and Signal can provide. And that feels like just the tip of the iceberg. It feels like I’m drowning in communication sometimes!”

(2) Too many messages, in general:

Alia said, “While I was in college, I found that I was getting about 500-600 emails every couple months from the different professors, grading websites, school newsletters, etc. I had many friends who said “yeah I just don’t check my school email because it’s too much.” But I could tell this seriously weighed on the students in my classes, and many of them just avoided the emails altogether, missing important date changes, scholarship opportunities, deadlines, club events, etc.”

Christine gets emails every day from some companies she’d like to stay connected to (for deals, etc.).

Jeanette gets tons of feedback requests–every time she rents a car, books a hotel, goes to the dentist, etc.

Jennifer has hundreds of emails coming to her work email–with problems she needs to solve and situations to support. It’s tough because she’d already attending too many meetings, supporting committees, coaching employees, and addressing conflicts, so these extra emails feel like an added burden.

(3) Lots of details IN the messages that are hard to locate, when needed:

Jane said, “One of my daughters is a dancer. She dances with her school, with her dance school, and is part of a huge state wide dance concert. So, when emails come my way with dates and rehearsal schedules, competition dates, what costume stuff I need to get her, where does she need to be on a particular day, oh, I bought this for you… was that for the dance school competition or the school dance competition… oh, and then there is the dance exam stuff too Add that with the fact that 2 of her sisters are in the state dance concert too, in different sections…”

Liz shared, “Multiple modes of communication are bogging me down. We are selling a house and building a new one. I get emails, text messages and voicemails from the realtor, sales person and project manager. I am not sure when I need to access this content what mode was used to convey that information so I can review it.”

This Likely Isn’t a Surprise to You

We’re human, and we have limited mental bandwidth. Making decisions, dealing with emotions, handling interruptions, or even just knowing messages are waiting for us can take brainpower.

But at the end of the day, we need to take a leadership role in our lives, and, while it often feels like it’s “us against the world,” there are some techniques that really make a difference.

Great Advice from Our Community

Inside this conversation (again, I linked it below in case you want to engage with real people in our Facebook group!), our members shared some great tips:

(1) Consolidate where we can.

Sometimes we can influence group leaders, friends, family members, colleagues, etc. to streamline communication by only using certain channels or setting “rules.” Eric, for example, prefers texts to emails, so I rarely email him. In our company, we send emails if the information we’re sharing might need to be referenced again in the future (easy to search in Gmail), and then we have casual conversations in Slack (those are deleted automatically after 30 days).

Christine, when referencing the daily company promotional emails, said, “I’ve used your suggestion of creating a filter on Gmail so they all go into @vouchers/offers and I go and clear them out every so often… The best thing is that they don’t go straight into my inbox any more!”

Stephanie shared, “”I try to keep subscription emails in one account & more important/time sensitive (people, appointments, doctors, bills, school, extracurricular, etc.) [in another]. “

(2) Batch responses.

Jane said, “Normally, I look at messages once or twice a day, and when I get home from work and have a couple of minutes I will add dates and notes of what, where, when and who needs what.”

Jennifer shared, “Scheduling ‘no meeting’ blocks on my calendar, including all day Fridays… My challenge here is to hold fast to those blocks.”

I agree–I think it’s essential to silence our phones and close our email so we can have focused time to work. I put extra social apps on the second page of my phone, with only the specific app notification turned on, so I don’t have anything popping up during the day, and I have to actually LOOK to see if there’s a conversation going on. For my phone, I did create a setting where, if one of my “Favorites” calls (this includes my husband and children), the phone does ring. Texts don’t interrupt me, but I’ve told them if it’s an emergency to give me a call. And, I know, easier said than done, but this has been extremely helpful to many of us!

(3) Automate when possible.

Jackie wrote, “I leveraged email rules (Outlook) to manage them. If I was cc’d it went to a cc’d folder… Emails from my bosses were color coded to catch my attention… Certain senders went directly to trash.”

Gmail filters do this BEAUTIFULLY, as well! I have dozens set up so emails are automatically sorted, forwarded, etc. as needed.

Three More Suggestions You May Not Want to Hear

Okay, maybe you DO want to hear these, but they’re not as easy to digest.

(1) Before you sign up for something, make sure you recognize the full scope of the commitment.

My rule of thumb is to imagine how much time/energy it’s going to take–and then multiply that by three. You might be thinking, “April, you’re such a pessimist. Such a killjoy. It’s not that bad.” And maybe you’re right, but here’s what REGULARLY happens to me.

I’ll volunteer to run something (like a charity drive for our local food pantry), and I assume it’s going to be easy-peasy. A couple of emails, maybe a flier, collect the items at an event, load my van, and then drop everything off. But then questions come up from donors, so that necessitates more texts, conversations, and phone calls before the event. Then people who forgot might want to drop things off at my house later. More texts and calls–all for a good cause. And then my husband needs the van to do a different errand, but it’s full of stuff because I’m waiting for everything to come in.

Same thing with kids’ sports. It’s more than just practices and games. Usually there’s a photo day, a closing dinner, coordination for a coach’s gift, a snack rotation, updates when it rains or practice is canceled, people who need rides… It’s all great, but if we don’t build that extra stuff into our expectations, we’re going to take on too much and end up overwhelmed.

(2) Extract all the details and tasks as you process your messages–and put them into a trusted system.

Again, this takes time. It’s easier to say, “I’ll just go back to the text when the time comes.” But honestly, when you learn to extract all necessary information as you go, you get to the point that your messages are all “read,” and you literally never need to go back unless some odd situation comes up.

I personally use my STEP System to manage all of these things, and here are a few examples:

If there’s an address for an event, details about what to bring, etc., I put it directly on my calendar. I add an asterisk after the name of the event, which means “more is in the notes section.” Or I’ll say, “Lunch for Cousins–Bring Fruit Platter” as the title.
If I get a text from someone asking me for a job reference, or something like that, and I say, “Sure! Let me get back with you,” then I write “Respond to _____ about _____” as a task on my calendar for the day I want to send that message.
If I were remodeling my house and getting quotes, details, etc. from a variety of people, I would either copy or screen shot the information and keep it in my digital project manager along with that project. That way, all texts, emails, etc. would essentially be “gathered” where I could see them.

You do want to have a full system set up, if at all possible, as that will alleviate any stress you might otherwise feel.

(3) You may need to say no to some things.

NONE of us like to hear this. I like to believe that I have the bandwidth to do everything my heart desires, but when I try to do too much too fast, my brain skips some steps. For example, after getting back from our three-week trip to Boston and Kenya, I cleaned out my paper inbox and found 5 wedding and graduation announcements. Eric and I looked at our calendars to see which receptions we could attend, and then I was sending money to the others and simultaneously coordinating a bunch of other bills and correspondence (while my mind was trying to process some difficult things that had happened while we were gone–and I was trying to get a stain out of the carpet that appeared when our plants overflowed). In my haste, I put an important wedding reception down a week EARLY, and when Eric and I showed up, we were the only ones there! We ended up having a great conversation with the future bride and groom, who were at the house, but I realized I was trying to do too much at the same time. I needed to “say no” to some of that and just take it one task at a time. We did go back to the “real” reception the following week, and they were happy to see us back!

One other thought I want to share comes from a STEPper named Gwen. In response to a question about how to possibly get project work done when routines take up way too much time, she shared this incredibly insightful response: “Routines are choices we build into our lives. Should I live in a house, or an apartment? Get a pet? Get takeout or cook? Use a paper bowl or ceramic? We construct our day to day routines around hundreds of choices (or happenings) over time. Realizing that my routines are heavier than I want is very valuable. Yes, it’s frustrating (but we are all here because we were already feeling frustrated, right?) Maybe it’s the most important thing that I needed to look at, instead of distracting myself with projects or shopping. For myself, and likely many others, I had to face that I had created a life that was too full of routines- that was too heavy of a lift for the number of hours in my day. I was annoyed that STEP made me look at routines…I only wanted to figure out how to find time for all of my projects. Turns out, lightening the routines was the essential first step in the process. I had to deeply reconsider my priorities and simplify things that I found value in, to create time for myself to be creative, have adventures, and rest. Deconstructing can be very freeing! “

At the End of the Day…

We get to decide which and how many forms of communication come into our lives. As we were visiting a small village in Africa last month, part of me was envious of their quiet lives. Very few people had televisions or telephones, and internet access was extremely rare. They gathered together in person–and they had INCREDIBLE attention spans. Even the children sat through a 4-hour celebration without getting up and running around.

And, while the volume and frequency of information can truly be overwhelming, I do see it as a gift to be able to communicate with family, friends, and our whole LearnDoBecome community–all from my phone or computer, while sitting in my own home (or wherever I am).

What I don’t want is for you to have the benefits and blessings of technology at the cost of your personal peace. It is possible to create simple systems with our communications so we can do what matters most.

LearnDoBecome Invitation:

Take a few minutes to assess your communication “pain points.” Look through the ideas shared above and, if desired, create a small project that includes setting up filters, adjusting notifications, and/or having conversations with those who message you most frequently to create better processes going forward. This is TOTALLY worth it!

And Now for Some Community Celebrations!!

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Upcoming Events at LearnDoBecome!

Our August 2025 ARISE topic is: Financial Health Check-In: Money Conversations that Matter

This upcoming live workshop will be held on Friday, August 22nd at 5pm Pacific. (And a recording will be available afterwards!)

Join us alone or with a partner (and maybe order dinner in!) for this ARISE Transformation Accelerator. We’ll have some solid discussions (featuring YOU!) that will enable you to get past any roadblocks holding you back from financial peace and success. It’s going to be a party! (And if you’d like to bring a partner, but you don’t think they’ll be thrilled about it, Eric promises it will be way less painful than a root canal…)

Click here to start your free 60-day trial of ARISE!

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A live session of STEP Momentum is starting on Wednesday, September 3rd, for all STEP Mastery members!

Full details can be found on our information page, linked below, but this is a fantastic opportunity to go through the whole STEP Program and set up your own Command Central in 3 weeks. We’ll provide simple homework assignments 3 times a week, send encouraging texts, and provide accountability opportunities for you! Can’t wait!

Click here to learn more!