Practical guide
How to reduce information overload
Reduce intake before trying to read faster. Define the questions your sources should answer, keep fewer inputs with distinct jobs, process them on a schedule, and make omissions reviewable instead of living in constant catch-up mode.[1][2]
Why this gets difficult
Information overload is not simply too much information. It is too many unbounded inputs asking for attention without a clear decision, stopping point, or way to distinguish repeated coverage from something new.[1][2]
A practical way through
- List the decisions and responsibilities that genuinely require outside information.[1][2]
- Assign each source a job—primary fact, specialist context, dissent, or local relevance—and remove sources that mostly repeat another job.[1][2]
- Replace continuous checking with one or two scheduled review windows.[1][2]
- Review what was excluded often enough to correct a blind spot without reopening the full firehose.[1][2]
An example
The situation: A founder checks email, social feeds, five news apps, and dozens of newsletters throughout the day but cannot name which decisions the reading changed.[1][2]
What changes: The intake is reduced to sources tied to pricing, customers, market conditions, and local obligations; repeated coverage is handled in one morning review.[1][2]
What you get: Reading becomes a bounded input to work rather than an ambient task that interrupts every other task.[1][2]
What to watch for
Sources worth keeping
How Scottie helps
Scottie can read selected sources on a schedule, group repeated stories, rank them against clear reader priorities, and expose everything Scottie read so the boundary can be corrected.[3]