One of the most abundant things today is information. We are exposed to data and news that constantly bombard our attention from many different channels.
This, at first glance, seems like a good thing. Not being informed of what is happening in the world and our immediate surroundings does not seem to be a desirable situation, does it? How do we make important decisions if not?
This reasoning seems sound. But, interestingly, if we dig a little deeper and look at the practical consequences of being so “well” informed, we may come to a different conclusion. And it is that, in many situations, if not in all, there comes a time when having more information leads to behaviors that, far from helping us achieve our goals, keep us away from them.
Let’s look at some examples.
1. What happens in the world
If you watch television, read the newspaper or use social networks, you receive, whether you like it or not, an enormous amount of information about what is happening in the world. News about politics, economics, science, social conflicts… everything.
General culture. It’s important, right?
For practical purposes, not much. You can check it with a simple question:
What part of that information you receive is used in your day-to-day decisions?
I’m not saying conversations. Surely you use it in the conversations you have with people. But do you apply it to your life? Do you use it to introduce changes that make your life better?
If you’re like the vast majority of people, no. It’s just noise. Noise that occupies your mind without any practical manifestation of usefulness. And paying attention to that noise has an opportunity cost.
2. What happens in your environment
Thanks to social networks you can know what the people you know are doing at practically all times. And many people are tempted to stay informed of what is happening around them… out of mere curiosity.
Paying attention to what others are doing out of mere curiosity is spending energy on something that does not bring you any benefit. Quite the contrary. Has the risk of causing addiction, envy and lack of self-esteem. And furthermore, in a “fraudulent” way, because the information we see on social networks is biased and not a true reflection of reality.
If there is something important that is worth knowing about someone in your environment, surely you end up finding out without having to check social networks every 5 minutes.
3. Your expenses
We now enter the financial plane, an area in which it is good to have information, but in which if you have too much information it can backfire.
Knowing where you spend money is very important. In other articles on this blog we have talked about how convenient it is monitor your expenses to stimulate your saving capacity. But if we go too far in examining where we spend our money, we can become paranoid, as well as someone who is a real pain to socialize with.
All you have to do is find out how much you spend per month (in total) on each of the big games: Housing, supermarket, transport, health, travel, leisure. And if you appreciate that this level of spending does not reflect your vital priorities, then you should go into detail and investigate what is happening.
The detail when it is needed, not before.
4. Your investments
Another section in which it is often counterproductive to have too much information is in the return on your investments.
Why?
Because receiving too much information can alter our emotional state and lead us to make decisions that are inconsistent with our investment plan, based on “impulses”.
The time to consume information is when designing your investment plan. Once you are running it, it is best not to look too much at the prices or the news and let time do its work.
For example, do you remember the global housing crisis of 2008? If you owned an apartment and at that moment you were reading the economic news like crazy, it is very possible that you would conclude that the prices of real estate assets were going to fall and never recover, because blah, blah, blah .
Now look at what happened to the time perspective:
Well that.
It is not always good to have a lot of information. Be careful not to pass. Your mind will be cleaner and you will make better decisions.
If you want to access similar content, check out our #Lifestyle section.
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