Once you have great sources of information and the tools to collect them, you need to
actively discover, digest, and pass on the important pieces of information you find each day.
Note that we said “each" day. With the volume of information you have going through your river, it’s not wise to miss working it for a few days. The result of this is that you’ll have to do such a cursory review of everything you have siphoned off of the big river that you're likely to miss important pieces.
The No. 1 comment people give when exposed to this concept is, “I don’t have time to fit this in my day. I’m already swamped.” There’s no sense debating whether people really have time in their day or not, because most people feel like they’re already full up. Everyone must choose what they find most valuable to invest their time in and learning to leverage a powerful river of information is clearly something that can help your employees and the organization in many ways.
There’s no perfect way to integrate the river of information process into your day. Each
of us operates differently and ingests information uniquely. Some people need to sit down and review their entire river all in one setting. Others can do it five minutes at a time throughout the day. Generally, it should take no more than 30 to 45 minutes to scan through a normal volume
each day. You should look for the information that will be most germane to what you do. It doesn’t make sense to try and read every word that you receive. You have to think of it like doing triage.
You want to scan through the documents and headlines and look for things that
really intrigue you and focus on those.
Here’s a list of possible options to consider when creating your specific method of
reviewing your river:
• Reviewing the river once a day, preferably in the morning, helps get through it so it
doesn’t become a distraction during the day. Triage videos or Web sites you might want
to view later by saving them in browser tabs and review them when you have free time in between things.
• Split up content as to where it’s directed. Send text-based content to your laptop and
videos to your mobile device, for instance. This way you have content on multiple
devices so you have things to review regardless of your travel or location situation.
• Rank the importance of content in your river and send the critical items to your e-mail so you’re sure to review them each day as you do e-mail. Send the less important streams to other applications to be reviewed when you have the time to devote to it.
• Be sure to mix media and delivery types so you’re getting information in newsletters, blogs, tweets, video, audio, etc. This helps keep your interest, and assures a dynamic spread of content and ideas.
• Always be on the lookout for new aggregation and filtering tools to help you better handle the flow of information. Don’t get stuck on one way of handling your river to the exclusion of new ones. Tools come out every week, so look out for new ways of handling things.
There’s one important thing you must do while reviewing content, and that is constantly evaluate the importance of a specific feed. Don’t start off with 30 good sources, then look up a year from now and you’re still reviewing the same list. Always be on the lookout for new sources, and be willing to terminate information from a source that’s become weak over time.
Your river is a living source of information and must be pruned and added to each time you see something better.
MEDIA ACCENT NIGERIA
POSTED BY DOMINIC NWELIH
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