Picture this: You’re sitting in an All Hands. A senior leader mentions their top 10 business books. Your colleague texts you 3 podcast recommendations. There’s an HBR newsletter with 7 articles in your inbox, you have 48 browser tabs open, and a stack of “TBR” books are mocking you from your nightstand.
Your first thought: “Great, these resources will help me level up.”
Your second thought: “When exactly am I supposed to get through all this?”
The second thought is the one that wreaks havoc on your confidence and makes you question whether you suck at your job. Because, obviously, the authors and podcasters have it all figured out while you’re still scrambling.
Reminder: You don’t suck at leadership.
But your filters are broken.
About 15 years ago, Clay Shirky challenged the idea of information overload. His point: we’ve always had more information than we could consume. The problem isn’t the volume. It’s that our filtering systems can’t keep up. → Filter failure.
Publishers used to do the filtering for us – they decided what was worth printing because it was expensive to print. Now, anyone can publish anything, which means we have to filter for ourselves. Most of us are terrible at it.
If you’re drowning in tabs, articles, and podcasts, here are four ways to filter what you consume:
1. Values-based filtering: Before you read/listen to anything, ask, “Does this align with what matters most to me?” If your core value is connection, stop reading productivity hacks about eliminating meetings.
2. Identity-based filtering: Ask, “Does this fit who I want to be as a leader?” If you’re building toward being a decisive leader, stop consuming endless content about consensus-building.
3. Knowledge filtering: Leaders overconsume when they don’t trust what they already know. Most of what you’re reading is confirming what you already know or believe. You don’t need more input. Lead with what you’ve got.
4. Strategic elimination filtering: There are only so many hours in a week (168 to be precise). If something doesn’t support your top three priorities this week, month, or quarter, it doesn’t make the cut. Full stop.
Fix your filters, and watch the overwhelm start to ease.
Pick one to try. See what happens.
