What’s the difference between information overload and super-important information overload? Glad you asked!
The amount of information is the same: somewhere between a-tiny-bit-more-than-you-can-process-right-now and infinity. In the super-important version, however, each piece of new information comes with an urgent warning or moral implication meant to bump it to the front of the priority line. The result can be a paralyzing cocktail of panic, confusion, and shame.
For teachers, this feeling starts the summer before their rookie year, the first time someone hands them a giant training binder and says something like, “Make sure you read this thoroughly or you could ruin your students’ lives!” Then, a week later, at an HR meeting, someone gives them another binder, and says something like, “Make sure you read this, or your teaching career will end in flames of destruction and infamy!” Then they receive a few huge, important packets. Then they get some recommended book lists so long they get tired from just reading the lists. Soon they’re stuck in a cash-grab-style whirlwind of super-important advice with no way of knowing which advice is the super-importantest, until eventually they just want to lie on their backs in the school hallway and yell, “This is all the time and energy I have! Can someone please tell me what I should really spend it on?”
This was the inspiration for The Sanity-Saving School Year Starter Kit, a free, three-day email series meant to help rookie teachers cut through information overload and focus on the few, basic things that will most help them prepare for their first day of teaching.
If you’d like to sign up to receive the email series, you can use this link or the form below.