Feeling Overwhelmed? Rethink Your Approach
Feeling overwhelmed while seeking information is not a personal failure but a signal that your current strategy needs adjustment. Instead of pushing through, pause and reconsider your approach—whether by seeking a general overview or changing your level of detail.
THE IDEA
Feeling Overwhelmed? Rethink Your Approach
Some people interpret a sense of feeling overwhelmed as a sign that they’re stupid or lack “grit.” For these folks, this bad feeling represents a personal failing on their part. Other people, when they feel overwhelmed, take it as a challenge: they tell themselves to buckle down, apply the good old mental elbow grease, and plow through to a result. For these folks, this bad feeling is a sign they should apply more effort.
Sometimes that second idea is true. If you’re reading that intro biology book and having trouble understanding homeostasis on the first pass, maybe you need to turn off your phone, pull out a notebook, and go through each sentence, word by word, until it starts to click. In schoolwork, pushing through frustration can be a healthy impulse.
In many other cases, however, feeling overwhelmed is a sign your information-seeking strategy needs rethinking.
What do we mean? Imagine you are looking into the safety or effectiveness of a medication. “I’ll help you with that!” says a former high school friend who is somehow inexplicably still on your group chat. But, hey, you need to look into this, so what the heck. You click his link.
It leads to a YouTube video engaging in rapid-fire presentation of evidence. Dozens of documents, things circled and highlighted, and a running live line chart of something or other. Maps with unexplained percentages; lists of effect sizes. As you watch, you’re understanding . . . maybe half of it? A third? It’s just . . . overwhelming. You persevere, though, processing bits and pieces, following along somewhat, filling in the gaps with a vague sense of unease. At the end of this process, do you truly know more? Or would you have been better served with a more general summary?
When we get overwhelmed, we often think of it as our fault. But our emotional reaction isn’t here only to make us feel bad about ourselves. Feeling overwhelmed is a sign that our current strategy isn’t working. Maybe we’re entering a topic at the wrong level of detail. Maybe we need to develop a bit more knowledge by reading a Wikipedia article or two before drinking from a data firehose. And maybe, just maybe, we shouldn’t be drinking from the data firehose at all.
Think of the feeling of being overwhelmed while context-seeking as being like the feeling of growing increasingly tired on a long drive. Yes, you could power through. Maybe it’d be fine. But it might also be a sign of an impending accident. Pull over, look at your GPS, and rethink your journey.
Because of the many downsides of emotional processing, it’s tempting to think you should ignore your emotions when seeking context. But the better route is to notice your emotions and ask yourself what they can tell you and what they can’t. Define what is compelling to you, and see if that sense of compellingness disappears after more context. Be attentive to when you feel overwhelmed, and consider rethinking your strategy. By partnering with your emotions rather than ignoring them or being controlled by them, you’ll chart a faster, more accurate, and ultimately more humane journey through the maze of the web.
When to use it
When studying a complex topic for the first time, instead of diving into advanced research, start with a Wikipedia article or general summary.
When evaluating health information online, if overwhelmed by data, step back and look for a reputable overview before digging deeper.
When faced with a dense academic paper, break it down into sections and read background context first to build understanding incrementally.
When watching a tutorial that moves too fast, pause and seek a simpler explanation or prerequisite knowledge before continuing.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Medication Safety Research
You click a link from a friend to a YouTube video about medication safety. The video presents rapid-fire evidence with documents, charts, and maps. You understand only half, but you persevere. At the end, you may have a vague sense but not true comprehension. Instead, you could have started with a general summary.
Studying Homeostasis
Reading an introductory biology book, you struggle with homeostasis on the first pass. Rather than giving up, you turn off distractions and go through each sentence carefully. In this case, pushing through is effective. But the key is distinguishing when to push and when to rethink.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
When you feel overwhelmed while researching, what is your typical response? How might you reinterpret that feeling as a signal?
What steps can you take to adjust your information-seeking strategy when you feel overwhelmed?
Think of a time when you pushed through overwhelm and it worked. When did it not? What was different?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Verified How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online (Mike Caulfield, Sam Wineburg)