CONNECT DIGITALLY
Dyan Burgess of The Story Curator asks the question,
‘How can you connect the dots, with so much digital information
available in today’s world?’
E
xcessive dot connecting can
have the opposite effect that you
intend. In other words, no dots
will be connected. Ever.
The book by Barry Schwartz The Paradox
of Choice: Why More is Less, provides a
great example of how we need to refine our
choices to ensure that we can best connect
ideas, particularly, with the plethora of
digital information now available to us.
Finding a process, or mental framework, to
assist your ability to connect dots is a great
first step.
One of the following processes may
resonate with you. Even better,
you can implement it immediately.
With the high likelihood that you
will reap benefits in the short
term. One way that you can sift
through the almost infinite digital
resources is to provide yourself
with some guidelines to restrict
how you approach your research.
This can be as simple as limiting
time spent to a maximum of 15 to
30 minutes on a particular point.
Another option can be to restrict
yourself to four or five URLs as
they come up in your search
engine. Simple parameters like this, while
seemingly restrictive, provide you with a
good foundation for some initial thoughts,
without sending you off on a tangent. You
want to stay focused on what you are trying
to achieve.
Books written on this topic include, The
Third Space by Adam Fraser and Daniel
Pink’s latest release When. While Arianna
Huffington also goes into the detail of
adequately giving yourself time between
intense activities in her book Thrive, Carol
Dweck considers your ‘mindset’ in her book
of the same name. Dweck's book discusses
the fixed and growth mindsets. From
reading this book, you obtain a sense that
your ability to connect the dots would most
likely come from a growth mindset. The
growth mindset seeks to learn, discover new
ideas and to connect dots.
One way to build a mental framework
is through the process of a set time for
research. A set time, each day, allows your
mind to be ready to jump into action for an
activity. It builds a habit. Think about what
time of day you usually eat breakfast or
dinner. Your mind and body expect certain
routines once you establish them. Mental
activity is no different. Think how you could
use this process for researching and writing
articles, blog posts and ultimately a book.
Once you start writing publish it on a public
forum, like a blog. This is a way for you (and
your audience) to be able to easily
search keywords. It also provides
you with the opportunity to find
connections that you had not seen
before. This can cause a domino
effect, as the dots are connected
via digital search, enabling you to
create more content (how do you
think I wrote this article?) and
more value for your customers.
Another benefit, is that it can
provide you with insights into what
you can do to write better or areas
that you could write in more detail.
“You can’t connect the dots looking
forward; you can only connect them
looking backwards. So you have
to trust that the dots will somehow
connect in your future. You have to
trust in something – your gut, destiny,
life, karma, whatever.'
Further, limiting your time does seem to be
one of the best tools to reduce the amount
of data that you are ‘consuming’. Having said
this, there are two aspects to the focus on
time. One is restricting how long you spend
on a particular topic. While the other focus,
is providing yourself time between your
research sessions.
Allowing your mind to ‘settle’ is an important
strategy applied by many successful people.
As noted in the Steve Jobs quote, we can
only ‘connect the dots looking backwards'.
Further reading on the importance of giving
your mind time and space can be done via
the Harvard Business Review article Manage
your energy, not your time (October, 2007
Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy).
22
Women’s Network Magazine
- Steve Jobs.
Charlie Munger's Almanac provides mental
frameworks that you could use to connect
dots. Munger is attributed with suggesting
that his mental frameworks are what have
allowed him to connect dots that others have
not otherwise seen and provided him with
deep insights and opportunities.
Regular use of these mental frameworks
has apparently built him a robust mindset
to quickly digest and connect substantial
information in an extremely effective way.
Again, this reinforces the more you practice
and seek to make a habit, the more likely you
will be able to provide yourself with the best
outcome.
Consider the sage words by Stephanie
Kwolek (the lady who invented Kevlar) ‘All
sorts of things can happen when you are
open to new ideas and play around with
things'. Whether Kwolek, intended or not,
these words beautifully summarise the
connection of the growth mindset and
mental frameworks.
There are numerous
opportunities for you to take
advantage of. The more often you
seek to connect ideas, the more ideas you
seem to connect. And with no digital limit
to storing those ideas there is no longer an
excuse of limited space.
Start today. Connect the dots.
Publish your connections and create new
dots. Leave a digital legacy
AUTHOR
DYAN BURGESS
Creative Director, The Story Curator
[email protected]