I occasionally find myself in a weird situation when researching or exploring some topic. After spending multiple hours (sometimes during multiple days) I can’t stop consuming information. What is more is that I feel like I’m just circling without solid ground underneath me. Feel related? Then read my approach to have a successful research in short time.
I’m not talking about academical researches. Those are fundamentally different. To be honest I’ve never did those after graduating university.
I’m talking about exploring a topic which caught my attention, researching to make a decision, or researching information needed to complete a task. These are relatively small and narrow topics. Yet, it’s easy to find yourself lost in a jungles of blog posts, articles, and videos.
Set a desired outcome
First of all you need to set an outcome you want to have. Depending on situation it can be either a decision, understanding some concept, or just having a general knowledge on a topic.
Decisions can be of various kinds and sizes. It could be as simple as picking a comedy to watch on Friday night, or as serious as picking an elementary school for you child.
Understanding a concept can be something like a need to help your kid with school project on a topic which you don’t understand, backup your presentation with facts, it could be a part of your larger learning on broad topic, etc.
A research for a general knowledge is usually initiated with a sparkle from something you read or watched and it has grabbed your attention. It’s easy to get lost in different subtopics during this kind of exploration because honestly your intention is blurry.
Strive for minimal viable information
The strength and the weakness of Internet for research is that there is so much information out there. On one hand this means it’s possible to find a deep answer to basically any question. On the other hand lots of information is repeated in many sources. So sometimes it’s hard to go deeper or wider in your research as you see same kind of info in every article or video you read or watch.
Good news is that you don’t need each and every detail and aspect to complete your exploration. There is always a point when it’s enough.
At some point you’ll know that deep inside you have the answer already, but you continue searching just to back it up even more. I suggest that you should stop. There is no point in spending more time when you already can have your desired outcome.
Limit your research sessions
Limiting your sessions creates a great opportunity to process the information and make your conclusions. This is highly related to the concept of minimum viable information. The moment you stop searching and consuming lets your brain to process your findings and make conclusions. The conclusion may be that you have the answer or realizing which pieces do you need to have complete puzzle. In either case you save yourself research time.
Limiting your research as a whole is basically setting yourself a deadline (a very close deadline). E.g. end of today or by weekend.
Limiting each session is best by either time-blocking or limiting the number of sources. In first option you simply give yourself specific amount of time and set a timer when you should stop. In second option you do a quick glance through a dozen or two of articles or videos, pick four to six of them, and deep dive into them. Once you finish with your picks it’s time to stop and make a break.
Take notes and stay focused
Bombarding a brain with lots of new information creates a bit of a mess. Taking notes lets you see core parts of information and your brain can process it more efficiently. Also taking notes keeps you focused on your original needs because once you get derailed into a different direction by clicking a link out of pure curiosity you’ll see there is nothing to note for original topic. Yes, whatever you navigated to may be interesting for you, but it has nothing to do with your research at hand. So just save it for later and move on with sources containing relevant information.
With these simple principles you can keep under control your Internet journey of researching a topic. Remember that Internet can easily derail you from exploring specific topic to mindless browsing and content consumption. Staying focused and remembering your original need is essential in the ocean of information.