Recreate in your mind the last time you walked down a busy street. You will be seeing, hearing and very probably smelling a great many things, but you will only be recalling a fraction of the information your brain actually processed at the time.

This is because our brains instinctively identify and prioritise the information we need to notice and remember. Some information, like traffic and people moving towards us, will be held in our short – term memories for as long as they present a potential obstacle or threat. Other information that may significantly impact upon us in some way, such as an accident we see or are involved in, may well become fixed into our long – term memories, enabling us to vividly recall them months, years or even decades later.

We give this instinctive ability to identify and prioritise significant information not a moment’s thought. Unbidden, our brains sort through the unceasing flow of data that assails our senses, selecting those items to which we need pay particular attention.

This sorting and prioritising function of our brains serves us very well as we go about our daily lives. Stop for a moment and imagine what it would be like if everything we saw heard and smelled impacted, uncensored, on our consciousness. We would become frozen, stuck in a never-ending moment of panic and indecision!

The world of work, however, often seems to act counter to our innate, life preserving ability to instinctively identify and prioritise those things that are significant to us. Each day of our working lives we are presented with torrents of information that demand our attention and action. These torrents are made stronger and even more urgent by the fact that they carry a lot of information specifically aimed at us. Faced with such a surge we can feel like we are swimming against the flow and debris of a swollen, flooding river. All of a sudden everything seems to be heading in our direction and our brains and bodies can falter, overwhelmed by the onslaught about to batter into us.

The frenetic pace and urgent demands for action associated with the modern workplace can make us feel that we have to get everything done instantly, that we have to achieve the impossible: swim against the tide, fight the flood and stop the debris crashing into us.

In the face of this onslaught the answer is not to swim as hard and as fast as we can, but to grab hold of a lifeline that will help us reconnect with our innate ability to identify and prioritise that which is truly important. We need to quickly recognise and grasp the line between those things that are likely to have a significant impact upon us and those things that are likely to cause mere tangential, trivial waves of disturbance.

The key things we need to do are stop reacting and start thinking. Even those faced with a wall of oncoming flood water have more chance of surviving if they keep thinking, keep their wits about them and focus on what surrounds them, looking for places to anchor or shield themselves, or raise themselves above the waters

When you next feel overwhelmed by the demands being placed upon you try creating a lifeline for yourself, one that you can grasp hold of and use to identify those things of greatest significance to you. Take a plain piece of paper and draw a horizontal line approximately one-fifth the way down it:

Visualise the flow of oncoming tasks in front of you. Then start to pick them off one by one. Which ones stand out brightly as most significant and important to you? Which ones are headed straight for you and you alone? Which ones will have the greatest and most lasting impact upon you? What evidence do you have to support this view? Write these tasks above the line.

Which tasks, when you concentrate your gaze upon them, shrink in their importance, becoming lightweight and trivial? Which ones are merely headed in your general direction? Which ones, at worst, will result in trivial, glancing blows? Again, what evidence do you have to support this view? Write these below the line.

There will be some tasks that remain fuzzy when you focus upon them. They will be covered in a mist of uncertainty, hovering over and obscuring the line between significance and triviality. Zoom in upon these tasks, clear the mist away and magnify their characteristics. Work hard at trawling for evidence that will put them on one side or other of the line. Do not stop until you have cleared your lifeline of this misty debris.

The next time you feel overwhelmed by the demands of the tasks, information and ideas that seemingly speed unfettered towards you, remember that you have the ability to freeze the onslaught. Remember that you can create and grasp hold of a lifeline that will help you put things in their proper, prioritised place.

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