I don't know about you, but for me, information has an addictive effect that drives me to jump from one article to another, to want to find out everything about the specifics of a subject. Let me share with you my little confession: I often put information first at the expense of my daily "goals". The information seems so important and so rich that I fall into what is called a form of infobesity.
It's normal! How can I resist this thirst for information when there are over 1.4 billion websites in the world? It's enough to challenge my intellectual curiosity: if I think about it, I realize that everything starts with my fear of missing something.
So, how can I :
Keep an eye on your competitors;
Find the next big idea;
Distinguish useful information from extraneous noise;
Stay focused on what's essential.
It's simple: "less is better" and information kills information. I would even add that without strategic intelligence, the survival of our companies and our own mental health are in peril. Market intelligence is vital because it allows us to keep the most relevant information according to specific business objectives. What I call strategic intelligence!
By being proactive with all this information that gravitates around you, you will avoid mistakes, you can constantly readjust and reinvent your strategic positioning while preserving your image.
But be careful, monitoring is a rigorous and very methodical job. Without this methodology, you risk being counter-productive, since you will not benefit from the virtuous effects of monitoring, namely competitiveness, time saving, strategic decision-making, a feeling of control over information and much more.
It is therefore essential to define the axes and objectives of your watch, by identifying the sources of information, by defining internally who does what and how, by identifying the actors of the watch, but also by organizing your watch over time and by taking advantage of curation tools and other aggregators that will make your life easier.
Finally, information is infinite, as is news. What's the point of being infobesity and trying to catch up on everything? The important thing is to find the key information, continuously; the one that will allow you to innovate by thinking and being in action every day.