---
title: "Two ways of getting information, and personal effectiveness"
author: "Stan Voo"
url: https://www.99rabbits.com/blog/two-ways-of-getting-information
published: 2008-11-07
summary: "Information reaches you in one of two ways: you request it, or it gets pushed at you. Being effective starts with taking the push stream under control."
---

# Two ways of getting information, and personal effectiveness

There are two ways of getting information: active and passive. Let's call them "request" and "push".

You get information actively (request) when you go looking for material on a subject that interests you: online, say, or in a library, or simply by asking people you know.

You get it passively (push) when someone presents it to you without your permission and makes you pay attention to it. That's every kind of advertising (outdoor ads above all), and acquaintances who ask a lot of questions and generally say too much :) Push is a kind of violence: you didn't ask, and still someone shoves something at you, like a market trader: "Hey, look at this peach! Not a peach, a booty!" ;)

So, to "be effective" (sorry, I couldn't think of a better phrase), you need to stop the push stream, or take it under your control.

**First, messengers!** ICQ, Skype, Google Talk, the chats on Facebook and VKontakte all deliver information by push. You can save a good deal of time by using email instead of ICQ. You can set aside the most convenient time for email, and you won't have to keep answering questions like "how are you?" and "what are you up to?".

**Second, email** shouldn't be checked automatically every N minutes. I know from my own experience how much that distracts from the task at hand. Better to switch automatic checking off altogether.

*[Steve Pavlina](http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%A1%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B2), for example, advises checking email at the end of the working day, not at the start. Roughly speaking, you'll be more tired then and will get it over with faster.*

**Third, [RSS](http://orss.ru/).** You put together your own stream of the information that's useful to you, without being distracted by things that don't matter.[^1]

I think I'll add to this list in the future.

[^1]: P.S. There is one example of push being useful, though: text messages about the balance of your bank account ;)