At some time in our lives, we find ourselves making a prediction of some sort. It could literally be about anything; from having a feeling that we would some day buy one of those attractive homes to pursuing a career in the high tech industry.

Some of us make predictions based on feelings. Others do it based on beliefs and still others do it on intuition. Most of us however, probably do it based on information which at the time may either be relevant or random. A private mortgage broker may choose to predict the outcome of the completion of a job based on interest rates.

Like it or not, we are living in an informational society and a knowledge based economy. Information could probably be classified as follows; relevant, random, or useless. Many companies use information for a plethora of reasons and purposes. A dental centre may use it to develop a marketing strategy to attract more patients while a real estate agent may use it to identify their consumer market.

Many large corporations use information to help them track and forecast trends. Others use it as a means of keeping up with current trends and others use it for historical purposes. For an actively managed portfolio manager, it may be a combination of all of the above.

Information that you may choose to consider as useless may be extremely relevant to someone else. For example: You would probably choose to discard brochures on water heaters because you do not need to know about them but to a sales person or technician, it may be a completely different story.

As a general rule of thumb, it may not be a bad idea to take a look at information and use it as you see it fit. One never knows when you would need to do a memory recall in order to either impress your peers or help yourself out of a hole. Knowledge is power and power is knowledge.

It is very easy to fall into information overload but if we do a bit of planning, choosing, and strategizing, it could easily be managed. No need to be intimidated by informational overload. It is not as fearsome as we may think. So let us now embrace the world of information. Enjoy it, and learn how to swim strongly within it.