How to think at the age of information overload

Lately I have been suffering from information overload. My current job is kind of new to me so there is a lot to learn; I also have to keep up with the new development of my PhD research topic so that I stay in the game; Australia is a new country and I want to get familiar with its natural environment and culture ASAP; I am still ignorant about macro-economics so that is something I constantly bug MM with my 101 questions on; last, I am also interested in cooking, gardening, writing and keeping myself fit.

So now it is not difficult to understand why I have about 250~300 blog posts to read per day, on top of the papers I have to read for work. How to process all these information and then contribute something new?

I bumped into this blog post today titled "How to think"by a MIT professor. It sheds some lights and I think I am particularly weak on "Synthesize new ideas constantly" and "Make mistakes quickly". I am too overwhelmed for the former and too timid for the latter. I don't think myself as a perfectionist, although I do use that as an excuse for not moving fast enough sometimes. In the game of getting academic work published, for instance, the motto is "Publish or Perish" and a trail-and-error approach is usually recommended. There is no such a thing as a perfect paper and more work always has to be done...Still, I am too timid--almost feels like a psychological barrier.

:(