I’m continuing to write the series of articles that analyze the negative effects of Information Overload in an enterprise setting (though many of the points noted apply to individual knowledge workers, such as small business owners, as well).
The second of these articles discusses an effect that is much less appreciated than the time loss I’d looked at in the preceding article: Cognitive disability resulting from endless distractions, interruptions and general information overload in the workplace. This impacts people’s mental acuity, creativity, quality of decision making, and error rates. You need to see the research findings to understand how harmful this can be, and draw corrective conclusions.
The article also touches on the question of multitasking – is it part of the problem or part of a solution? What do you think?
