Blog. Insight, issues, opinions and productivity solutions

Wrong solution?!

Posted on April 4, 2012 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

I was talking to a young manager in a hi-tech company and she shared an interesting insight. She had recently been equipped by her company with a Smartphone, and it had decreased her stress level at home significantly, she happily stated. Why so? Because, she explained, she was no longer afraid to miss out on anything – she could check her email during the evening as often as she wanted in order to see if anything urgent had come up. This is very interesting: before the arrival of the always-connected device, she couldn’t be connected – nor be on call.. Read more

A marvelous knowledge capture application

Posted on March 25, 2012 · Posted in Off-topic

I was at the annual conference of the Israeli Knowledge Management Forum and saw a presentation of a very neat tool, from one of the seemingly countless small startups we have in this country whose creativity never ceases to amaze. The company is Streamitup, and its product is a complete learning delivery solution based on capture of classroom lectures and their delivery to students on demand at a later time via computer. This in itself is nothing unusual; we see it on YouTube all the time – and it is usually as a fuzzy distance shot of the speaker and.. Read more

They saw the SUN!

Posted on March 19, 2012 · Posted in Organizational Solutions

An argument broke out during one of my lectures, about whether a “No Email Day” could work in the organization I was speaking at. Most attendees felt it couldn’t – not unless the electric power were cut! And then they recalled that this had once happened to them… Turns out that in a large building power has been lost for a number of hours and all mail was inaccessible. Now, you’d think this would be a negative experience in their memory – but it was not. They all started describing it to me excitedly: how everybody in the building had come.. Read more

Hooray! Graffiti for Android!

Posted on March 12, 2012 · Posted in Off-topic

Love my new Samsung Galaxy S2 – but typing on its touch keyboard is hardly my idea of fun. And the handwriting recognition that came on it reminds me of  the notorious Apple Newton. Oh, how I missed the Graffiti system on my old Palm Pilot! Graffiti was a stylus-based handwriting system that improved the recognition by replacing some of the harder-to-recognize letter forms with simplified versions, while keeping most characters to a single stroke.  You needed a bit of practice to master it, but this was a minor and worthwhile investment, because the system had excellence performance even on.. Read more

Look in the mirror

Posted on March 6, 2012 · Posted in Individual Solutions

Sometimes what it takes is to look at oneself in a figurative mirror. People hear me lecture about Information Overload and the absurd behaviors it makes us adopt, and they light up with recognition; many come to me afterward to share excitedly how they saw their own life in my descriptions. Which is fine and good, but I like to think that at least some of them go on to change their actions and attain a better life as a side benefit of having had this mirror put in front of them. I first saw this effect long ago when.. Read more

Overloaded 2012 proves a success – Wayda go, IORG!

Posted on February 27, 2012 · Posted in Uncategorized

The Information Overload Research Group’s Overloaded 2012 event in San Francisco was fully successful!  Two dozen information overload crusaders from a diversity of domains – academic, industry, consulting, analyst and the public sector – came together, exchanged research results, viewpoints and opinions, and formed friendships and plans for future cooperation. We heard two interesting keynotes: Prof. David Levy of  the University of Washington spoke about “Educating for Acceleration and Overload”, and Jonathan Spira, IORG’s VP of research and CEO of Basex, shared his new research results on Information Overload. This un-conference model – an informal meeting of like minds – .. Read more

No computers allowed!

Posted on February 24, 2012 · Posted in Organizational Solutions

I’ve reported before on the policy of leaving Blackberries outside meeting rooms… and now I’ve heard of a policy that tops that. An attendee approached me after my lecture on Email Overload solutions today and told me that in the advertising agency where she works it is forbidden to bring notebook computers into meetings. She used to find this objectionable, but having heard me explain the damage of checking email to the effectiveness of meetings, she could now understand why it was a good idea after all. Being in advertising, where their meetings were about hammering out creative ideas, they.. Read more

Books vs. the Internet

Posted on February 18, 2012 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

Even if you’re truly effective in  screening unnecessary information, the fact remains that you need time to deal with incoming online information, whether it’s push-mode info (primarily email) or pull-mode info (e.g. RSS feeds). The question is, where does the time come from? Someone pointed out once that you can successfully manage your RSS feeds, blog updates, Twitter, Facebook, and so on if you give up watching TV. And indeed, giving up television would give many people a significant chunk of time to devote to their online data consumption. TV being what it is, one could argue that it’s a.. Read more

We’ll talk!

Posted on February 9, 2012 · Posted in Individual Solutions

An all too common pattern of one to one communication these days involves a lengthy ping pong of email messages going back and forth. One piece of advice I often give is “after a few times, just pick up the phone!” Well, I realized that one friend I have, a college faculty member, is being more proactive than that. This guy, a well-connected Digital Native, ends many of his one to one mails with “We’ll talk”, or “Talk to me <phone number>”, or “Set 30 minutes with <his secretary>”. What this smart fellow is doing, is to send across briefly.. Read more

We have a generation gap to bridge!

Posted on January 30, 2012 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

I’ve reported a number of cases where managers (most famously, Barack Obama)  implement an interrupt-free environment by mandating a “no cellphones” policy in meetings. While I wholeheartedly applaud this behavior, I must in all fairness report a dissenting viewpoint. I was talking to a Gen Y worker whose company  had launched such a ban, and he told me that he thought it was not a good idea at all, because his millennial generation needed the cellphones to work, he said! To his mind, having a coworker without a cellphone in ringing mode meant they were inaccessible, and hence unavailable to.. Read more