Posts Tagged 'information overload'

The two Faces of Anytime, Anywhere

Posted on February 14th, 2014 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion, Individual Solutions, Organizational Solutions

A cool idea (or so we thought) … It really did sound like a great concept at the time: Work Anytime, Anywhere! Catchy slogans like that always sound good, like Andy Grove’s prediction in the nineties of “Free MIPS, Free Bauds” (which is pretty close to reality by now). And the concept of being able to do your work from anywhere as if you were in the office, and at any time of your choosing rather than 9-to-5, seemed particularly cool – so liberating and exhilarating! We in IT were certainly delivering the capability. Admittedly secure remote access was a.. Read more

Coming Next: the Definitive Guide to Information Overload Solutions!

Posted on February 10th, 2014 · Posted in Individual Solutions, Organizational Solutions

Whew! Finished at last!… As I mentioned in a post a few months ago, I’ve been hard at work writing an encyclopedic compilation of every solution I know to Information Overload, from software to training tools, from behavior change drives to personal strategies, from commercial products to innovative ideas. This seemed to be a never ending task, with new solutions popping up all the time; I finally had to recall that wonderful adage, “In every project comes the moment to shoot the engineers and move into production”! So, I arbitrarily closed the list and found that I have 164 solutions.. Read more

New Insight Article: How to Launch an Information Overload Program in Your Company

Posted on September 11th, 2013 · Posted in Organizational Solutions

While I’ve been doing many different and wonderful things since leaving the cube farm (and, come to think of it, before then as well), the one I can honestly claim the most special experience with is helping organizations solve the problem of Information Overload in a structured manner. And while every company is different, requiring me to customize my intervention to the local company culture and other details, I have by now developed a general approach that seems to work well. In my new insight article I explain this approach, which should allow you to apply it in your own.. Read more

All Right! Email is Finally Adapting to the New Millennium!

Posted on August 14th, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion, Individual Solutions, Organizational Solutions

Email solutions for the era of Information Overload These days I’m hard at work on a major effort: I’m writing a white paper I call “Solutions to Information Overload: a Catalogue Raisonné”. It will be an encyclopedic compilation of every solution I know to Information Overload, from software to training tools, from behavior change drives to personal strategies, from commercial products to innovative ideas. And the more solutions I include, the more I find – there will likely be over 150 of them! While many of the solutions I include have been around for a decade or more, I am.. Read more

Dissent and Acceptable Cost for an Information Overload Solution

Posted on June 21st, 2013 · Posted in Organizational Solutions

A different cost concept When I say “acceptable cost”, you might think I mean how many dollars and dimes you should be willing to invest in an Information Overload Solution, whether it’s a software tool or a training intervention. That is not our subject, however; besides, any attempt to do an ROI calculation is bound to show that practically any cost is worth investing – the damage of Information Overload to both individuals and companies is so huge, that any solution that will solve even 10% of the problem is worth its weight in gold. See this detailed calculation for.. Read more

Enounce MySpeed: a Highly Recommended Time Saving Tool

Posted on May 15th, 2013 · Posted in Individual Solutions

The problem with video I am ambivalent about video instruction. On one hand, it adds a richness unavailable by other channels. On the other, it takes time to view – and, unless I need to learn how to perform emergency brain surgery, a written paragraph is faster to read by myself than watching a talking head read it to me. With text, you can skim and jump around – it’s a Random Access medium; video is inherently serial and limited by the average person’s verbal speed. With time an increasingly precious resource in our hectic age of information overload, wasting.. Read more

Radical Email Overload Solution: Batching Email Delivery

Posted on February 19th, 2013 · Posted in Individual Solutions, Organizational Solutions

One of the worst causes of information overload is the constant arrival of email into the knowledge worker’s attention sphere. With new mail arriving every few minutes, people can never fully focus on their work. If they haven’t turned off the “you’ve got mail” alerts they are passively distracted; if they have, a sizable fraction of users still distract themselves by checking for new email every few minutes. What is needed is a way to prevent this checking. A radical email overload solution concept Over my years of helping companies fight information overload I’ve devised my share of original solutions;.. Read more

How Information Overload and Hyperactivity Destroy Leadership

Posted on January 21st, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

Guest Post by Ian Price The recent temporary departure of Antonio Horta-Osorio from his role at Lloyds Banking Group was unusual in the candid use of the ‘S’-word – “stress” – in the bank’s announcement. For any number of reasons, leaders, their boards and investors are keen to avoid the word as part of the narrative in a leader’s exit. However, there have, in the last year or so, been a number of sudden, unplanned chief executive resignations that the press has attributed – at least in part – to stress. These include Masataka Shimizu of Tokyo Electric Power, Jeff.. Read more

How You Can Deploy “Quiet Time” to Increase Your Group’s Productivity

Posted on December 13th, 2012 · Posted in Individual Solutions, Organizational Solutions

When I speak to knowledge workers about solving information overload, I mention some fairly hi-tech solutions: software products that prevent, reduce or help combat the infoglut they all struggle with. And while those are useful, some of the most effective solutions are entirely lo-tech. I already wrote here about No Email Day; let me now tell you about the solution called Quiet Time. How to disconnect and (maybe) win a Nobel prize As everyone knows, William Shockley won a Nobel Prize  as one of the team that invented the Point Contact Transistor at Bell Labs. As many don’t know, he.. Read more

New Insight Article: How Work Processes are Degraded by Information Overload

Posted on December 6th, 2012 · Posted in Impact and Symptoms

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 third of these articles discusses the damage information overload does to key processes in the organization, including effective meetings, team communications, work planning and people management (remember when meetings used to be about thinking and creating value together, not about ignoring each other and surreptitiously doing email?) The article reviews the ways that too much email and constant interruptions have degraded.. Read more