Information Overload Predicted Problem of the Year for 2008 146
Wired is reporting that information overload is being predicted by some analysts as the problem of the year for 2008. "'It's too much information. It's too many interruptions. It's too much lost time,' Basex chief analyst Jonathan Spira declared. 'It's always too much of a good thing.' Information overload isn't exactly new, but Spira said the problem has grown as technology increases societal expectations for instantaneous response. And more information available, he said, also means more time wasted looking for the right information, whether in an old e-mail or through a search engine."
I have information underload (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:not necessarily information overload (Score:5, Interesting)
As a business owner or manager, one of the things you need to improve is employee effectiveness. I've managed individuals that are off-the-charts effective when uninterrupted, but easily get lost in the crush of emails. These are usually the people-pleasers. If I send them an email requesting A, B, and C, they'll deliver promptly and thoroughly. But if in the meantime they have received an email requesting D, E, and F from someone else, they run into problems because they can't deliver A through F promptly AND complete their normal workflow.
There are a couple ways of dealing with this. One is to establish priority controls on workflow. Another is to route all requests through their manager. A third is to establish an SLA that gives the employee a better guideline for when a response is expected.
In no way does this mean that the employee is an ineffective employee -- it just means that they are ineffective given their nature and the nature of the work presented to them.
My point, really, is that some good employees handle the "information overload" well, and some don't. The trick is to work with your staff's strengths and weaknesses to maximize their effectiveness. Yes, there are people who truly are generally ineffective -- but that's a hiring issue. Usually ineffective employees can be made effective through competent management.
Re:This is nothing new under the sun (Score:2, Interesting)
"Don't learn to think for yourself or God will get you." Gee, people using a fictitious character in a way to prevent people from actually thinking about what they are saying.
It had NOTHING to do with organizing or storing data in an accurate way.
"
9 Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care.
10 The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.
11 The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd.
12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. [2] 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with [3] every secret thing, whether good or evil.
"
Re:False link! (Score:2, Interesting)
After the flaming replies, the poster got a +5 Informative for doing EXACLY what I'm doing here.
I was actually sorry that I'd moderated the comment badly. Heh.
Welcome to Time Management for Sysadmins (Score:4, Interesting)
Turn it off. There is an appropriate time to be reading your e-mail, responding to instant messages, and texting your boss on your blackberry. And there is an appropriate time for work. Set those times in your schedule quite strictly. During that your work time, your e-mail is not open. Your blackberry is off. MSN is closed. You can probably expect to get three to four hours of this kind of time per day. Unless something is on fire, nothing is to interrupt you, and you can focus on what you're doing and be astoundingly effective and productive.
Once you're done, it's back to e-mail and MSN and constant interruptions. Or "team building" at the water cooler. Whatever.
These are a few of my favorite things... (Score:2, Interesting)
* Emails tagged as 'important' from corporate - that are not.
* Emails from corporate that contain a Word file that I have to open only to find a single sentence that could have been cut and pasted into the email instead.
* Corporate managers that think instant messages are a great idea.
* Having to fill out multiple time sheets, one for my paycheck and at least one for project management.
* Corp websites that have too much info and are very poorly organized.
* Microsoft Project (nuff said).
* Corp wiki sites with lots of critical info that have useless search engines.
-- Carey