Back in 1990, when few people had used a computer or received an email, futurist Alvin Toffler warned in his book, PowerShift, about something he called Information Overload." Amazingly, Toffler foresaw the soon-to-be explosion of information, as well as the resultant difficulty people would have in processing and absorbing excess information.

Its all quite easy to see now, of course. Most of us live and breathe Information Overload each and every day. We battle to keep our email in-boxes cleaned up. We field phone calls and instant messages morning, noon, and night. We feel panicked and oddly heroic if we spend a day without turning on the computer. Information Overload R us.

According to New York City-based Basexa knowledge economy research and advisory firm founded in 1983 information overload costs the U.S. economy at last $900 billion every year in productivity loss and hampered innovation. The companys recent 26-page report, entitled Information Overload: We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us, states that trying to keep up with the barrage of information is not unlike the game of Tetris, where the goal is to keep the blocks from piling up. You barely align one and another is ready to take its place.

Basex divides the the average knowledge workers day into these percentages:

• 28%: The largest percentage of the day is spent dealing with needless interruptions (this percentage includes the resultant "recovery time" required to get back up to speed after an interruption)
• 25%: Productive time creating knowledge content
• 20%: Meetings (a mixed bag, sinceas you doubtless knowsome meetings are productive; others arent)
• 15%: Searching for information (about half the time, the info isnt found)
• 12%: Thought and reflection

If Information Overload is the enemy, as the Basex report suggests, it seems to be winning. To turn the tide, we need to develop a strong and wily defense---something we can only do by learning more about the enemy.

Why not start now? Here are some great resources for learning about Information Overload, as well as some suggestions for keeping IO under control in your life and work:

Watch Information Overload The Movie, a fast-paced, nearly 4-minute film. Jonathan Spira, CEO and Chief Analyst at Basex, interviews senior execs at IBM, Siemens, NBC, the European Patent Office, Wohl Associates, and other organizations to learn what they have to say about information overload. (Larry Bowden, VP of IBM: Information Overload basically slows me down because Im interacting with information thats irrelevant, out of context, and not allowing me to get to the end point. Doesn't that sound familiar?)

Watch a very funny 3- minute film produced by Xerox on the subject of information overload.

If you'd like to estimate your own companys Information Overload Exposure, try out the free online Basex Information Overload Self Assessment Calculator.

Find articles, tools, and research data at the Information Overload Resource Group (a resource group of its own is proof positive that IO has become a serious issue, don't you think?)

View a fascinating graph that illustrates the increase in the Pace of Information Overload from the invention of papyrus (3500 B.C.E.) to today. The pace line remains fairly flat until 1900, when it makes a decided upward turn; it accelerates sharply upward at the invention of the computer. It truly must be seen to be believed.

Written by Suzanne Rodriguez

Published by Plugin.com

Source http://www.silversoft.com/articles/2009/06/battling-the-information-overload-enemy/