Comments on: Troubleshooting Information Overload

By: Tana George

Tana George — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:37:49 +0000

I remember the Technical Manager of a company I worked for many years ago, who had explicitly asked us not to send him any information that is not vital. He claimed every new message alert was a source of stress for him. Well, maybe the fact that he pretty often had to deal with not very happy customers of the company had to do something with the stress each new email brought but he simply hated receiving emails as a result of this.

By: Von W.

Von W. — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:19:42 +0000

There is no such thing as information overload. If there is or was, we would have been so overwhelmed when the Internet became mainstream in the 1990s and popular in the early 2000s. Information Technology (more specifically the World Wide Web) made our work easier and more effective. It also made globalization a reality to many 3rd world countries.

By: Hugh Robertson

Hugh Robertson — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:50:09 +0000

First of all, there is a major difference between being totally obsessed (or more commonly known as having an Obsessive–compulsive disorder – OCD) and being an effective employee. If you constantly check your emails every now and then even if you are not expecting something, you’re totally being paranoid at work. For you to be an effective worker, maximize the time that is given to you.

While waiting for emails or other assigned tasks, do something else productive – like reorganizing your schedules, make a report, clean your desk, have lunch with a co-worker, submit proposals, etc.

By: Ulyses R. Paul

Ulyses R. Paul — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:50:30 +0000

Here’s what I did to handle information overload (checking emails). I migrated from Microsoft Outlook to Gmail’s POP3 system. The reason behind this migration is that the latter is not that interactive. You’ll receive your email 15-50 minutes later. Unlike when you’re using Outlook – you’ll receive notifications about new emails instantly.

As time goes by, by using Gmail POP3, you’ll learn to be patient in receiving your email. Try it. It worked for me.

By: David Mallory

David Mallory — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:59:11 +0000

This is a very sound way to set up an alert system, and something that anyone should use as a guideline for their own system. Too often have I been stuck in the cycle of way too many needless alerts, and another thing you need to look for is who really needs to be looking at the alerts generated. Maybe your operations team wants to be copied on them, but sit down and talk over exactly what they need to see that’s critical or what you can just as easily cover in a personal, one-line email or in a daily summary.