overcoming information overload anne pemberton [email protected]
TRANSCRIPT
"A weekday edition of The New York Times contains more
information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in 17th
century England."
R.S.Wurman, Information Anxiety
Information Overload …
Having so much information available that you either cannot assimilate it all or it feels too overwhelming to take any of it in
Information Overload
Overwhelmed by the amount of information
Don’t understand the available information
Desperate to know if certain information exists
Don’t know where to find information
Unable to access information
Research on IO
Once workers are interrupted by an email it takes an average of 24 minutes to return to the suspended task
2,300 employees judged nearly one third of the emails they receive to be unnecessary, but spend two hours a day processing them
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/sep/24/information-overload
Info Overload Results In …
Anxiety / Stress
Delay in Decision Making
Lack of Job Satisfaction
Waste of Time
Working Longer Hours
My Information Overload
E-mails (urgency/time of sender) Mail Voice mails Meetings Newspaper/News Research for others Research for me Websites
Solutions
Organizational
Individual
Related to research
Acceptance
Thomas Young (1773 – 1829)
English scientist, researcher, physician, and polymath
“Last person to know it all”
Organizational Suggestions
Discuss “best practices” for your department: What “method” will you use for communication?
E-mail? Short messages: EOM (End of Message) Encourage brief messages (no more than 5 sentences) Use specific subject lines (not “FYI” or “tomorrow”) Resist replying to all Avoid personal e-mails to colleagues on work e-mail
SharePoint? Blogs/wikis? File Sharing
Establish best practices for file naming (mins.docx vs. Curriculum Committee Minutes 10-12-09.docx)
Organizational Continued
Listservs: No need to maintain contact lists individually Practice good etiquette (keep the personal out of
professional) Set limits for yourself and respect other
people’s limits You cannot be available 24/7 Don’t expect others to be either
Do not have meetings without agendas, moderators, or a minute taker
Individual Suggestions
Organize your work space Everything has a “home”
File cabinet with folders Book case for books You use it, you put it back Set up time each week (15 minutes on Fridays) to
weed, recycle, organize, clean, etc. You do NOT need to print everything You do NOT need to keep everything You do NOT need to read everything
Keeping Information
Ask these questions:
Can I get this info elsewhere if I do need it? Is this something I really need? How will it help
me? Now that I've read it and understand it, do I need
to keep it? If I do keep it, where can I put it so that it is easily
accessible and I don’t have to hunt for it?
How many accounts do you need? One personal and one professional (?)
Do not leave inbox open all day Determine specific times that you will check e-
mail E-mail signature that reads “I answer e-mail at
10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m. If you need a quicker response, please call.”
Act on message when you get it (Respond, delete, file)
E-mail Continued
If you have to keep messages, create folders Useful names Once a week or month weed (put this on your calendar) Don’t save everything – be realistic
Modify junk folders in your e-mail http://www.uncw.edu/itsd/services/communication/SPAM.html
Good gauge – mailbox size http://www.uncw.edu/itsd/help/instructions/ManageYourEmail.
html Store large files on SAMMY/TIMMY - not in your e-mail
http://www.uncw.edu/itsd/help/instructions/Sammy.html
Phone Calls
Do not answer phone calls from unrecognized numbers (unless it is your job to answer the phone)
Do not answer phone if you are concentrating on something (they can leave a VM)
Tools:http://www.grandcentral.com/http://www.simulscribe.com/http://jott.com/default.aspx
Technology
Is your “Crackberry" stressing you out? Take a day off! Leave the technology at work (don’t check e-mail
at home) What are you REALLY missing?
Taming the Web: RSS
RDF Site Summary / Rich Site Summary / Really Simple Syndication
RSS is a standard XML format for delivering content that changes on a regular basis
Content is delivered in small chunks, generally a synopsis, preview, or headline
RSS
Using a special program called a "feed reader" or "RSS aggregator", you can easily track any type of information that changes on a daily or even hourly basis from multiple sites
Lets you know when your favorite websites have been updated Through your e-mail Through the web Through “aggregators” like Bloglines
Using RSS
Look for small, orange icons (RSS or XML)
Most common: Use a “reader” (like bloglines.com or Google Reader)
Can also use in your e-mail
Other Tools
http://www.nextfeeds.com/
http://www.feeddemon.com/
http://readitlaterlist.com/
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/
Firefox bookmark add-ons
Blogs & Wikis Let someone else do the work! Great for sharing
information
BlogsExample: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/
Search for blogs: http://blogsearch.google.com/
WikisExample: http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
Search for wikis: http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Groupware/Wiki/
Research
I happen to know some folks who can help …
Research: Alerting Services
Let’s you know (alerts you) about new materials
Books and articles
Most databases
TOC (Table of Contents) Service through IngentaConnect
Alerting Services "New book" alerts
(will e-mail you when new books arrive) Go to library website (http://library.uncw.edu) Click on “My Library Account” Click on “Library Home” at top, right Click on “Search the Catalog” Perform a search Click on gray box (“Save as preferred search”) Click on the “Patron Record” button at the top (blue box) Click on the “Preferred Searches” button on right (blue box) Click the box next to your search terms in the column labeled
“Mark for Email” Click on “Update List” (blue box)
Other Tools
Bibliographic Management Tools EndNote or EndNote Web Zotero
Keeping Your Citations Organized
Library Toolbar http://library.uncw.edu/web/research/tools.ht
ml
Personal Life
Get rid of junk mail (save you and save a tree!) http://www.stopjunkmail.org/
Can you keep work separate from personal? Disconnect from technology Social Networking:
Can’t keep up on Facebook?Create lists (e.g. Important People)Do you really need 500 friends? Really?
http://www.digsby.com/ (brings all your contacts together in one place)
More Resources on IO “Death by Information Overload” (article by Paul Hemp in
Harvard Business Review, September 2009)
http://www.managingio.com/ http://www.iorgforum.org/ http://communicationoverload.com/ http://www.slaw.ca/2007/06/26/combating-information-
overload/ http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_90.htm http://www.xerox.com/information-overload/enus.html
Anne Pemberton, Instructional Services Coordinator, RL [email protected]