Information Overload

We've heard a lot of "Information Overload"....In my mind, probably so much that we're sick of hearing about it. But, it's probably just that so little has been done about it that it still has a major impact on productivity. Basex in December honored (?) Information Overload (IO) with their 2008 Problem of the Year award.

As much as I may be getting tired of hearing about IO, it is probably only the beginning.

On December 20th, Steve Lohr had his article, Is Information Overload a $650 Billion Drag on the Economy?  published in the New York Times.  The 650 billion representing the cost of interruptions on Knowledgeworkers.

Basex also quotes Intel engineer, Nathan Zeldes, who studies computer productivity issues, who said, "at Intel, we estimated the impact of information overload on each knowledge worker at up to eight hours a week."

If Intel is studying it and it's as much as 8 hours a week - that's serious. Tired of hearing about it or not, perhaps IO is about to hit critical mass in its effects and the creation of new solutions.

Comments

[Edward H.]

This is a serious issue and I've been trying to see how it impacts my team (spread across multiple countries).

I just took the Basex New Workplace Challenges survey (http://www.basex.com/2008poty) after reading your post and a few others on the subject. If more of us provide info on how we work, perhaps someone will figure out how to solve the problem of information overload.

[Tom Godfrey]

Thank you Edward. Absolutely right. It is a serious issue and we need all the help we can get to figure this out....Thank you for leaving the link for the survey - it's important that all of us feeling this pain participate in providing as much information as possible.

[Nicolas]

Hi Tom,

I absolutely agree with you: information overload is one of the main challenges we face every day and we should not stop emphasizing its importance, although the term has indeed be used so often that one feels a little outdated when using it again ;-)

Anyway, exactly because of IO's importance I have started a blog that is 100% devoted on the subject. You can reach it at http://www.managingio.com.

I have also commented on my blog on the $650 billion estimate. I think that this figure is still too low: http://www.managingio.com/2008/02/17/the-real-cost-of-information-overload/

I am always happy for comments, and if you hear about new technologies that tackle IO, please let me know!

Thanks, Nicolas