It's information overload, not email overload

It's *information* overload, not email overload — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:16:58 GMT

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re: It's information overload, not email overload

Karen — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:21:15 GMT

Couldn't help it - had to comment.

The lower barrier to entry caused me to snicker. Remember when various family members (who shall remain nameless) first got "online" six or eight years ago? Oh, the spate of "Jimmy is dying and wants emails from as many people as possible to help give him hope for world peace in his final days." and "Tampons contain Anthrax" and all that crap.

Should we create a social filter akin to an IQ test for email? Simple Turing test. When you first turn on email, you get 10 seemingly random emails. If you forward all to your entire address book, you're given a tidy little sandbox to play in where very little of your email actually leaves the sandbox, unless it goes to others who have mutually agreed to read your sh!t.

But meanwhile, this brings me to the other point I was coming here to make - people still are absolutely STUNNED and AMAZED when I inform them that I read things like yahoo groups emails ON THE WEB ONLY.

"You mean, you don't get those in your inbox?" Heck no! I can't take the mental clutter. Instead, when I have time, I go to the website. On my time. When I'm in my Quadrant II (Important, not Urgent - Thanks to Covey.) Instead of that crap all getting blasted to me in drips and drabs, where it universally falls into Quadrant III (Not Important, but Urgent because it *just got here* and my stupid brain translates that to urgent even though it's a made-up urgency.)

Yes, it means sometimes I miss things. It means sometimes I'm not up on the latest gossip or chatter about some made-up problem. But it also means when I do check in, I can quickly scan and find the nuggets I want to pay attention to. Flat out, this is where the human value-add is. I'm better at scanning for what's important to me than ANYONE or ANYTHING else. I can tell the computer about subjects that interest me, and maybe the AI guys will get their act together and make the computer learn from my trends, but today I am still the best filter for what is important to me.

Honestly, people have no idea you can do this sort of "read on web only" stuff with listserv-types of lists that offer config for email, online, or hybrid (ala facebook - email alerts to online activity.) I actually like Facebook's model. Does that make me sound pathetic, liking the latest? But it does work for me and the way I do things.

One of the problems? Novices haven't yet figured out their true personal preferences. They don't have the vocabulary to express them, much less understand the options and determine what works best for them and their style of working. But now I'm headed dangerously close to Internet Therapy, so I will stop it here.

Thanks for a thought-provoking post and the link, goldpan. That's a good visual.

re: It's information overload, not email overload

Karen — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:28:08 GMT

Forgot to mention, I am sure there are people who configure their Outlook inboxes with rules and folders, and then are self-disciplined about not checking the folders that they have compartmentalized some content into. I don't have that level of self-discipline. When that little pop-up shows up in the lower right corner, I'm compelled to look and see what message just came in. 99 times out of 100 I then go ahead and read the message anyway.

re: It's information overload, not email overload

Jan — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:56:09 GMT

well, xobni (http://www.xobni.com/) helps at least a little bit.

cheers,

Jan

What contributes to information overload?

KC on Exchange and Outlook — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:06:15 GMT

Following on to my short rant yesterday , I wanted to share some information from a survey we did about

An e-mail message I was unusually pleased to receive.

James O'Neill's blog — Fri, 16 May 2008 01:53:12 GMT

KC had a post recently about " E-mail overload " - so called, and arguing we shouldn't point

re: It's information overload, not email overload

Stefan — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:31:56 GMT

The reason email is so frequently associated with information overload is largely a side effect of its pervasiveness and robustness resulting in overuse. Besides the personal burden, companies are footing the bill for wasted IT resources and lost productivity. Permessa just published a white paper titled: <a href="http://www.permessa.com/whitepapers/Email_Best_Practices>"6 Best Practices That Reduce Email Overload and Costs"</a>. One largely unknown fact is that in most companies fewer than 1% of all employees are causing 80% of all email volume. There are also a number of related posts on my blog: http://www.emailtide.com/category/information-overload/

re: It's information overload, not email overload

Stefan — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:34:20 GMT

Here is the correct link to the previous post: http://www.permessa.com/whitepapers/Email_Best_Practices

re: It's information overload, not email overload

Josh Ledgard — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:47:49 GMT

I totally agree. Even though I work on one of those perceived "other solutions"... e-mail is not the problem.

It's *information* overload, not email overload

It's *information* overload, not email overload

re: It's *information* overload, not email overload

re: It's *information* overload, not email overload

re: It's *information* overload, not email overload

What contributes to information overload?

An e-mail message I was unusually pleased to receive.

re: It's *information* overload, not email overload

re: It's *information* overload, not email overload

re: It's *information* overload, not email overload

It's information overload, not email overload

It's information overload, not email overload

re: It's information overload, not email overload

re: It's information overload, not email overload

re: It's information overload, not email overload

re: It's information overload, not email overload

re: It's information overload, not email overload

re: It's information overload, not email overload