Information Overload Day 2011

Lower The Overload:
A Call for Action on Information Overload Awareness Day

Information Overload Awareness Day is October 20th.

October 13, 2011 - In conjunction with the third observance of Information Overload Awareness Day, Basex, InboxDetox.com, the Information Overload Network, and the Information Overload Research Group have issued a joint challenge to knowledge workers everywhere: starting October 20th, send 10% fewer e-mail messages. The average knowledge worker receives 93 e-mail messages per day and many are unnecessary. If every knowledge worker in the U.S. were to send 10% fewer messages, the cost of Information Overload would be reduced by as much as $180 billion per year.

To learn more about Information Overload and how it impacts you and your organization, read Overload! How Too Much Information Is Hazardous to Your Organization, by Jonathan Spira, CEO and chief analyst at Basex. This book tells how the extent to which Information Overload has infiltrated the workplace and our daily lives, plus it offers tips and strategies on how to deal with the dizzying excess of information, as well as multi-tasking and its disruptive and costly consequences.

Fast Stats from Overload!

A minimum of 28 billion hours is lost each year to Information Overload in the United States.
Reading and processing just 100 e-mail messages can occupy over half of a worker’s day.
It takes five minutes to get back on track after a 30 second interruption.
For every 100 people who are unnecessarily copied on an e-mail, eight hours are lost.
58 percent of government workers spend half the workday filing, deleting, or sorting information, at an annual cost of almost $31 billion dollars.
66 percent of knowledge workers feel they don’t have enough time to get all of their work done.
94 percent of those surveyed have felt overwhelmed by information at some point to the point of incapacitation.

Here are some simple recommendations on what you can do starting October 20th (or earlier) to reduce the amount of Information Overload for us all.

1.) Read incoming e-mail messages carefully. Don’t assume the subject adequately explains the message and don’t assume that the sender didn’t bury the most important information in the second paragraph from the bottom. Our research shows that most knowledge workers only read the first paragraph of any given e-mail.

2.) Read outbound e-mail messages carefully. Don’t combine unrelated topics in one message. Make sure that the subject line explains the contents clearly. Use an introductory paragraph to explain what the e-mail will cover, if there is more than one item (i.e. “This message covers three topics, namely A, B, and C.”).

3.) Think carefully when addressing e-mail. Many people follow the “CYA” principle and send to far more people than would be necessary. Remember, for every 100 people who are unnecessarily copied on e-mail, eight hours are lost.

4.) Maintain my correct status on IM and monitor others’ before contacting. If you unnecessarily interrupt someone who is deep in concentration, it could take quite a while for your victim to return to where he was and recollect his thoughts – if he doesn’t simply forget to return at all.

5.) Argue. Learn how you can dramatically improve search results by using a few “arguments” such as "and," "or," and "near." 50% of all searches fail outright, however, 50% of the searches we think succeeded actually failed in some way that we aren’t aware of, and we use the incorrect information anyway, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

About Basex
Basex is the world's foremost knowledge economy research and advisory firm. Founded in 1983 and headquartered in New York City, Basex provides senior business executives from organizations across the globe with strategic advice, business and technology guidance, best practices, and insight about knowledge worker management and productivity.

About the Information Overload Network (ION)
The Information Overload Network is an online group of managers, knowledge workers, researchers, academicians, and technology vendors who share experiences, leverage knowledge, ask questions, and find solutions to the problem of Information Overload.

About the Information Overload Research Group (IORG)
The Information Overload Research Group is a consortium of researchers, practitioners and technologists from academia, corporations, solution vendors, and consultancies. IORG is dedicated to reducing information overload, a problem that diminishes the productivity and quality of life of knowledge workers worldwide. Its diverse set of members and single focus provide thought leadership and access to cutting-edge solutions and ideas, promote collaboration between industry and academia, and help shape the science of combating Information Overload.